HOLIDAYS
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How to go there ?
You haven't forgotten your sunglasses and you've come to France to get a tan. So where's
it to be - the sea, the mountain or the countryside? May be you'd like to meet other young
people. Or perhaps you want to trail around on your own or with a friend. Skippering a
yacht off the coast of Brittany, restoring an abbey in southern France, hiking through the
Auvergne or cycling through the Loire valley to visit the castles or even climbing Mont
Blanc? Whatever you choose, there's something to please all tastes here. Open your eyes,
fasten your seatbelts, hoist the mainsail .... your trip starts with the dozens of
addresses listed below. Have a nice holiday.
During the school holidays, thousands of holiday centres offer leisure activities for the under-18s. Depending on where the centre is located, there will be rock climbing, hiking, sailing, canoeing, etc. The associations which organise these activities are increasingly offering cultural activities as well (computer programming, dance, theatre, etc.). In most cases, you can do several at a time. The best solution is to contact the organisations which are approved by the Ministry of Youth and Sport (Ministère de la Jeunesse et des Sports).
Here are a few of them:
10, quai de la Charente
75019 Paris.
Tél : 01 44 72 14 14
To choose the organisation that is best suited to your needs, you can also telephone Inter
Service Parents. This free telephone service run by the Parents and Instructors School
has a very broad range of information available and will be able to give a more
personalised answer. The telephone number is 01 44 93 44 93. You can also get information
from the Youth Information Centres (CIJs).
All year round, the regional and area youth and sports services (Directions Régionales
et Départementales Jeunesse et Sports) organise 10-day sessions for young foreigners aged
from 16 to 35 to discover a French region. There are things to do with your hands and
sporting activities and it is an opportunity for French and foreign young people to meet. Contact
the cultural department (Service Culturel) at the French Embassy in your home
country for further details. If you are already in France, you can contact the Direction
Départementale Jeunesse et Sports in the area where you are living.
Ahoy there! Before taking off on a round-the-world race, there'll be many an hour of tacking and going about and clocking up the nautical miles. Tabarly, Jeantot and Florence Arthaud have been through it all. Mind you, you've come to the right country because there are hundreds of sailing schools all along the French coasts.
The most famous is the Centre Nautique des Glénans which is known the world over. But there are others that produce excellent crew members as well.
The following are some of the clubs that offer training courses at various levels
almost all the year round:
(publishes a list of approved sailing schools)
A good tip for people with sailing experience who want to hire a boat is to contact the
Fédération des industries nautiques, le Syndicat national des loueurs de bateaux de
plaisance
Port de javel Haut, 75015 Paris
(publishes a free guide).
For those with experience but without a boat or a penny to their name, try listening to
the France-Inter radio station. From May to September they run a programme called “La
Bourse des Equipiers” which puts owners of boats in contact with people who want to
crew for them. Code Minitel : 3615 codeword RF to offer your services.
French mountains are of varied degrees of difficulty and offer numerous opportunities
depending on your level of experience and physical fitness. Don't even think of climbing
up to 4,000 metres without an experienced guide and proper training and equipment.
Even for the less difficult and lower summits, you will need good mountain footwear and
you should avoid taking off on your own. Always check the weather forecast (météo)
before setting out. To make sure people get the most out of climbing in complete safety,
various organisations (the FUAJ and the UCPA mentioned earlier on, in particular) organise
initiation and training sessions and also arrange mountain races in the Alps and the
Pyrenees. In addition to the FUAJ and the UCPA, there are the following:
Full information on “less difficult” mountain activities in the Pyrenees,
such as routes, refuges and overnight shelters, free and escorted climbs, training
courses, can be obtained from:
Minitel : 3615 CIMES
Hiking OK, so you like walking but not necessarily up on the mountain tops! Well, on with your
hiking boots because France has 30,000 kilometres of marked hiking trails. These trails
are called Sentiers de Grande Randonnée and everyone refers to them as GRs. They go
through Brittany, the Jura mountains, the Auvergne, Corsica and many other areas. There is
even a GR trail around Mont Blanc. Some of the trails have overnight shelters (Gîtes
d'Etape) along the way and, of course, associations such as the FUAJ, OCCAJ and UCPA
organise group rambles and hiking expeditions. All the trails are described in detail in
topographical guides (topo- guides) published by the:
Information can also be obtained from the Club Alpin Français, the address of which is given above.
Details of all 400 overnight shelters can also be had from the:
Riding If it has always been your dream to discover a French region on horseback and to sleep out under the stars, and if there's a bit of the “Lucky Luke” in you, then “Jolly Jumper” or another nice horse or pony is just waiting in some French stable to set off down the trail with you...
There are 160 riding schools and 13 training centres officially recognised by the Fédération des Randonneurs de France (FREF),
Some people think that excursions of this kind smack too much of westerns and prefer something more academic. If you are one of these then you will be looking for somewhere that you can learn the difficult art of dressage. The address to contact is:
Cycling More conventional perhaps, but cycling is a perfect way to travel around France (and
other countries as well of course). It's cheap, quiet, environmentally friendly and you
can go anywhere. All you need is a good pair of legs and to keep to the small roads which
don't have too much traffic on them. Your bike must be robust but not too heavy. It should
be fitted with saddlebags and have a sufficient number of gears.
The bike to have is the 10-speed touring model.
The Bicy-Club de France organises week-long excursions in some places (the Loire
Valley, Brittany, the Landes region, etc.). Bikes are supplied and the distance covered
each day is about 60 kilometres. The address is:
If you want a go on a mountain bike (it's called a bi-cross in French) and feel the urge to do all sorts of stunts, pirouettes, and other wheelies, try the
Taking to the Water France boasts 8,000 kilometres of rivers and canals and there's no better way to
discover the country in all its beauty. You can hire a houseboat fitted out for four or
eight people. You don't need a river pilot's licence to skipper these boats, but, as
everywhere else, charges are not cheap.
(publishes a guide 119 Francs).
Potholing If you only get your kicks by crawling down into the bowels of the earth and discovering extraordinary caves... well, that's your problem! For further information and lists of other local associations, contact the
Skydiving and Surfing If everything that has been mentioned so far does not really get your adrenalin
going.... what you're probably looking for is high in the skies! If you want to throw
yourself out of a plane to parachute to the fields below or sit at the controls of a
glider, then here are a few addresses that will enable you to take risks... safely.
Those microlights flitting about the sky are known as “ULMs” (the initials stand
for Ultra-Léger-Motorisé) in French. The place to go for information is:
Biarritz is the place where surfers hang out in France. There is also a surfing school there where you can learn the basics. The address is:
Flying men weren't all shot down like the Tatahouine légionnaires and not all parachutes are coloured khaki. You can get information on the best place to go to take a jump from the
Those who like hang-gliding should contact the
Cool and green Vast open spaces where the hunter with his gun is not allowed to roam, where the
animals, birds and flowers come into their own. If you know how to hide and be quiet,
you'll see nature in its wild state almost as it was before man. There are 6 national
parks in France (Cévennes, les Ecrins, Mercantour, Port Cros, Pyrénées Orientales, La
Vanoise) and 20 country parks and 63 animal reserves... an ecologist's dreamland. You can
simply go and visit them or enrol on an environmental awareness programme.
Camping, throwing stones, dropping litter, picking wild flowers or touching the animals
are of course all forbidden.
The place to go for details is:
There's also a centre in Alsace which organises nature discovery and awareness sessions. The address is:
Bird watchers can get information on training courses on the north coast of Brittany
from the FUAJ (address given above).
Some other addresses:
If you want to take a break from it all in the country, why not rent a house. For about 900 Francs a week you can rent a country cottage (Gîte rural) for 5 people or so. The address is:
What's called “Bed and Breakfast” in English is called “Café-Couette” here. You should reckon on between 170 and 432 Francs a day for a night's stay in the country with a room and breakfast. Details can be had from:
Not Even a Fig Leaf? If you like to take all your clothes off during the holidays... get back to nature in a big way as it were, then you'll be looking for a nudist camp (centre naturiste). On most French beaches it is now accepted that women may go topless but the nether regions of both sexes remain decently covered except at a nudist camp. These are not very common in France, where there are only 100,000 recognised nudists. Details can be had from the:
Work Camps Each summer thousands of young people all over France work voluntarily on various types
of sites. Stone by stone, they rebuild churches or ruined monuments, work on
archaeological digs, or help build a hiking trail. Side by side, French and foreign
youngsters wield a pick and shovel. Of course, there are a few tired muscles and blistered
hands, but it's lots of fun. So if you feel you've energy to burn off doing something
useful and want to meet a new bunch of friends, then join in the fun...
Each year the youth information centres (CIJs) put out brochures or information sheets
on all the different possibilities for holidays in their area.
They will be only too glad to inform you.
Tourist Information Centres The aim of all tourists is to see the maximum number of new things in the shortest possible time. There is only one way to go about it and that is to prepare your stay down to the last detail. You can get all the information you need on where to stay, cultural events, local places of interest and historical monuments from the tourist information centres in most of the large towns you'll be visiting. All you need to do is write and ask...
If you are passing through Paris before setting off somewhere else in France, call into
one of the regional tourist information centres (Maisons Régionales) which are a mine of
useful information. They can give you all sorts of details free of charge on all sorts of
accommodation and they are shown with an “R” (standing for réservation!) in the
following list:
Métro : Palais Royal.
Winter Sports Ski-ing in France? The problem is deciding where. The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Jura
mountains and the Vosges and some parts of Auvergne - there are hundreds of ski resorts
and thousands of kilometres of downhill and cross-country ski slopes. The most economical
solution, especially for young people, is to go with an organisation and thereby benefit
from an all-inclusive package (training, equipment, accommodation, food). There are also
some possibilities for those who want to take off on their own or with a few friends. Here
are a few addresses, but you will have to book several months ahead.
The UCPA and FUAJ (see addresses above).
The Organisation du Tourisme Universitaire (OTU), offers cheap packages, particularly for
weekends.
Cross-Country Ski-ing
A fantastic place to practise cross-country ski-ing in the Jura :
Long-Distance Ski Trekking
offers holidays in all French mountains, particularly for those really into deep- snow
ski trekking away from the well-worn slopes. Don't forget your sealskins, and forget it if
you're not in top physical condition. The CAF also runs refugues and shelters.
There are hundreds of other organisations which organise ski holidays and trips. For more
details contact a Centres Information Jeunesse.
Dial-a-Break! What is on at the Avignon Festival on August 2nd? Is there a guided tour of Chambord
Castle on July 14th? Where can I find classes to learn lace-making?
Dial 01 42 96 10 23 and the MAISON DE LA FRANCE hostess will answer any
questions you have. If you need the address, it is:
Summer is Festival Time The whole of France comes alive with festivals in summer... even the smallest of
villages. Here it's jazz, there it's Carolyn Carlson or Patrick Dupont in a ballet, or
maybe a concert or some baroque music in a 17th Century castle setting. Or it could be a
theatre company on the stage for a night's performance of a play. There is a whole rash of
posters from June to September, announcing the various events. Keep your eyes open. If you
are in Avignon at the end of July be sure not to miss whatever is happening at the
festival in this beautiful papal city. In any case Avignon is THE melting pot for
international culture and arts. You'll often find there are workshops being organised on
the fringe of the main festivals. They are open to all who wish to participate.
The calendar of festivals (calendrier des festivals) can be obtained from the:
Programmes and dates for the Festival Estival and the Festival du Marais or the Festival d'Automne in Paris can be obtained from the:
In the provinces, contact the local tourist board (Syndicat d'Initiative) or youth
information centres (CIJs).
 Design by : Marc ELOY - Em@ze
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