France and Beyond
An Advertising Feature
Traditionally, backpackers have been hitchhikers and coach travellers on a budget and you wouldn’t think of them hiring cars. But the backpacking landscape and ability to compare car hire has changed. The laws in many countries have changed since hitch-hiking’s heyday to make it more difficult. This combined with the fact that you can book car hire online for such a vast number of places, makes hiring a car an ever more attractive possibility for those in search of adventure.
A fun idea is travelling to France by train, picking up a hire car and driving it all the way to Italy and back again. Sound crazy? It isn’t, it’s a wonderful way to begin a journey at the beginning rather than spending hours driving all the way to a ferry port in your own car, in miserable weather, with a bunch of other people trying to escape to continental Europe.
Once you arrive in Paris, check into a hotel and spend at least three days exploring the city. Take some time to acclimatise to the Paris Metro system, remembering that the lines are colour-coded and unlike with London Underground trains, you actually need to pull a lever every time you want to get onto or off of a train. If you haven’t been before (or even if you have), go and check out the Pompidou Centre by Les Halles Metro station. The museum is the Paris version of Tate Modern in London. The collection is quite something with paintings by Kandinsky and Picasso as well a Georges Braque and Matisse to name but a few. From the roof you get fantastic views of the city including the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Coeur.
Montmatre is many people’s favourite part of Paris. It was here that Amélie was filmed. You can find the vegetable shop, café and park from the film if you know where to look. The cobbled streets are lovely to walk around and the cheese and fish shops are magnificent. Stop in a café here for lunch and enjoy a petit glass of red wine with it. At the top of Montmartre is the Sacré-Coeur. The basilica, although designed much later than many in Europe, is one of the most beautiful. Particularly sweet are the four reliefs of angels on the ceiling at the centre of the Basilica.
There are always long queue to climb the Eiffel tower and it’s often quite cold at the top so you might be better off admiring it at a distance, which is possible all over the city.
Once you’ve enjoyed Paris, check out of your hotel early on the last morning and hop into that pre-booked hire car. It’s just over nine hours drive to Milan. You could even break the trip up with an overnight stay somewhere along the way. From there you can stay and enjoy Milan or explore the North of Italy before returning to Paris to drop the car back and board a train back home.
