"Les aventures interessantes de b1bob en... " a France Travel Page by b1bob

I have been to France 4 times in my life:

July, 1986: Paris was the third stop in my first foreign trip which was a group tour. It was my first time speaking French to real French people. They were extra nice to Americans that year because many cancelled trips to Europe out of fear of retaliation by Qadafi after Reagan (rightfully) bombed his compound.

July, 1989: I studied abroad at the Faculté des Lettres in Nice. We would have classes from 8.30-12.00 and have the rest of the day free to go on excursions or simply lie on the beach. Instead of going on excursions organised by the school, I did my own day trips. I usually interacted amongst the locals in a real way, rather than taking those canned group trips to art colonies and such. One day, I took a most interesting day trip into Monaco and Italy. On weekends, I would use my Eurailpass. For example, I spent the 200th Bastille with Luc and his family in Charmes Sur L'Herbasse and I met my German friend Stefan halfway in Strasbourg. After my studies were over, it was another two weeks in Charmes with Luc and his family. We took day trips to Vercors and to Albertville (which, at the time, was sprucing up for the 1992 Winter Olympics)

August, 1990 Luc had so much fun the previous year that he wanted me to see what I could do about squeezing him in after my studies in Madrid were over. Since we did all that running around the previous year, we may have gone back to Lac Champos, but nothing else. I didn't want to return home to the States needing to take holiday from my holiday.

December, 2000 Originally, Luc had invited me to his 10 June wedding, but I told him I couldn't make it. It really made more sense to wait until the dust settled before travelling all that way. We really didn't do a whole lot because I had been to Lyon 11 years before. Luc's parents were living in Alpe de Grande Serre. We went up there on a weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was the first time I had gone to Europe in the winter. Not only was it cooler, but it took me a longer time to adjust to the time zones.