We spent 19 days in France. Since then, we’ve reflected on the experience and have decided that we found France to be polarizing. On the one hand, France is full of absolutely epic things to see and do. We happily spent hours exploring the plethora of cool/historical sites available everywhere we stopped. Conversely, we disliked many elements of French culture; smoking, bad coffee, limited vegetarian food, rude people, and more.

The Good

As we mentioned above, France offers many enticing tourist sites with interesting history, beautiful architecture, and stunning landscapes. These attractions can easily be reached via excellent public transportation.

First, in Paris, we loved the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, the Catacombs, and Versailles. Our second stop, Marseille, was our favorite city in France; we loved the fun culture and gorgeous Calanques. Next, we explored the coolest castles we’ve ever seen in the Loire Valley and even had the chance to spend a few nights in a castle. Finally, among all the architectural marvels we’ve seen in our various travels,  Mont Saint-Michel is our favorite.

We loved seeing places where so much important history happened. History is far more interesting when you’re in the place where the event occurred than when you’re sitting in high school history class. We learned about France’s role as a Great Power, its place in the Enlightenment, and the effects of the French Revolution. Seeing all of this in person was fascinating.

This combination of interesting history with beautiful sites made France a very fun place to explore.

The Bad

In spite of the fun, we disliked many elements of French culture. The following section is not meant to be an indictment of France. Some items are our own fault, others are unique to our lifestyle (ex. vegetarianism), and the rest likely vary with where you choose to spend your time. With that said, all of the following items detracted from our experience.

Food, Coffee, and Restaurants

The food/coffee scene in France is severely lacking, especially for vegetarians.

1. French food is not vegetarian-friendly. We checked multiple French restaurants but every dish always had at least a little meat. Food is an important part of all cultures and we felt that we were missing out because we couldn’t eat the local cuisine.
2. We found few very good restaurants and no excellent ones, despite hours researching the best restaurants in each city. We were disappointed again and again with meals that were fine but which we could have cooked better on our own. In contrast, we loved eating in Amsterdam where every meal we had was better than 90% of our meals in France.
3. Restaurant hours are inconvenient for tourists. Few are open for breakfast and most restaurants close from 2 PM to 6:30 PM or later. We like to have flexibility in our day plans but restaurant hours forced us to plan around them. If you miss lunch, nothing good is available until much later. If you want to go to bed early, you can’t grab an early 5 o’clock dinner. Instead, you have to wait for something to open at 6:30 PM which means you can’t get to bed before 9 or 10.
4. Admittedly, it is our own fault for not researching before buying plane tickets, but France shuts down in August. After discovering multiple closed restaurants on our first day in Paris, we started calling ahead before going anywhere. We typically had to call 3-5 places before we would find something open. By the time we’d searched for a good option online, found one we liked, and discovered it closed 3 times, we would end up settling for a worse option that was at least open.
5. We bought multiple bad coffees and only found a few very good ones. Much of the espresso we were given was burnt, the soy milk in one of our lattes was rotten, and we had a “barista” microwave almond milk to make a “latte”. We’ve never thrown away so many lattes without drinking them. As with food, the coffee we’ve had in Amsterdam has been way better than what we found in France.

As a result, we frequently cooked our own meals.

Smoking

Nearly twice as many people smoke in France as in the U.S. Thanks to this fact, we were frequently stuck behind smokers in lines or when walking on the sidewalk. Likewise, at restaurants and cafes, we stopped sitting on the patio after multiple instances where we moved inside due to smokers ruining the patio experience.

Rude Parisians

Parisian’s lived up to the stereotype that they are rude and unfriendly. We frequently got the impression that our server, grocer, etc felt that they had somewhere better to be. Jackie was excited to speak French in France but, when she tried, she often received a look of disdain followed by a response in English.

Expensive

Finally, France is expensive. Paris, in particular, is among the most expensive places we’ve traveled.

Overall

While we had a lot of fun during our time in France, we were disappointed by the cultural experience. In comparison, we’ve found Amsterdam’s culture to be far more enjoyable. France is large with more to explore but the negative elements make us less eager to return.