We’ve taken a while to write this post as we couldn’t really think of many things we hadn’t known before and learnt about the country of  Liberté, égalité, fraternité but here it goes.

1. Hands down best pastry in the world
2. Coffee is not even comparable to what we drank on a daily basis in Italy (and took it for granted)
3. Dordogne valley is mini England. There are coach-loads of English people coming to cute little French towns and buying up the property
4. Very good travelling village/small town markets
5. Cheese and wine are on point (also, don’t wait a week until you have them unless you want to risk serious overindulgence)
6. Despite the terror threats and warnings, we actually didn’t see much gendarmerie on the streets. Not sure if that was intentional camouflage or not…
7. West coast of France is beautiful, crowded and only accessible by bike. Next time we visit we’ll bring a trolley for our kites and boards
8. There is an abundance of camping sites from very basic ones (area naturelle, camping a la ferme) to huge ones
9. Bordeaux is the best French city we’ve seen, with burgeoning art scene, good restaurants, lots of space, cute districts and great location (close to surf). We will be back
10. Bunting makes everything look cuter (including shabby towns)

Au revoir France, you’ve been good. Time to hit Spain!