If you have the luxury of renting French gites with pools and are trying to figure out your transportation, there are some obvious choices. The first idea would be to rent a car and drive from the airport to your place, and to drive from sight to sight around your rental home when you are staying there. This is obviously a fine choice, but not perfect for everyone or as adventurous. If you don’t want to deal with the trouble of renting a car internationally, there are some other choices that can help you avoid being stuck behind the wheel on your trip to France. Here are some other options to get your mind moving away from four wheels:
-Use two wheels. Get some bikes and get moving! While you probably won’t want to ride your bike from the airport to the rental property, you shouldn’t have a problem tooling around town on your bike once you arrive. Find a bus or train that can take you to your town, and then use bikes the rest of the time. This is a fun way to see the local sites while getting exercise. When’s the last time you rode a bike? Getting back on can make you feel like a kid tooling around town. Its a really relaxing way to see everything that your city or village has to offer. Whether you are in Paris or Cannes, being on a bike is an easy way to beat traffic and costs much less.
-Stay on foot and public transportation. Depending on where you are staying and how far away your rental house is away from everything, you could just manage to walk everywhere. While it might seem annoying to have to deal with packages from shopping and long walks from one end of town to the other, its really the best way to see everything happening in your vacation community. You’ll get a chance to interact with the French community members, making for some real experiences that you’ll never forget. You don’t have to be stuck in your metal box, you can just step out on your own two feet.
Public transportation is also abundant in France, letting you travel the way that many of the French do every day. Don’t be worried about figuring out schedules in another language or handling strange new rules about tickets or seating. There is a lot of information on the Internet to let you educate yourself before you arrive. Besides that, there are usually English versions of everything available, and many of the people who work in public transportation will know enough English to help you out if you are struggling. Make it another part of your adventure!