Tour Tales
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| Even by car, Fifi travels first class. |
Every month we feature funny or inspiring anecdotes from Rick Steves' tour alums. If you have a true tour tale to share, send it to stories@ricksteves.com. If you have a photo that illustrates it, please attach it. Don't forget to tell us which city and state you live in. We'd love to hear from you!
Haute Dogs
I truly enjoyed the French autoroute (toll highways). They are wide with well marked road signs for sights and stops. Each roadside rest stop was nothing like I have seen in the states. They were always clean, with at least 2 recycling bins. The coffee stands were not the pump-and-pour we are used to in the states. Typically, they were the automated affair that, though in French, offered a dozen or so picture choices of what coffee you wanted: plain, with cream, cappuccino, hot chocolate, mocha... We never had a bad coffee in France, even the automated variety (and best of all, these were the cheapest). Here is a pic of something else that impressed us: the "motopet" stop. The legendary French love of pets is very real. The fact that this stop provided fresh bowls of food and water — free for any pooch that came in with its owner — proves the point. It also gave me a chuckle and another opportunity to utter "Ah, the French!"
—Jenny Neumann in Valley Mills, TX
Fine print: We reserve the right to edit and post all Tour Tales submissions. Please provide us with your full name and city/state. We will not print your last name or email address in Tour News.