"Beautiful France" a France Travel Page by no1birdlady

In June 1999 a friend and I took an 8 days birding trip to France, our first visit here. From London, we flew into Montpelier, flying over the Camargue. We saw our first bird for France from the plane. It was Greater Flamingo which was a group of over 100 pink dots on the mud flats below us. There were only 5 people on this tour with our guide.
Then in Feb. 2000 we flew to Paris for a 6 day visit. Most of that time was spent in Paris but we went out to Versailles one day. Here we visited all of the famous landmarks and museums that we could.
In Oct. of 2006 a friend and I took a 9 day bus tour in France. We began in Paris, headed north to the northern coast and the D-Day beaches, then to the western coast, then through chateaux country then south to Tours and back to Paris. This was a sightseeing tour and was a wonderful way to see some of the more famous sights of France as well as beautiful country along the way from the bus windows. On the tour we had free time in most of the places so were able to explore to our hearts content.

Birding tours do concentrate on seeing birds so the tour goes to places such as natural areas where they are found. My 1999 tour visited the Camargue in southern France and the Pyranees on the western border with Spain.
On this tour I saw 144 different species of birds. 57 of these were life birds which means a bird seen for the first time in my life. Most birders keep a life list.
Our guide was Richard Bashford who works in Norfolk, England, for the British Trust for Ornithology. That's him lying on the ground while we look at birds in the Pyranees. He was a wonderful guide, knowledgable but also a lot of fun.
Our 2006 tour was a sightseeing bus tour with Cosmos Co. It was very well organized and there was certainly a lot packed into the 8 days that we were in France. This tour did not see as much of the natural areas of France as did the birding tour but we saw many famous landmarks and our guide who was with us for the entire trip added so much by her knowledge of the areas we were visiting. I came away with a broad view of French history, culture and everyday life. This made the places we visted come alive. The tour also included some meals so I had a chance to try snails, frog legs, duck pate, prawns, and roasted duck.

Rural France is lovely. On our birding tour we drove a lot of back roads which is a good way to see a country. Our lunches were mostly picnics made by Richard, our guide. This is a good way to maximize time in the field. We saw some of our most interesting birds or animals during lunch. One lunch was in a meadow filled with wildflowers and butterflies. Richard would stop at a grocery store in the morning to get bread, cheese, tomatoes, olives, meat, fruit, cookies, chips and bottled drinks. Then we would fix our lunch on the tailgate of the truck or at picnic tables. I became quite fond of cheese, tomato and olive sandwiches.