Country #30: FRANCE

Country #30: France 🇫🇷

I’ve been to France three times. And that’s exactly why it landed here.

Each visit taught me something different—but I realized I connect far more with the French countryside than with the cities.

The slower pace, the quiet, the in-between moments… that’s where France came alive for me. The cities, on the other hand, never quite lived up to expectations.

This list isn’t about writing places off.It’s about noticing where you actually feel at home when you travel.

This is a contorversial opinion considering France is the #1 most visited countries by tourists year after year.... Personally, I've visited 3 times and have seen the country change SO much from 2013 to 2023.

Why France is #30: Not to offend any French out there, they have a beautiful history and food that's out of this world but cleanliness & the warmth of the people weigh heavily on my scale.

In my personal opinion, I’m grateful I visited but wouldn’t go out of my way to revisit either. I visited France in 2013 then again 10 years later with my mom in 2023, and again in 2024 for a quick one night stop with my best friend on our way to Croatia. She’d never been and it worked better to flight-hack stopping there with our layover.

France ranks lower on my list for many reasons & here's why:

• The whole airport and any confined space smells like BO in the summer.

• The French people ~generally~ are rude and unhelpful. Especially if you're American.... While I'm running through the CDG airport, about to miss my flight, all I could think about was how stinky the place was. A little room spray in the summer would go a long way, friends!

• I was lucky enough to visit Paris the summer they hosted the Olympics and was impressed at how they’d really cleaned up in 2024! In recent years plus the surge in tourism, the city has become more and more littered with trash. There’s a faint pee smell in the streets of Paris and even a bed bug outbreak when we visited in 2023. You also have to watch out for scammers, gypsies, whatever you want to call it. They’re all over (especially in tourist destinations) and will pretend to play games or ask for change for a coke, then either steal the money or end up going right to the next to ask them for the same thing.

• Don’t even think about connecting through CDG if you don’t have 3 hours for your layover because sometimes even 2 hours isn’t enough!! The biggest thing to remember when travel gets stressful, most of it is out of your control so don’t stress over what you can't control! Just know it’ll all work out.

  
  

  What makes Paris worth the trip? I think it’s worth the visit for the croissants, delicious cuisine and the romanticized view of the Eiffel Tower, oui oui!

  
  

  Overall, the people aren’t nearly as friendly as other European countries. Typically French look down on Americans and think very highly of themselves. If you don’t mind that, it can be quite fun!