Itinerary for French scavenger hunt

April 30, 2008 6:16 AM

Travelfilter: Help me plan a week-long scavenger hunt throughout France.

I'm traveling alone to France for approximately one week, plus or minus a couple days on either end. To give the trip more focus, I'm pretending like it is a scavenger hunt.

1. A hot beach (as in L'Etranger. I want to swim in it, too.)
2. A Catholic grade school (as in Le Petit Nicolas and numerous other children's books)
3. A site of trench warfare
4. Une cinema
5. A bread factory (I'd like to go on a tour)
6. A hospital
7. A Gothic cathedral
8. A crypt
9. A cart of legumes
10. Un tuyau d'arrosage, i.e. watering hose. (long story)

First of all, where can I find prime examples of each of these things?

Second, how should I group these activities into Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc.? In other words, which ones are located nearby each other?

Lastly, do you think it would be possible to rent a studio apartment for approx 200 euros for a week? If so, where? Ideally, the apartment would be conveniently located, given my goals, and reasonably beautiful as well.

I suspect I am asking for too much, but you never know until you ask. Thanks, hivemind!

posted by proj08 to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

Thrillist had this article today on traveling abroad - Zicasso
Hope it helps.
posted by doorsfan at 6:30 AM on April 30, 2008

When are you going?

I think a guaranteed hot beach and a site of trench warfare at most times of the year will be at opposite ends of the country (southern France for the beach, northern France for the trenches). In the height of summer, you will also get hot beaches in northern France, including ones near trenches, but the hotness won't be 100% guaranteed, 'cause the weather can be variable.

Those are the two you need to coordinate, as they are ones that are the most geographically restricted (I think, my knowledge of trench warfare is limited). Everything else on the list can be found in most parts of France (probably - I've never seen a bread factory although there is a biscuit factory in Lonlay-L'Abbaye , and there's one somewhere else near St. Malo that I've been to as well. Besides, the best bread comes from the local boulangerie, I'd find one that lets you go behind the scenes, rather than a factory).
posted by Helga-woo at 7:02 AM on April 30, 2008

1. Anywhere on the mediterrean
2. Don't know that one
3. These are pretty much all in the Flanders / Picardie areas of Northern France which is gonna be tricky to reconcile with q1. As for actual sites Verdun is one of the major ones.
4. La Géode in Paris
5. The majority of what we would consider as "French bread" (baguettes and the like) are still made by the individual boulangeries that sell them - you might be better off befriending a boulanger and asking if you can watch him make his loaves, although beware they start hellish early.
6. The Hospices de Beaune
7. Chartres is one of the best examples, although Notre Dame de Paris is obviously a fine example too
8. The Paris Catacombs
9. Any marché, anywhere in France
10. Um, would a DIY shop like Leroy Merlin do?
posted by jontyjago at 7:04 AM on April 30, 2008

1. For hotness on many levels you cannot beat the Côte d'Azur, really.
2. When I was in Aix-en-Provence a few months ago we ran into some extremely pretty schoolkids walking down the street in an orderly line with their (presumably) teachers. It's a compact town with several schools near the center (and near the Côte d'Azur), easily located on maps.
3. The major WWI/WWII battlegrounds were in the north. Verdun is one worth visiting.
4. Um...in any reasonably sized town. (Aix has several so you could kill 2 birds with one stone)
5. Not sure about a factory, but the village of Bonnieux, also in Provence (in the Luberon, to the north of Aix) has a nice little bread museum, in the premises of the former village oven.
6. Again any large town, but you could make it historical by visiting the Monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in St. Remy de Provence was the psychiatric hospital where Van Gogh was treated after he cut his ear off. (and also what jontyjago said.)
7. The best gothic cathedrals are in the north. Amiens, Rouen, Rheims, Strasbourg, Chartres - take your pick. If you land first in Paris Notre Dame de Paris will do, otherwise Chartres is just a short commuter train ride away and is often considered the best example of High Gothic.
8. Well, every cathedral has a crypt where the treasures are/were kept. If you are thinking of real-creepy-skulls-skeletons-gross-crypts as in Tales Of The Crypt, what jontyjago said (though strictly speaking catacombs are not crypts).
9. Any open air market, in just about any town in France.
10. Any public garden or green space is likely to have hoses lying around, unless there is a water shortage. I often manage to trip on them.
posted by thread_makimaki at 8:26 AM on April 30, 2008

And as far as the week-long schedule goes, with some careful planning you could do it. Land in Paris, do the cathedral and crypt in Paris (possibly Chartres sidetrip), daytrip to a northern battle field, zip down south by TGV to Avignon then Aix, train to Nice. The only thing that would be a bit difficult is St. Remy (you may have to rent a car from Avignon or Aix or find a tour). I've done a lot more in a week back in the day.
posted by thread_makimaki at 8:33 AM on April 30, 2008

you should be able to find everthing you want except the trenches in the south of France.
A nice city to stay is Aix-en-provence, or even better Arles, where there is a huge open air market every saturday morning (= carts of legumes ). From here you can find nice beaches like Les Saintes or Cassis.
As for the bread factory, unless you want to visit an industrial bread factory, I suggest you go knock at the door (backdoor if possible) of the local boulangerie around 4am, and if the baker is nice enough he should let you see inside, and as a bonus you will have the opportunity to taste the first batch of still hot, freshly baked croissant, and that's worth getting up so early.
posted by anto1ne at 9:01 AM on April 30, 2008

For trenches I would suggest visiting the Canadian Memorial at Vimy. It's spectacularly beautiful and doable from Paris. About 200km up the A1, or an hour and a half by TGV. The local town of Arras has a cathedral, not neccessarily gothic though.

For tombraidery stuff, totally the Paris Catacombs, also worth visiting Père-Lachaise Cemetery in central Paris.

If you can find a decent excuse, try finding a reason to visit Carcassonne as you approach the beaches in the south of france. It's just astounding in so many ways. Cathedral there too, prolly not gothic either, but pretty.
posted by Iteki at 11:37 AM on April 30, 2008