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I'm coming out! and NWR advise

anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its
in Chit Chat
Just coming out of the shadows as a long time lurker :-) 

So I've been lurking on this site for about two years now, and I feel like I know most of the regular posters, so I thought it was about time to introduce myself and take this opportunity to ask for some NWR advise.
 My fiance and I have been together for 8 years now and engaged for about nine months. He is in his early 30's, I'm in my late 20's. We want to get married sometime next year, but are taking our time with the wedding planning. 
  That said the reason I'm writing is because I would love some advise on a trip we are planning for late August. We are going to Europe for the first time, I'm beyond exited! However this is the first time we will visit another continent. We are only going for 10 days and we want to make the most of it but we are not sure what will make more sense to do. I know this is hardly a problem, but could some of you travel-wise knoties offer some guidance? 
 We already booked the tickets to France, and are planning to spend five days there, but we are not sure what other cities will make more sense to visit from there. We were thinking it would be awesome to go to the south of France to Niece, or Marseille, but don't know if it would be better to visit another major city (say London or Brussels, which are closer) instead. 
  Also, (and sorry if this is getting too long and a bit awish) we were considering renting a car if we were going to visit the south of France, but I'm not sure that's such a good idea since we don't speak the language and don't know the country at all. Anyways, whatever advise you can offer about your experiences will be much appreciated. (In general I would like to avoid taking more planes since I have terrible flight anxiety, and will be already pushing my limits flying for almost 9 hours to get there, and also for budget reasons of course) 
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Re: I'm coming out! and NWR advise

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    redheadbride15redheadbride15 member
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    Let's get this party started on a Saturday night...

    Sorry, I don't have any advice on France (went there once when I was like 9 and I don't remember anything) but thanks for putting Pink in my head.
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    WinstonsGirlWinstonsGirl member
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    anothergirl2 said:
    Just coming out of the shadows as a long time lurker :-) 

    So I've been lurking on this site for about two years now, and I feel like I know most of the regular posters, so I thought it was about time to introduce myself and take this opportunity to ask for some NWR advise.
     My fiance and I have been together for 8 years now and engaged for about nine months. He is in his early 30's, I'm in my late 20's. We want to get married sometime next year, but are taking our time with the wedding planning. 
      That said the reason I'm writing is because I would love some advise on a trip we are planning for late August. We are going to Europe for the first time, I'm beyond exited! However this is the first time we will visit another continent. We are only going for 10 days and we want to make the most of it but we are not sure what will make more sense to do. I know this is hardly a problem, but could some of you travel-wise knoties offer some guidance? 
     We already booked the tickets to France, and are planning to spend five days there, but we are not sure what other cities will make more sense to visit from there. We were thinking it would be awesome to go to the south of France to Niece, or Marseille, but don't know if it would be better to visit another major city (say London or Brussels, which are closer) instead. 
      Also, (and sorry if this is getting too long and a bit awish) we were considering renting a car if we were going to visit the south of France, but I'm not sure that's such a good idea since we don't speak the language and don't know the country at all. Anyways, whatever advise you can offer about your experiences will be much appreciated. (In general I would like to avoid taking more planes since I have terrible flight anxiety, and will be already pushing my limits flying for almost 9 hours to get there, and also for budget reasons of course) 


    You have to figure out why you want to do and see, and where your comfort levels are travel and language wise.  I love Paris, and I've been to Nice twice and had a great time both times.  I'll leave Paris if you're going, as it's very easy to find things to see and do there.  

    Nice is pretty laid back, and is nice for relaxing on the beach.  Be warned that that beaches there are pebbly (small pebbles) and not sand, but it was still great.  Super close is Cannes and Monaco, which are also good for day trips.  You're also close to Italy if you wanted to day trip there as well.  I've only connected through Marseille, so I haven't done the touristy thing, but it wasn't the nicest town.  It is a shipping port, so it was a little rougher than other cities.  

    It's pretty easy to get from Paris south.  You can take the high speed trains, or there are major highways and the country is signed pretty well.  If you do drive, plan out your routes from here before you go.  You can also download GPS maps for your phone and use them without wi-fi/internet while you're there.  The only time it get's confusing is when 30 different exits list the city you're going to, since they all connect to different parts of the city.  You just need to know ahead of time which one you're going to.    

    If you not comfortable driving, trains run pretty regularly.  And in France, if you're staying in a bigger city, you will find people who speak some English. 

    If you decide to go to London, (or Brussels), the Chanel Tunnel train is super quick ,and it would take care of the language issue.  In Belgium, they speak French and Flemmish, and I found fewer people spoke English, but again, in Brussels, you will find someone.  Personally, I'm not a huge fan of London, but that's a personal thing for me.  There is lots to see and do there however, and you'll fill your time fine.  

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    lovemesomemonsterlovemesomemonster member
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    No advice on France but I spent a month working just outside of London and it was a wonderful experience. Staying in London you don't want a car but it's really easy to get around and there is so much to see! I was hooked and ready to move there after my month so it made an impression if you are thinking of venturing that way. I'm also a HUGE Harry Potter nerd so that might have something to do with how much I loved it, the studio is amazing! There is so much history and the architecture is incredible, just walking around made for an awesome day off work and with everyone speaking english it made it very easy. Oxford was my favorite place to visit outside of London (might want a car for this one), and Windsor is worth taking a day for (easy train ride from London), the castle is beautiful and walking the shops at night was so much fun. 

    There is also a high speed train that travels between Paris and London so if you want to avoid flying it is an option. And if you can sneak in a stop near Dover and are into WWII history that castle is worth a trip as well.

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    anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
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    Lol, good catch....aaaand now is in my head too :-)
    Yeah as soon as I posted this I realized maybe is too specific of a question, to put it nicely. 
    But hey, at least I got one answer! 
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    redheadbride15redheadbride15 member
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    Oh, if you've REALLY been lurking you'll know that the ladies of CC have loads of answers to very specific questions. If you'd have asked about Italy, Spain, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or even Russia then I could have been helpful.
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    anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
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    Thank you so much for your replies WinstonsGirl, and lovemsomemonster! 
    It is really helpful to hear other people's experiences.

     I'll look into the speed train, the only reason I thought we needed a car is because google maps said it took 23 hours to get to the south of France through public transport, which seemed a bit odd since I've heard about the speed trains, wasn't sure if they had them on that route. WinstonsGirl I'm glad to hear what you said about Marseille, since there are a bunch of different cities down there and we weren't sure which ones would be best to visit!
    lovemsomemonster we also love HP! We also love history and architecture, but we were thinking to maybe leave England for a different trip! 

       We want to go to Italy, but its a bit further. Since we only have 10 days I'm scared that we will not have a ton of time to dedicate to each place, and will spend more time traveling than actually seeing stuff! But now I'm torn between just visiting major cities and not doing the whole south of France thing, I wish we had more time! Again thank you all for taking the time to reply!! 
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    doeydodoeydo member
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    I'm not much travel help, but I just wanted to say hello :)
    Also, I greatly misjudged what this thread was going to be about, based on the title.
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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    I personally would skip Marseille. We spent the day there and both H and I felt it wasn't that impressive. I would absolutely do Nice, Cannes and Saint Paul de Vence. You could do Monaco too.
    I don't know if it's in your budget, but for Monaco we did Tours By Locals. He picked us up and drove us around to all the spots we wanted to see. He also had great suggestions on other historical spots and restaurants.
    We rented a car in Italy. Neither of us speak Italian and we managed ok.
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    anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
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    Hi doeydo! yup I know what you mean ;-)  thanks for saying hi!
    Thanks climbingwife!, we were actually considering Monaco! So i'm thinking we would probably stay in Nice and do a day trip to Monaco. 
    Also, kind of a side track, but how was the long plane trip for you guys? was it bumpy at all or not too bad? (I know this is really dumb but I have a thing with planes, I'm trying to put it aside, but also want to find ways to cope in the long trip) 
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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    We flew into London and out of Rome. Both flights to NY we're roughly 6 hours. I don't remember it being particularly bumpy. We took the red eye there and slept most of the way.
    When we went to Florence, we had to stop over in Paris on the way there. Again, it was a pretty easy flight.
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    redheadbride15redheadbride15 member
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    anothergirl2 said:
    Hi doeydo! yup I know what you mean ;-)  thanks for saying hi!
    Thanks climbingwife!, we were actually considering Monaco! So i'm thinking we would probably stay in Nice and do a day trip to Monaco. 
    Also, kind of a side track, but how was the long plane trip for you guys? was it bumpy at all or not too bad? (I know this is really dumb but I have a thing with planes, I'm trying to put it aside, but also want to find ways to cope in the long trip) 
    Bumps are not the issue on long flights - boredom, restlessness, lack of leg room, ankle swelling, general discomfort, did I already say boredom? So, in other words - bring plenty of entertainment (books, movies, music), a warm sweater or blanket, travel pillow, earplugs and/or earphones, loose-fitting shoes, and a good travel companion!

    And @doeydo yeah that's what I thought too, but then the immediate second though was... Pink!
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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    Redheadbride has good suggestions for the flight. I always bring my tablet with lots of books downloaded, snacks, a comfy sweater, socks and an eye shade. Oh and also a good set of headphones.
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    lovemesomemonsterlovemesomemonster member
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    redheadbride15 said:
    anothergirl2 said:
    Hi doeydo! yup I know what you mean ;-)  thanks for saying hi!
    Thanks climbingwife!, we were actually considering Monaco! So i'm thinking we would probably stay in Nice and do a day trip to Monaco. 
    Also, kind of a side track, but how was the long plane trip for you guys? was it bumpy at all or not too bad? (I know this is really dumb but I have a thing with planes, I'm trying to put it aside, but also want to find ways to cope in the long trip) 
    Bumps are not the issue on long flights - boredom, restlessness, lack of leg room, ankle swelling, general discomfort, did I already say boredom? So, in other words - bring plenty of entertainment (books, movies, music), a warm sweater or blanket, travel pillow, earplugs and/or earphones, loose-fitting shoes, and a good travel companion!

    And @doeydo yeah that's what I thought too, but then the immediate second though was... Pink!
    BOREDOM.. totally agree with that one.. I think I'm in a completely different part of the US than all of you, I flew from Seattle so it was a nice 10ish hr flight to London. Most of my flights to Europe are over night in their time zone so I tend to pop some nyquil right before the flight and try to sleep so I'm somewhat on their time zone when I get there. My advice to you is try to sleep when they are sleeping even if it's hard to do, helps with the jet lag when you get there. The one nice thing about the long international flights is the entertainment, I watched all sorts of movies I had missed in theaters on the way to Asia in an attempt to stay awake for 23hrs.

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    anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
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    I known is silly but really, the bumpy-ness is one of my main concerns, so it's nice to know it wasn't a big issue for you guys.  
    But redheadbride15 I'm glad you mentioned boredom, I need to prepare for that because my imagination is overactive in those situations and I hadn't even consider that. I really need to make sure to bring a bunch of stuff to keep me entertained! 
    I'm thinking of not sleeping the night before so I can maybe sleep on the plane, but I've never been able to sleep on planes, so maybe that will just make me feel crappier. Thank you for all your suggestions! 
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    WinstonsGirlWinstonsGirl member
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    You're welcome.  As for your time, with 10 days in Europe, I'd stick with 2-3 cities max.  Remember that you'll have jet lag on 1 end, and travel time between cities, leaving about 2-3 days in each city if you do 3.  

    The train to Nice was about 6 hours total, I think, but I left later in the day and spent the night in Marseilles

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    JoanE2012JoanE2012 member
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    anothergirl2 said:
    Hi doeydo! yup I know what you mean ;-)  thanks for saying hi!
    Thanks climbingwife!, we were actually considering Monaco! So i'm thinking we would probably stay in Nice and do a day trip to Monaco. 
    Also, kind of a side track, but how was the long plane trip for you guys? was it bumpy at all or not too bad? (I know this is really dumb but I have a thing with planes, I'm trying to put it aside, but also want to find ways to cope in the long trip) 
    I don't have any advice on France (we're taking our first trip there, though only Paris, in a couple months), but want to say that I have a fear of flying and discovered Xanax last year.  Completely life changing.
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    anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
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    Thanks JoanE2012!
     I actually have a prescription for it but haven't tried it! This flight will be the first time I will actually take it, it is so reassuring to hear that it actually works from someone else!
     I was thinking of taking it before leaving for the airport, but I am not sure if that's the best time, or does it works better to take it when I actually get on the plane? 
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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    Don't take it before you get to the airport. My anti-anxiety meds tend to make me groggy. I take my pill about 15-20 minutes before I board.
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    JoanE2012JoanE2012 member
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    anothergirl2 said:
    Thanks JoanE2012!
     I actually have a prescription for it but haven't tried it! This flight will be the first time I will actually take it, it is so reassuring to hear that it actually works from someone else!
     I was thinking of taking it before leaving for the airport, but I am not sure if that's the best time, or does it works better to take it when I actually get on the plane? 
    I take it about 45-1 hour before boarding.  It works pretty quickly (though I find I need at least 30 min), so I wouldn't take it earlier than that.  That said, I made sure to try it first on a day I was home to see how it affected me - I definitely did not want to be trying a new prescription for the first time when I'd be stuck on a plane!
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    emmaaaemmaaa mod
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    I don't have any advice for you on your travels, but welcome! The ladies around here are full of good advice (as you can see from this post already), especially when it comes to travelling.

    BTW, I feel you on the plane anxiety. I have only flown once and the fear to do so again is what has kept me and DH from doing more travelling.

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    novella1186novella1186 member
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    WinstonsGirl said:
    You're welcome.  As for your time, with 10 days in Europe, I'd stick with 2-3 cities max.  Remember that you'll have jet lag on 1 end, and travel time between cities, leaving about 2-3 days in each city if you do 3.  

    The train to Nice was about 6 hours total, I think, but I left later in the day and spent the night in Marseilles
    Totally agree with this. When I was in Paris, I planned to stay for 3 days but there was a huge national holiday happening so all the trains out were booked, so I ended up being stuck there for 5 days (how awful, right?). I was actually really glad to have the extra time. We went to the Pantheon (which was so amazing) and walked through the crypts, took a boat tour in the Seine (also awesome) and did a few more things we wouldn't have otherwise had time for. 

    In Spain and Portugal we jumped from one city to the next pretty quickly which I regretted cuz we didn't take the time to really experience each city. If I could have done it over, I would have gone to less places, spent less time travelling, and seen more of each place. 
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    TheCheeseWenchTheCheeseWench member
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    We are doing 10 days in France/Belgium for our honeymoon in October. We are craft beer junkies, so we are spending 3 nights in Belgium to visit Cantillon and some of the other greats. Then 3 nights in Champagne and 3 in Paris (Montmartre). We had originally planned to do a week in Belgium and a week in Italy (I want to see Pompeii...I love the old stuff and it's a huge missing checkmark from my list) but Fi's work got in the way of having 2 full weeks, so we decided to stay in a smaller area to cut down on travel.

    As far as the South of France goes, I love Nice. Toulouse, l'Isle Jourdain, Auch and Albi are all nice. We did go up to Monaco. I could take or leave Monte Carlo, but Old Monaco was beautiful. In between there and Nice is Eze. It's a tiny Medieval village overlooking the Cote d'Azur. It's worth a stop if you travel between the two. The roads up there are dicey (remember Princess Grace?) so I personally had ZERO interest driving there.

    I could take our leave London. I prefer Devon/Cornwall in the Southwest, so to me it wouldn't be worth the travel, but if you've never been you might like it.

    Post reviews of what you end up doing!
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    anothergirl2anothergirl2 member
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      Thank you so much emmaaa, novella1186,TheCheeseWench, for sharing your experiences, and all the other ladies for being so welcoming and for taking the time to answer!

      We didn't want to over do it, so I think we will definitely stick to 3 cities max. We didn't wanted to spend too many days in Paris, in order to see other cities, but I think there is so much to see there that we decided to stay for 4 days. I wish we had more days, but we couldn't take more vacation time. I'm so glad that WinstonsGirl and others mentioned the train to Niece, I looked it up and sure enough, we are going to take it!

       Thank you climbingwife, JoanE2012 for your advice on the anxiety meds, I will try it at home a few days before we leave. 

       I will definitely post about our trip when I come back (we are going at the end of August, so not for a bit yet). It is so nice to have people share their experiences. You are all wonderful and the reason why I love this site so much. 
     (sorry for the wacky paragraphs, I'm trying to figure out how to format this so it doesn't look weird) 
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    hellosweetie1015hellosweetie1015 member
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    I'm gonna go ahead and come out against multi-city tours if you're super interested in seeing a lot. We did 7 days split between London and Paris this past Christmas, and I wound up feeling like I saw almost none of the things I really wanted to see. I didn't get to see Platform 9 3/4, or spend any real time on the Champs Elysees. We did the Big Things - Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Abbey Road in London, and Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre in Paris, but it was all crammed into too few days to really do much more, or enjoy any one thing.

    Although it could have been hampered by the fact that a total of seven people went, so. Your mileage may vary. 

    Please, please, do not eat at restaurants you can get stateside/at home, wherever you go. My family is the most unadventurous bunch when it comes to food. We ate at a Rainforest Cafe in London, and a Pizza Hut in Paris, and Starbucks and McDonald's in both. For the love of all that is good and holy in this world, be brave and try at least once a day to eat somewhere you can't eat here. 
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    ILoveBeachMusicILoveBeachMusic member
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    I totally agree about the flights - boredom is the problem. I have trouble sleeping on planes so I watch the movies and read. I've never been to the south of France but Normandy is wonderful as is the Loire Valley. Mont St. Michel is worth a visit. If you do go south, you could easily get to Liguria in Italy (the area of Cinque Terre). We have friends that spent one week in France then drove to Liguria and spent a week there. It is a beautiful area. I speak a little Italian but most people speak English and want to speak English.
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