France May 2024

May 2024

Last-minute train trip to France with Interrailing pass bought in November sale. Read more

17footprints
2countries
8days
208photos
0videos
3.0kkilometers
1.5kkilometers

Follow Calendar Share Bucket list

Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 4, 2024, 2:45 PM
- ☁️ 16 °C
- Altitude: 129 m
- England Chalford 51.720691, -2.15486251°43’14” N 2°9’18” W
Day 1
On my way
May 4 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Last-minute decision to head to France for a week. Eurostar this evening to Paris, then TGV down to Antibes tomorrow.
Traveler oooo, thats so cool! are you staying in Antibes the week?
5/4/24Reply
Traveler Till Friday, yes.
5/4/24Reply
Traveler lovely!
5/5/24Reply
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 5, 2024, 9:21 AM
- ☁️ 12 °C
- Altitude: 62 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 05 Ancien - Quartier Faubourg-Saint-Denis Hôpital Fernand Widal 48.880962, 2.36294848°52’51” N 2°21’47” E
Day 2
Paris stopover
May 5 in France ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Arrived Gare du Nord at about ten past eleven at night. And of course immediately walked in the wrong direction to my hotel (an Ibis) . But I did get there and it was fine and comfortable and I slept perfectly well. Woke up quite early, so got my Substack post uploaded as I hadn't managed ged to schedule it from the train, though I wrote most of it on my phone on the Eurostar. In the morning I had breakfast and then packed up the few bits and pieces I had unpacked and headed off to the Gare de Lyon (via the Gare du Nord, which was a lot closer in daytime). And I was very early, so I had a try at live sketchbooking , which is definitely not one of my creative strengths (yet!) and then got on the train (with some initial confusion because carriage six was at the other end of the train, even though the carriage numbers were going up for 14. Huh? (It was because there were two trains stuck together.)Read more
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 5, 2024, 3:07 PM
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 13 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Toulon Le Jonquet 43.132454, 5.90986843°7’57” N 5°54’36” E
Day 2
Paris to Antibes
May 5 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
The train journey was pleasant, if a little cramped, as myself and the three other people at a table seat all had backpacks poking out from under our seats and other bags around our feet.

I enjoyed listening to them chatting away (in French), but did listen to music in the end. I read a fair bit (The Tenant of Wild fell Hall) and dozed a bit too.

I got about an hour if stretching out as they got off at Toulons (think that's how you spell it) and was able to sit by the window then ams get a few pics and enjoy the view. Though I was on the wrong side for the sea.

I can't decide if I would have preferred a TER multi-change journey to St Nazaire (the first option I was looking at) more. Changing trains can be stressful, especially if the connections are short. But you tend to see more on the regional trains - and often get a bit more of an insight into ordinary life, as it's often people nipping from one two to the next.

But I liked this journey. If I had a smaller laptop with me, I might well have got it out and done some writing or work. It would have been a huge faff though. And taken up too much space.Read more
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 5, 2024, 6:14 PM
- ☁️ 18 °C
- Altitude: 15 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Picasso Museum 43.581415, 7.12768443°34’53” N 7°7’40” E
Day 2
Antibes Day 1
May 5 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
And arrived in Antibes at about quarter to five. Walked to the apartment in about 15 minutes and fell in love straight away. I think this may be my French St Ives. It's smaller and feels calmer than Nice (though I appreciate that might not be the case in high season). Lots of old buildings and narrow winding streets. Lots of cafés amd restaurants. Lots of art stalls and shops and galleries. Mostly port in the town, but I believe there are a couple of nice sandy beaches quite near.

I have had a wander and done a small stock up at a little Carrefour - baguette (hopefully I will find a proper boulangerie tomorrow, but it was still good), salty butter, a slab of Tomme cheese, some spaghetti and a jar of sauce (they did have vegetables but they were all in big bags, rather than individual and I know there is a market right outside my door in the morning, so I will get my vegetables there), a bag of plain crisps and three bottles, one of orange juice, one of beer and one of Prosecco.

I really really love it here and definitely think it will be somewhere I visit more than once.

I will probably get an easy night tonight, rather than go and prop up any of the many bars nearby. And then I need to decide about how to split my time between work and exploring during the week.

But I am already very happy to have made the somewhat impetuous decision to come out here.Read more
Traveler lovely!
5/6/24Reply
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 5, 2024, 6:18 PM
- ☁️ 18 °C
- Altitude: 7 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Plage de la Gravette 43.583231, 7.12806343°34’60” N 7°7’41” E
Day 2
Lundi portes et arcs
May 5 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
I am so addicted to taking photos of doors when I'm travelling. And arches. Lots of arches. Arched doors, arches over alleyways, arched windows. Love them a lot.

There's a big house back in Stroud that I pass on my walks out to and towards Slad and I have always coveted it, despite it being far too big of us and way outside our price range. And I really think that the main reason I covet it, is the arched windows.Read more
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 5, 2024, 6:20 PM
- ☁️ 18 °C
- Altitude: 8 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Plage de la Gravette 43.583736, 7.12757243°35’1” N 7°7’39” E
Day 2
Arty bits and bibs in Antibes
May 5 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
A few arty bits and bobs I have seen here
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 6, 2024, 12:30 PM
- ☁️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 14 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Picasso Museum 43.581555, 7.12803443°34’54” N 7°7’41” E
Day 3
Lundi promenade
May 6 in France ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
I have a lot of photos, so will do a few posts. Slept in quite a bit. I think of myself as a morning person, but I am recognising that, when I am away (especially solo), I tend to sleep in more. I definitely need to make space for a proper, non-working solo holiday soon to see if that's definitely the default.

I missed the market. Or possibly it wasn't on today. I will make sure to get up early tomorrow to go see. I have three meetings tomorrow - 10, 12.30 and 3 (French time), so can't sleep in.

I really love it here. I found a little beach and dipped me feet in to feel the lap of the gentle waves. I wandered more around new narrow little streets. I bought a baguette and a couple of chocolate éclairs. I wandered past the Picasso museum, which seemed to be closed, so I can leave it another day to dig into whether I can bring myself to look at his art, which was such a huge part of my creative formation.

And now I am back in my lovely little apartment having baguette and butter and about to do a bit of work before going out and wandering some more.Read more
1 like
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 6, 2024, 12:30 PM
- ☁️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 14 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Picasso Museum 43.581555, 7.12803443°34’54” N 7°7’41” E
Day 3
Lundi plantes
May 6 in France ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
And plants. I love how people decorate the spaces outside their buildings when they don't have gardens. I remember spotting a lot of that in Amsterdam.

Antibes is giving me vibes of St Ives, Venice, Amsterdam (there are no canals, that I've spotted, but it's more a feeling), and even a bit of Ferrara.

I think some of these may have appeared in other posts from today.Read more
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 6, 2024, 6:11 PM
- ☁️ 18 °C
- Altitude: 21 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Couvent des Bernadines d'Antibes 43.5806, 7.12246643°34’50” N 7°7’21” E
Day 3
Shop fronts in the early evening
May 6 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Only took a couple of photos while out late afternoon/early evening. There really is a very large area of old town narrow streets here. Which is probably why I like it ao much!

I ended up having a siesta instead of working this afternoon, so I will be doing some work this evening. I'd ideally like to make it so tomorrow is just meetings, and wandering a bit in between. But it's not the end of the world if I do an early morning wander and close to a full day of work and then head out after the final meeting.

I would also quite like to take a late evening wander to see the sea at night. So I may make myself a deal to help me get through the work quicker!

But first I am going to cook some dinner.Read more
2 likes
Traveler France May 2024
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- May 7, 2024, 7:43 PM
- ☀️ 19 °C
- Altitude: 7 m
- France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Antibes Juan-les-Pins Plage de la Gravette 43.583196, 7.12619143°34’60” N 7°7’34” E
Day 4
Tuesday evening
May 7 in France ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Busy busy working day today. I slept in later than I planned, so had a super quick jump under the shower, and then nipped out to get coffee and a croissant, before the first meeting (which was actually pushed to tomorrow). Lots of stuff to get through, even though the meetings were reduced to two, so I ended up working about nine hours in total. So I was quite wiped. I did consider eating out for dinner, but I was pretty full from finishing off last night's dinner for a late lunch (during meeting number 2 where I was mostly just listening and watching and making a few notes). So I decided to just head out and see what I decides. I did a lot of wandering, ate an ice cream, went to the supermarket for a couple of bits and bobs and then explored some more and found myself walking along a wonderful wall, with crashing waves on one side and beautiful clusters of little old buildings, in a gorgeous colour palette (that I am going to have to steal for some art), on the other side and lots of beautiful plants all the way along. And then that brought me back to opposite my apartment. Where I am settling down to an evening (or possibly one episode, because it's already 10pm) of Artful Dodger o Disney and baguette and butter and cheese. And maybe a glass of something (currently that something is fizzy water, but there is a choice of beer and prosecco in the fridge).

I realised that walks like that are what I do this for and why it's not a waste to go travelling while I have work to do. Because even after a nine-hour working day, I can still go and find that hour or so beauty and wonder.Read more
Traveler it all looks lovely!
5/8/24Reply
Traveler It's very beautiful yes. Picked a good destination, for sure!
5/8/24Reply
Traveler toally 7nderstand the walks/working etc. people have asked ne hiw i work so much whilst travelling..because i live both and they are a pair
5/8/24Reply
Traveler Well, I would probably happily cut out the working if I could afford to!
5/8/24Reply
6 more comments
2 likes