France Most Expensive Holiday Destination (1 Viewer)

Wintonian

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...........prefer to spend £15 on 2 fillet steaks from local farm shop and make it at home or in van

I completely agree with that. Buy the best quality fresh food and cook it yourself. That is always the way to get the best value for money. A really good, thickly cut fillet steak, cooked medium rare on a very hot griddle is my idea of a treat!

Occasionally, though, saving money is not the only objective. If anyone is in need of emptying their wallet on a most incredible eating experience, then try the Auberge Grand' Maison in Mur de Bretagne, Cotes d'Armor (not far from Lac Guerledan). The chef has a Michelin star and makes wonderful food. Go for the top gourmet menu with wines chosen by the sommelier and you will be amazed. We did that for a very special occasion a couple of years ago. No more costly than an expensive restaurant in Hampshire, for instance, but cheaper than the equivalent meal in a Michelin starred restaurant in the UK. And the top class wines are a lot cheaper.

Wish we could afford to return for another meal .....
 
Jun 4, 2010
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Afternoon al,

In late march this year on our way back from spain we stayed at the aire at Le touquet.

We strolled down into the town centre and went in a pub on the prom 2 drinks 15 euros !!! The way to shop in france is to use the shops the locals use.

8 years ago we used to eat out almost eve rynight but the strengh of the euro etc has put a stop to all that .

This year we said we would go to Croatia for our main summer holiday but the lure and culture of France with its wonderful atlantic coast is irrestitable.



georgio
 

Wintonian

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In late march this year on our way back from spain we stayed at the aire at Le touquet.
We strolled down into the town centre and went in a pub on the prom 2 drinks 15 euros !!!

georgio

You are obviously unaware of the fact that Le Touquet is one of the most expensive and exclusive resorts in France!! This is where rich Parisians (and rich Brits) have their holiday and weekend homes. It even has a private airfield where you will see their expensive aircraft and helicopters parked. Didn't you notice the grand houses as you walked into town? Always a good warning - like La Baule, another playground for the rich. This is why you spent so much on beers! Prices are high to keep the riff-raff like us MHers out!!::bigsmile:

The bars are obviously good at spotting the English speakers and do what they do at all expensive resorts - rip the punters off. Try Monte Carlo. You will find it hard to get a cheap drink there. Or Puerto Banus. That isn't cheap either. Crooks serving crooks!:Smile:

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Braunston

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Hi,

This seems to be turning into support France rather than lets just be open France is bloody expensive even for the French, that doesn't mean to say we don't like the country, we have just traveled up from the south to the north and its bloody expensive buy a drink or a meal out and there is no getting away from the fact, its far cheaper to dine out in the UK.

HAVING SAID ALL OF THE ABOVE FRANCE IS A REALLY NICE PLACE AND WE WILL BE GOING BACK AND I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE

You are obviously unaware of the fact that Le Touquet is one of the most expensive and exclusive resorts in France!! This is where rich Parisians (and rich Brits) have their holiday and weekend homes. It even has a private airfield where you will see their expensive aircraft and helicopters parked. Didn't you notice the grand houses as you walked into town? Always a good warning - like La Baule, another playground for the rich. This is why you spent so much on beers! Prices are high to keep the riff-raff like us MHers out!!::bigsmile:

The bars are obviously good at spotting the English speakers and do what they do at all expensive resorts - rip the punters off. Try Monte Carlo. You will find it hard to get a cheap drink there. Or Puerto Banus. That isn't cheap either. Crooks serving crooks!:Smile:
 

barryd

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I found the thing to do was to order a pitcher or carrafe of local wine. Even at Rocamadour on a bar terrace with a fantatic view of the town it was only about 7 Euros for half a litre. Which in a tourist trap like that is not bad and a bit cheaper than home.

Beer seems to be the really expensive option in bars though and unless we (I) change our boozy British ways its always going to cost a fortune if you want to have a few.

Unless your in the know like Wintonian most of us are just tourists and of course head for the tourist places. Its the same here where I live. The Lake District is one big rip off. Crap food and inflated prices but if you know where to go off the beaten track and away from the tourist hot spots it can be great.

Wintonian. You should give us your top 10 places to grab a bargain in Brittany as so many of us go there! Didnt realise Leffe was 9%, thought I felt a bit wobbly on the bike afterwards.
 

vwalan

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barry ,you will have to go abit further. try spain 55cents for a litre carton of drinkkable red wine in lidl.we got some for 40cents earlier this year. yes may be not quite as nice as french wine but its cheap .
in france just look for les routierre restraunts .plate du jour. could be anything but always nice .normally comes with wine water ,coffee and very often upto 5 courses. but you cant drive after . the more you drink the more they bring. very often lots trucks outside as they know a bargain .
cheers alan.

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Wintonian

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Hi,

This seems to be turning into support France ........

Not at all. Surely it is useful to correct impressions with facts? If a tourist happens to stop in an unknown place he may well be caught out. That does not mean that his experience will be repeated in every other place in the country. Gross generalisations are not helpful to anyone. Breakfast at the Ritz is not an indicator of the price of all British breakfasts.:Smile:

If posters are able to post comments based on their limited experience why should another, who may well know better, not post his views too? Isn't this how we all learn?

I happen to live in France now, but have travelled around the world a few times visiting many countries. So I have picked up impressions from all of them. I expect some of those impressions are wrong because I did not spend long enough there to learn enough. I am always happy to be corrected.
 

Judge Mental

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le Touquet Paris by the sea.......If you trundle down the coast a bit to le Crotoy, nice Aire short walk into town, you can get Moules avec frites for 5 - 6.5 euros in different port side restuarants....

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Braunston

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I thought Le touquet had at least 2 Aires if not 3 can you explain how does that fit in with your suggestion,

Prices are high to keep the riff-raff like us ;MHers out!!

As has already been said we are tourists in France and want to see tourist places, but not withstanding that even out of the way places are bloody expensive, which I'm sure is due to a number of reasons one being the value of the £ vs € but none the less if we have to spend our time either cooking all our own food and drinking in the mh rather than enjoying the French way of life by meeting them in their cafes and bars etc then in my mind its a pretty boring holiday.

We do use all different kinds of establishments as we travel around and do spend quiet a lot of money doing it with no problem, when we are on holiday we expect to eat out at all different times of the day and not have to be selective just to save a few quid, and having enjoyed our travels which will will certainly do again and again its no use burring our heads in the sand France is Bloody expensive, unless you want to eat in every night.

This is not anti France or French its a straightforward expression of our findings from our own recent experience.
 

vwalan

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i dont think it is expensive to the french or in fact anybody that lives works and get payed in euro. it only got expensive as the pound dropped. remember it also went expensive to us in the 90,s also when the pound dropped. that stopped me buying in europe at the time ,black tuesday /wednesday wasnt it,i think. lost a third of its value if i ,m right.
i also remember in spain getting 360 peseta in the 60,s 70,s.when the euro came out it was only 250 to thepound.
 
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Braunston

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Hi,

I find your suggestion that we need to "change our boozy British ways" I think is bloody insulting, I am pointing out that from our experience the prices of food and wine and beer when drunk in bars/cafes/restaurants is very expensive to try and suggest that we are boozy is bloody insulting.



Beer seems to be the really expensive option in bars though and unless we (I) change our boozy British ways its always going to cost a fortune if you want to have a few.

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vwalan

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hi, i dont think he ment it in an offensive way but perhaps used the wrong words.
france is getting more expensive to a pound toting visitor. lets not get annoyed .it was just a missed placed sentence. it really depends how long you have been visiting france .as a child i remember my dad buying wine for 2or 3 pence old english money. lsd. fizzy wine 3d we drank a few as kids .glass a day if we were good.
 

neilmac

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Hi,

I find your suggestion that we need to "change our boozy British ways" I think is bloody insulting, I am pointing out that from our experience the prices of food and wine and beer when drunk in bars/cafes/restaurants is very expensive to try and suggest that we are boozy is bloody insulting.

I read that to mean he was referring to himself, I don't think insults were being issued :RollEyes:
 

sue1959

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Mmmmmmmm Exchange rates! €600 + banks commision will get me £500 sterling. That's expensive!

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bambi 2

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Hi. VW Alan is correct, Les Routiers restaurants are very good and not expensive, they are all over france, look out for the logo that is displayed outside the restaurants it is round, has a blue and red background with Les Routiers in white., try looking on line for guide des Relais Routiers, we have been to many of these establishments over the years and have always enjoyed our meal, our favourite is near Rodez at Onet le Chateau, it is called Le Crystal, the table is set with a bottle of wine bread and water, we normally have a soup starter, then a tray with salad is served with another tray full of cold meats to help yourself to, then comes the main meal (usually a choice of three main meals) then the cheese board with a good selection of cheeses, desert and coffee all for €11.5 great!! :thumb: Bambi 2. P. S. best to arrive around mid-day
 
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i think that Braunston is right when he says that France is expensive and we shouldn't pretend it isn't. We know quite a lot of French and British who live there and they all think that the cost of living in France is much higher than it was was even a short time ago. this is regardless of the euro/sterling exchange rate. Petrol seems to be a main gripe, it is more expensive now than in the UK.
violet
 
Jun 4, 2010
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Afternoon all,

If you think 15 euros is a lot for 2 drinks in Le touquet its nothing compared to paris whereupon exiting the metro I had to dash across the road to the first pub which happened to be irish, one pint of guinness and a drink for wifey worked out at £9 but that was 18 years ago . Worth every penny though.



georgio

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TDH

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My two centimes worth. Like a few people on here I've lived and worked in France and can honestly say that I never felt as if life was more expensive. I ate lunch with the locals (I suppose I WAS a local really) in the village restaurant and had three courses and a drink for a pretty reasonable amount of dough (can't remember exactly how much).

I travel in France a lot now and, again, never feel as if I'm paying over the top (unless I choose to go somewhere a bit special - the most expensive meal I've ever had was in Le Boeuf du Port in St Tropez)). I still find the standard of scoff in bars and restaurants good (far better than your average Toby-style carvery) and much prefer the relaxed way of life that I seem to find when I'm there - and that's not just because I'm on holiday - we spend a lot of time in France for reasons other than vacances.

When we've had the need to have work done on The Rosabella it's always been at a reasonable price and to a high standard - again, I've never been ripped off, that I know of.

I'm not sure what the issue is in the UK - it feels tired, cynical, fatalistic and 'whiney' compared to what I find abroad, although the one thing that I hate about France is the dreadful racism which seems institutional and endemic (interesting that the starting line-up against Uruguay had only three white faces!)

Bearing in mind the main theme of this thread, which is that France is the most expnsive holiday destination, I guess what I'm saying is that it needn't be.
 

barryd

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Hi,

I find your suggestion that we need to "change our boozy British ways" I think is bloody insulting, I am pointing out that from our experience the prices of food and wine and beer when drunk in bars/cafes/restaurants is very expensive to try and suggest that we are boozy is bloody insulting.

Yep I was mainly sending myself up and Im sorry if your offended. Most people who know me will know my sense of humour and that I probably am the worst offender when it comes to having a few to many beers!

To be fair though on my extensive travels in France it is very clear that the brits drink far much more than the French. The Germans like a drink but when you sit around in an Aire and see a bunch of people being a little roudy and nocking them back they are almost always brits. I havent seen any behaviour that I would call offensive or seen anyone falling about although I did almost fall in the Siene the other day but I think I got away with it.

Im sure your a very respectible person and perhaps not a big drinker but you have to admit a lot of us are compared to many other countries.

Right its 6pm, bars open!
 

dunny

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:cry::cry::cry:I,m going to France end July for 2 weeks hopeing to get good weather and plenty cheap drink doesn,t look like it does it:thumb:

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Jun 4, 2010
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Hey dunny,


If you like wine you can get abottle for 1.6 eurosat the supermarket, its pretty good after the first bottle.

good luck.

georgio
 

barryd

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Yep and Ive seen these 5 litre little plastic barrels of the stuff and Im sure they were only about 5 Euros. No idea what they were like as I dont drink a lot of wine but the brits seemed to like them on the Aires. Oh, god, Ive done it again! sorry.::bigsmile:
 

vwalan

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spain much better 55cents a litre .got some for 40cents earlie this year. only bought 450 ltres. cheers alan. i,m not a piss head .fancy thinking that. ha ha .
also spanish brandy 4.29 euro a bottle bought a few of tyhose .just medicinal.

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Wintonian

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Without needing to buy the really cheap wines mentioned above (in France or Spain) which are not at all good for drinking (fine for cooking, though) good wines in France are MUCH cheaper than those on sale in the UK. The Spanish brandy is excellent - as a paint remover or for cleaning motorcycle chains and rear wheels.:RollEyes:

A reasonable table wine that will cost £6 a bottle in England will probably cost 3 to 4 Euro in France. The supermarkets stock a very wide range of wines at prices from 2 Euro a bottle to 80 Euro a bottle. And the speciality "wine caves" have some really interesting wines and wine derived drinks available. When holidaying in France, make a point of visiting these shops. You will be amazed at the range of really excellent goods that they stock.

I might just mention that anyone passing near Pontivy might also want to visit the shop at the biscuit factory by the river Blavet - biscuiterie Joubard. You will not leave empty-handed! And there are large trays of broken samples of each for you to try as you wander round. It is on the road that goes south out of Pontivy, running alongside the Blavet (past McDonalds etc).
 

vwalan

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nothing wrong with solera brandy .13 quid in uk.
yes wine in france is a better drink than the spanish, i find the french as more bodie and not quite so harsh .i like pays de herault ,or paysde alude.think i spelt it right .not really intothe more expensive wines as its waste on me. but solera lovelly matured in wood casks got a lovelly burnt wod taste as an after taste. if in france though nothing wrong with pastis with a shot of menthe and lemonade or water mmmmm
better open a bottle cheers alan.
 

Wintonian

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nothing wrong with solera brandy .13 quid in uk.
....not really intothe more expensive wines as its waste on me. but solera lovelly matured in wood casks got a lovelly burnt wod taste as an after taste.

PHILISTINE!!!:Smile:

Burnt wood taste as an aftertaste??? Alan. Have you ever tasted a really fine Cognac or an old Armagnac? Hmmm.

Truckers......

Oh well. Chacun a son gout, as they say around here. ::bigsmile:

(BTW, I was prompted by you to have a look at 5ers this afternoon. Very interesting. I think I could go for a small one of those.)

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vwalan

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in the 70,si picked grapes in france on the way to maroc .we picked a few near cognac.and taste the special stuff .but pound for pound .it,ll do.
as for 5er i say get a mini artic nd convert to what you want. there as been loads sold .must be able to track one down. they do come up on ebasy .there is an ex libary on there at moment but its a bit long .i think 20ft is enough if you want to visit little villages .you.ll have to have a look at mine one day. works for me and i do give it a hard life. 23yr old now the trailer .
a 30 ft would cut down nicely though.make a clip on for local use then. if you have space to store it.
 

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