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|         _______                 | The really dangerous people believe that  |
|     ,--'.:::::.`-._             | they are doing whatever they are doing    |
|    /..:::::::::::..\            | solely and only because it is without     |
|   /..:::::::::_;::::|           | question the right thing to do.           |
|  || `---'----' _|:::|           |                                           |
|  ||            `;:::|           | -- Neil Gaiman, American Gods             |
|  |' ====  ====  |-::|           |                                           |
|  |-( @ )-( @ )--|O):|           |                                           |
|   |  ` |   `    |/::'           |                                           |
|   .    v        |:/   jeremy@   |                                           |
|    |   ___,     ||    malcolm   |                                           |
|     \   --    _/|     .id.au    |                                           |
|      \_____.-'__/-.__           |                                           |
|      _|     _/|::.\.::-._       |                                           |
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+--| France |-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
| We were lucky enough to book a trip to France on the local budget airline   |
| Air Asia, just before they stopped flying there.  Lucky, because this       |
| meant they upgraded our tickets to a full-service airline instead!  We      |
| began in Paris, checking off the usual landmarks (the Eiffel Tower, the     |
| Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur), and spending a     |
| day at Disneyland (for the kids - and for Dom).  Whilst I may hate what     |
| Disney did to copyright, they do make a good theme park, and this is one    |
| of their most impressive.                                                   |
|                                                                             |
| On several occasions while travelling by train, we were serenaded by        |
| buskers playing accordion - which could hardly have seemed more French had  |
| they been wearing berets, striped shirts and strings of onions around       |
| their necks.  On our first night (we weren't sure whether it marked some    |
| occasion or was a regular event), our neighbourhood of Montremarte was      |
| hosting street parties on almost every corner, which carried on into the    |
| long twilight of the French summer until we fell asleep.                    |
|                                                                             |
| Then (for me) we headed down to the less-travelled south of France, where   |
| we hired a car and spent a few lazy, uninhibited days at a seaside resort   |
| near Agde.  We lost ourselves in the maze of the town's cobbled streets,    |
| wandered through its parks and past houseboat restaurants, passed through   |
| alleys walled by fresh-painted townhouses whose window-boxes burst with     |
| flowers, and supped under its medieval cathedral.                           |
|                                                                             |
| Although limiting ourselves to relatively low-budget restaurants and        |
| home-cooked meals, we made sure to take full advantage of the culinary      |
| opportunities France had to offer.  Crepes seem somehow much more classy    |
| than roti, and macarons than macaroons (though admittedly, these have       |
| become a food fad in Malaysia too).  For one meal we paid only €13 each     |
| for three courses, including an entree such as escargot (which Dom chose;   |
| I wimped out and chose French Onion soup), and classic desserts such as     |
| sorbet, creme caramel and chocolate mousse, all done better than we can     |
| find at home.  Fresh fruit was also abundant and cheap - we bought a        |
| kilogram of apricots for €3 (though conversely, a cup of plain tea was      |
| almost as expensive!).                                                      |
|                                                                             |
+----------------------| posted 325 days ago via news | reply (1 comments) |--+
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