What is the best country to visit in Europe?

Holden McGroyne wrote:

I am not the fan of a country which has developed an arrogance which
believes that tourists are theirs to be fleeced and mistreated.

I take it you refuse to visit a country which charges _you_ for a
tourist visa then? (Regardless of reciprocity.) There are lots of
countries I wouldn't have visited, if I had your view.

David

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

In article 1gbya8s.146icop2z6q6rN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.co.uk,
David Horne wrote:

For the past few years, I've been traveling to France on business 2-3
times per year, not counting an occasional vacation, and I am happy
to report that the food situation seems to be improving. I had most
excellent North African food in Marseille, and even started seeing
some halfway decent Asian eateries in Paris, but the provinces are
as dismal as ever - gloppy sauces on everything, overpriced plonk and
all the landscape variety of Central Russia.

Yet you deign to find time in your jet-set schedule to fit in the
"occasional vacation." FAScinating.

Eh? What jet-set schedule? Are you confusing me with someone?
Jet-set schedule is one thing that I don't have and don't need.

Vitaly Shmatikov wrote:

In article 1gbya8s.146icop2z6q6rN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.co.uk,
David Horne wrote:

For the past few years, I've been traveling to France on business 2-3
times per year, not counting an occasional vacation, and I am happy
to report that the food situation seems to be improving. I had most
excellent North African food in Marseille, and even started seeing
some halfway decent Asian eateries in Paris, but the provinces are
as dismal as ever - gloppy sauces on everything, overpriced plonk and
all the landscape variety of Central Russia.

Yet you deign to find time in your jet-set schedule to fit in the
"occasional vacation." FAScinating.

Eh? What jet-set schedule? Are you confusing me with someone?

Whoosh!

Jet-set schedule is one thing that I don't have and don't need.

Vitally, meet Irony. Irony, meet the well-travelled Vitaly.

David

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

In article 1gbybmi.8hbs3b1y1sy6cN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.co.uk,
David Horne wrote:

Vitally, meet Irony. Irony, meet the well-travelled Vitaly.

Dearest, you're gonna have to dig deeper than this. I don't travel
much these days. And, in case you were wondering, these were skiing
vacations, nothing to do with food, wine, countryside or foreign
policy of the French government. Frankly, if not for Victor-Emmanuel
II who gave a goodish chunk of the Alps back to France, I doubt I'd
ever entertain the idea of vacationing in France.

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 16:15:14 -0700, Holden McGroyne wrote:


I am not the fan of a country which lives by only two rules. One set for
themselves, and another for everyone else.

Hmmm. Pot, kettle...?

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 21:06:02 +0000, Vitaly Shmatikov wrote:

In article ,
Simon Gardner [dot]co[dot]uk wrote:

France? Donner moi une break. It might be worth a visit, but I would
not rate it quite as highly. More like a 7 or an 8.

Aah. So not a fan of good food, a good climate, good wine, the right way to
live, lovely countryside and their Government being right about the Iraq
war, eh?

Too bad none of this applies to France. Well, I suppose French
countryside has a couple of nice spots here and there, but you are
surely joking about the rest.

What will it take to convince you that they were right on the Iraq lunacy?

(And while they are indeed losing ground, they still have good wine.)

Vitaly Shmatikov wrote:

In article 1gbybmi.8hbs3b1y1sy6cN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.co.uk,
David Horne wrote:

Vitally, meet Irony. Irony, meet the well-travelled Vitaly.

Dearest, you're gonna have to dig deeper than this.

Be careful, or I'll get delve down to skin deep.

I don't travel
much these days. And, in case you were wondering, these were skiing
vacations, nothing to do with food, wine, countryside or foreign
policy of the French government.

Who knew, given the eloquence of your pronunciations on them?

Frankly, if not for Victor-Emmanuel
II who gave a goodish chunk of the Alps back to France, I doubt I'd
ever entertain the idea of vacationing in France.

And yet you've been there on vacation- not just once, but on _occasion_.
There's good skiing in lots of places. I just find it amusing that
you've been (one presumes at least twice!) to a country that you seem to
dislike. Life's too short for that. There's not a single place I've
vacationed in that I'd have that attitude about, and if I _did_, I
certainly wouldn't go there for "an occasional vacation." Still, to
inject some balance, I'm finding the current spate of "I'm not going to
the US while etc." posts a little tiresome too.

David

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

In article ,
devil wrote:

Too bad none of this applies to France. Well, I suppose French
countryside has a couple of nice spots here and there, but you are
surely joking about the rest.

What will it take to convince you that they were right on the Iraq lunacy?

What will it take to convince you that Shrub & Co did a Good Thing (TM)
in ridding Iraq of Saddam?

Not to mention that the French government is a particularly bad choice
of a posterboy for sensible Iraq policy, considering that they tried
their darnedest to keep Saddam in power not of out any noble sentiment,
but purely out of anti-American spite and the desire to keep their
quasi-state oil companies profitably engaged in the Iraqi oil scam.

(And while they are indeed losing ground, they still have good wine.)

At the top end, undoubtedly. But for those of us who can't afford to
drink top-notch Burgundy every night, middle-of-the-road French wines
are simply not competitive, dollar for dollar, with the stuff that
comes out of places like Chile, South Africa and California these days.

If you know of any good French wine under $30 (preferably something
that would be available in the US), please share the wisdom, I promise
I'll give it a try.

In article 1gbyd4i.1nbvyno49jn07N%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.co.uk,
David Horne wrote:

Frankly, if not for Victor-Emmanuel
II who gave a goodish chunk of the Alps back to France, I doubt I'd
ever entertain the idea of vacationing in France.

And yet you've been there on vacation- not just once, but on _occasion_.
There's good skiing in lots of places. I just find it amusing that
you've been (one presumes at least twice!) to a country that you seem to
dislike. Life's too short for that.

Life is never too short for good skiing

Sure, I don't care much for French food, French government, or the whole
French way of living, yet France has some of the world's best skiing,
and it so happens that I have a ton of friends in France, so yeah,
I go for a week or two of skiing there every couple of years or so.
If you find this ironic, you have a strange sense of irony.

Do you think that people go skiing in Utah because they approve of
the Mormon Church, are excited about Utan cuisine and are big fans of
watery-by-law Utah beer?

AJC wrote:

Oh,you can keep your *** restaurants. Eating out in France is often at
its best in unprepossesing restaurants in the most unlikely places.

On recent visits (or is that 'occasional' visits?) I've actually been
quite impressed with some of the 'French' restaurants run by immigrants-
Algerians, Morrocans etc. I say this only because in the 80s and even
most of the 90s, they seemed to me to be a cheap alternative, but
weren't very good. (For residents, preferably those of you used to
mid-lower priced establishments, does this ring true, or is it just the
opinion of a visitor?) This is purely unscientific, mind you- just my
impression. I think another problem is that most of my visits in the 90s
to France were with a US pricing perspective. Now I live in the UK,
everything in France seems like excellent value!

David

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk