Family Travel France

Family travel is about the little things and how they can teach us about other languages and cultures, often in subtle ways that are absorbed by children more than we realize. Just being in countries where everything is written in another language and everyone is talking in another language (and where theirs is the minority) is an enlightening experience. We loved visiting Puy du Fou which is a spectacular and famous French theme park that should not be missed. Puy du Fou has outstanding shows that also teach about history in a very entertaining way for kids and everyone in the family and I will be writing more on this topic soon.

But it is also quite beautiful and has several villages with craftsman working in traditional ways in costumes from other eras, that you can observe. The many outdoor open air museums like this in Europe are tremendous for kids and families. In France we prefer to go to these kinds of places where most are French families.  We loved it and think Disney could learn a lot from the French on how to do a theme park that is more authentic and educational.

Comments

[Paz]

I was wondering what do you use to keep/store all of your books. You must have a lot. We are purging getting ready for our adventure and I keep seeing more books on your site that I want to buy. :) But where to keep them and travel with them. Do you have a system? Thank you,
Paz

[soultravelers3]

Paz- Thanks for putting your question here on our website so more people can benefit as I'm sure you are not the only one with this question. I will have to do a post about it.

Bottom line...books & travel are not the easiest combo. We purged tons of books before we left and that was hard and sad, but it was worth it.

We try to have most books digital and we also use digital libraries ( our local ones) which helps a lot.

Since we knew we would be in Spain for some time, we shipped a bunch of books by boat ( cheapest way). We just sold most of them or actually gave most to the local school.

We do have quite a few in our RV that we store here and take with us.

We hang out in libraries and English book stores whenever we find them.

We've learned to do lots of book reading online. We just read them on our laptops and have not gotten a kindle, Nook or ipod/ ipad/ iphone yet. Not sure if we ever will as we have adjusted and don't want to be always plugged in.

We also pick up books along the way. People often leave them in the bathrooms in campgrounds for others to use & pass on. We trade sometimes at 2nd hand book stores. We only keep classics that can be re-read & reused a lot.

If we buy something new, we usually have to give something away as we are at capacity.

Electronic books & libraries will give you the greatest freedom, but it's nice to have some real ones too. Possessions...even books..take on new meaning when you live a minimalist travel lifestyle....but it can be done, even for bookaholics like us. ;)