TheTravelNook.com

I’m doing a climate project and I have chosen it to be on France and I have a couple of questions.

How does the climate affect the people who live in France? What kind of crops do they grow and eat? Do many people have heaters or air conditioners in their homes?

France has quite a varied climate. People in the north like to take holidays in the south because the weather is so much better. People from the whole of France take winter sports holidays in the mountains.

People in the South spend much more time outdoors and are seen as being slow and relaxed !

France occupies a large and diverse land mass that produces varied weather patterns.

West & North West

The Atlantic coast enjoys a temperate maritime climate with mild wet winters and cool summers. The prevailing wind from the west is humid : rain and mist is frequent. Northern France is flat allowing this weather pattern to move further inland.

East

The landlocked east of France has a continental climate producing hot summers with cold winters. The mountainous parts have mountain weather, with rain (snow) increasing with altitude.

Central

The centre of France has a continental climate modified by the maritime effect increasing towards the coast.

Mediterranean

The Mediterranean coast enjoys hot dry summers and mild winters. Rainfall is at the same level as much of central France but tends to fall as torrential rain in relatively few days over the winter.

Winds

The west coastal area weather is influenced by the prevailing winds from the Atlantic. The Rhone valley has occasional cold Mistral winds blowing from the north. The west Languedoc area has a similar wind : the Tramontaine that blows from the NW.

Crops vary between sugar beet and apples in the colder parts to figs, olives, apricots and wine in the South.

Most people have heaters, but AC is quite rare.

Hours of sunshine is influenced by distance from the equator, and incidence of clouds caused by prevailing winds, sea and mountains.

By sunshine hours :
Toulon 3082
Marseille 3035
Nice 2826
Montpellier 2788
Bastia 2786
Orange 2730
Perpignan 2586
Embrun 2563
La Rochelle 2269
Millau 2205
Toulouse 2034
Bourg St-Maurice1982
Grenoble 1971
Bordeaux 1961
Poitiers 1925
Nantes 1896
Biarritz 1845
Clermont-Ferrand1830
Pau 1827
Rennes 1810
Lyon 1809
Dinard 1778
Tours 1749
Le Mans 1746
Chartres 1695
Brest 1674
Le Bourget 1673
Evreu 1658
Abbeville 1655
Trappes 1648
Reims 1644
Besançon 1626
Auxerre 1594
Saint-Quentin1577
Rouen 1572
Lille 1560
Limoges 1560
Cherbourg 1556
Strasbourg 1517
Nancy 1437

How many soldiers did the Germans commit to defending France?
Could they have won the war in the Soviet Union, if they didn’t have to defend France as well?

Germany attacked on too many fronts and were spent financially and depleted of petroleum. Hitler no longer trusted his commanding officers who in turn mistrusted him. Vichy France was being taken out by the French Underground and Germany’s days were numbered. By attacking Russia nearing winter, German soldiers moral was shot and they were poorly equipped with almost no ammunition, food, and winter supplies by the time the brutal Russian winter hit. To answer your question, yes Germany would have wiped Russia out early in the war because Nazi Germany took over all the oil fields in the Russian Caucasus while they were destroying France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and all of Eastern Europe as well as Southeastern Europe. Germanys problem was a poor Italian ally who could not fight this type of war on all these fronts. Early on in World War II, Germany was a juggernaut that was hell bent on world domination. A known fact is that Germany also sunk many American ships off the New York and Jersey shores and their submarines patrolled constantly in the Atlantic.

Hi,
I was in the United States for 6 months as a student (F-1 visa status), and I’m going to my home country, Sri Lanka, soon. I’d like to visit Paris on the way, as a tourist. How do I apply for a visa? Should I apply for one by myself, or are there people who organize tours in France for tourists, through whom I can apply?

You must apply for a visa yourself and do so from the nearest embassy or consulate to where you live.
See all information about visas on the following website:

http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france_159/entering-france_2045/index.html

The main French embassy in the USA is in Washington but is responsible for the following consulates:
Consulate General of France in Boston representing the far North- Eastern states
Consulate General of France in New York for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut[
Consulate General of France in Washington for DC and surrounding states
Consulate General of France in Atlanta for the South-Eastern states[
Consulate General of France in Miami for Florida
Consulate General of France in New Orleans for Louisiana
General Consulate of France in Houston for Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas
Consulate General of France in Chicago covering the largest number of states, representing the North and West
Consulate General of France in San Francisco for the South- West, including the northern halves of California and Nevada
Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, covering the remaining south-western states and the remainder of California and Nevada
For contact details see:

http://www.mfe.org/index.php/Annuaires/Ambassades-et-consulats-francais-a-l-etranger/(country)/ETATS-UNIS%20D’AMERIQUE

I am planning to learn French in France, living there for at least a year if possible. My main concern is my tight budget. Any suggestion on schools, universities, scholarships?

Tuition in most French universities is almost free.You are unlikely to get a scholarship and you have to finance your upkeep yourself. You also have to prove to the university of your choice that you have adequate grades in your final years at school.
Most large cities have universities and some are better for certain disciplines than others.
You can get all the information on studying in France on the Campus France website through which your application for a visa has to be made.

http://usa.campusfrance.org/en/1.html

Is France a threat to others or a possible target? If so how?

I don’t believe France to be at all a threat (Don’t know where you got that from?), and certainly not a target in this day and age, only a target for terrorism, but isn’t the whole of the western world a terror target?

France are a key member of the EU and the UN and are a crucial peace keeping nation and respected allies of Europe and America.

I am planning on moving to France after college, and I want to attend law school there and practice. I was wondering what the process is for applying and what I would need to do now. Current;y, I’m a sophomore and I will graduate in 2012. Possibly 2011. How and for what should I apply?

Phone the educational attache’ at the French Embassy in Washington DC and ask your questions. You may be referred to the legal attache’.

You will also have immigration issues unless you qualify for citizenship or permanent residency in the EU. You also may have citizenship issues, depending on French policy. If you are going to marry a French citizen or already qualify for French citizenship, the process will be much easier. I hope you speak perfect French without a foreign accent. Best wishes.

I am going to France, (Pari and a small town outside Paris)

I am bringing $1000 canadian which is 615 Euros will this be enough for 1 week?

How much is a bsic meal. And randome shopping andjunk?

Is this your spending money while in Paris, or are you expected to pay for accommodation out of this as well?

A basic meal in Paris can come by at €8-€10 at most casual places. There are quite a few restaurants in Latin Quarter and on Rue Moufftard area that serves 2-3 courses lunch for €15-€20, and dinner for €25-€30. So I’d estimate food at €35-ish a day, to include one nice meal at a restaurant and one casual meal where you get only a main dish or a filled baguette or a savoury crepe. Some day you may spend more, some day less. (I often spend less, by choosing to eat the bigger meal at lunch when it’s cheaper, then a one-course meal at dinner.)

[One of my favourite restaurants, Le Pre Verre, serves a starter + a main course + a glass of wine + a coffee (expresso) at lunch time for €13.50] (http://www.lepreverre.com/en/resto/carteChef.html )

For sightseeing purposes, get a Paris Museum Pass (http://www.parismuseumpass.com/en/pass_tarif.php ). A 6-days pass costs €64 so that works out to about €10.67 per day, which is very good value. Just consider, entrance to Louvre alone is €9, Musee d’Orsay €8 etc. If you even visit only 2 places per day covered by the pass, you would have made quite an amount of savings. Please note though, that Eiffel Tower is not covered by this pass.

Transport wise, since I don’t know which small town outside of Paris you will be, I’ll advise only re Paris itself. Get a carnet of 10 tickets for €11.40 and use them when necessary. A lot of points of interest within the center of Paris are easily accessible by foot, so you may not on the bus/metro/RER for too many journeys in a day, therefore getting a day ticket is not really worth it. You may end up buying a 2nd carnet of 10, but even then that’ll put your transportation costs at about €23 for 20 journeys within Paris. The tickets can also be bought singly at €1.60 each.

Summing up these estimates above:
Food for 7 days – €245
6 days museum pass – €64
Top floor Eiffel Tower ticket – €12
Transport in Paris – €23 (for 20 tickets)

They total up to about €344 but of course, without accommodation charges. If you don’t have to pay accommodation from this amount of money that you have, you will have a good €270 to spend for all other things, but don’t forget to factor some amount for transport to/fro the small town outside Paris where you’ll be.

Have fun!

Ps: If you want to buy and send postcard to friends and family, it’s cheapest to buy the postcards in Montmartre (as cheap as 10 postcards for €2) and buy and write them before you go to the Eiffel Tower. You can post them from there and it’ll have special postmark from Eiffel Tower. Postage cost is €0.65 for postcards to Europe, and €0.85 for the rest of the world, including Canada.

I am a 16 year old girl from England, and I will be going to France in August. I would like to know what to wear to not look like a tourist. What do the teenage girls in France wear during the summer? And any websites would be helpful too.

Thanks!

Welcome to France
The dressing sense in France is pretty same. though not much of jeans in summers.
August will be hot, so i would suggest some kinda shorts or skirts. sport shoes or flip-flap and a normal coulor t-shirt…… what makes people tourists is camera in one hand and map in another and there is nothing wrong in that.

Some friends and I are planning to take a trip in early August to FRANCE (3 people). We are going there to visit one of my friends family and to stay with them while we are there. We are three college students who are very low on cash so we’re trying to cut expenses any way that we can. I’m located in Miami, Florida and my question(s) is, which is the least expensive airport to fly to in FRANCE? It doesn’t matter where in france the airport is located because her family will come and pick us up. We are willing to drive just about any where in florida to get a cheaper flight. The cheapest we found is 850 per person…

Also is there a preferred airline to fly to FRANCE? Or should we just stick with a domestic flight?

Thank you,

GaTo

850 frm where in FL?
Travel date???
Email if u have those info. I’ll help u if i could.

I would like to know an affordable price to go on a France and England tour, including airfare.
I live in Houston, Texas. Thanks.

I flew from Detroit to Paris, for a week, and it cost almost $2000. Thats with airfare, my tours, my hotel, and my dinner.

It could cost anywhere from $3,000-$4,000. I went with a large group from my former highschool.

*not to mention spending money for lunch and other things*