3 Things I learned about life when traveling through France in Europe

Recently, I returned from a trip to Europe, in which my girlfriend and I traveled through France and Germany, staying on people’s couches, in spare bedrooms, and working at various farms and gardens. Our trip lasted 4 months, and I’d like to share with you 3 things that I learned traveling through Europe, France and Germany.

1. Travel through France, in Europe, is cheap and affordable

Travel through Europe, or anywhere else you want to go, can be both cheap and affordable. How? By planning your trip using the recommendations that follow, you will experience an adventure that surpasses any guided tour. Trust me. We did. You can, too.

Before leaving, we planned our trip using 3 websites that proved to be of enormous value, saving us thousands of dollars, and giving us an experience was both rich and inspiring.

(Ludmilla, Raegan, I – Couchsurfing in Brest, France)

Cheap travel with Couchsurfing
The first website we used was http://www.couchsurfing.org, which allows us to e-mail people with a couch and request to stay with them. Although the website is called Couchsurfing, people offered us all sorts of sleeping accommodations, including private rooms, futons, mattresses, blankets on the floor, and more.

Budget travel with WWOOF
The second website we used was http://www.wwoof.fr (France) and http://www.wwoof.de (Germany). The main website is http://www.woof.org. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunites on Organic Farms. WWOOF can also stand for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Essentially, WWOOF allows potential traveler to e-mail WWOOF farms and request staying there and doing 4-6 hours of work a day, for 5-6 days a week, in exchange for room (place to sleep) and board (3 meals a day).

The main expense of traveling in Europe
Our main expense of traveling was the cost to get to Europe (Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Ship) and the cost of returning. The cost of the cruise ship, per person, for a 12-day, one way cruise, was about $600. This is very affordable considering it included all food and beverages (excluding alcohol) and desserts, too. The cost of the flight back (Air Berlin from Hamburg, Germany to Miami, Florida), a 9 hour and 51 minute flight, was $533 each.

Other expenses of traveling in Europe
Traveling in Europe, specifically in France, by train, can be expensive. Taking trains in Germany is considerably cheaper. For the most part, we hitchhiked, though, so our rides were free, unless they stopped for gas, in which we contributed money. In all of our hitchhiking pickups, they only stopped for gas once. I offered 5 euros, which the driver thankfully accepted. On the other rides, the driver offered us money for drinks (coffee, hot chocolate) and the friend of another driver gave us 2 coupons, worth 8 euros each, that could be used to buy food.

Traveling this way is cheaper than living a “normal life”
Together, our travel expenses amounted to about $75 a month, far less expensive than if we were renting an apartment, paying car insurance, and suffering through the Florida heat and traffic of I-95 on our way to a job.

2. Food in France tastes Better Than Food in America

The food in France tastes a lot better than American food. I’m guessing this is probably due to the fact that the dairy (butter, cream, cheese, milk, and other products) are of higher quality. One of the first farms we WWOOFed at was located in Loqueffret, France, and consisted of a 200 acre cattle farm that was being converted to organic. Our host was Yannick Frezel, and his fiance, Marie, was a culinary school graduate who made delicious desserts, including strawberry cream fresh and others.

Another thing: high fructose corn syrup is illegal in France. High fructose corn syrup is a corn based sweetener that wreaks havoc on the immune system, causing a host of problems, including bloating, weight gain, and other side effects. Because this ingredient is illegal in France, they use sugar as a replacement. Although sugar is not that great, it is far superior than high fructose corn syrup.

I actually tasted the difference when I purchased a bag of peanut M&Ms. Since they are made with sugar, they didn’t have that sticky aftertaste that high fructose corn syrup leaves in your mouth, the feeling that makes you want to spit. Same with coca-cola. It’s made with sugar, which tastes far better, lighter, cleaner, than the coca-cola in the United States which is made with high fructose corn syrup.

3. The French value relationships, more than material acquisitions and cleaning

One day, I was weed whacking the high grass near the wire fence that keeps the cows with their area, when Yannick, the farmer who ran the farm, approaches me. He tells me it was time for lunch.

Me: “I’m not that hungry. I can keep working.”

Yannick: “That’s not the way we do things in France.

Me: “I’ll just take a short break.”

Yannick: “Two hours. One hour for lunch. One hour for nap to digest food. C’mon.”

I carry the gear to his barn, put away the weed whacker, the face mask, the ear protection, unzip the coveralls, and get in his jeep. He drives back to his house where his fiance, Marie, has prepared a delicious lunch.

My girlfriend, Raegan, is there, too. We eat lunch, talk, then have dessert, a delicious homemade fresh strawberry cream pie, followed by coffee, then offered wine and other drinks. After lunch we have another hour break before returning to work at the farm.

After working a few more hours, we’re brought back to the house, get cleaned up, relax, then are called to dinner, where we’re fed another delicious meal, share an interesting conversation, and then have wine and are offered Ricard, a licorice flavored liquor that you add water too in order to diffuse the alcohol content.

A dining room/living room in France
The plates are mismatched, the living room is messy, the kitchen is cluttered with dirty dishes. In the living room, sits an old couch. A small TV is on in the corner of the room, which Raegan, I, Yannick, and Marie, glance while sipping drinks and talking.

Overall, the place is a bit messy, and the furniture is outdated.

But, so what? The conversation is interesting. The food is delicious. The drinks are tasty.

This is France. In my opinion, from working at different farms throughout France for 3 month, France is a place where people value relationships and conversations more than material acquisitions or a clean kitchen.

(Me, Kris, in a meadow in Loqueffret, France. photo: Raegan Test)

Why Travel in France
One of the beautiful things about traveling is that it opens your eyes to new experiences and new ways of living, even if these ways are borrowed from old ways, but have been forgotten, left on the curb alongside the path to progress.

For me, visiting Europe, specifically France, has taught me lessons about living. You can live as a farmer and still enjoy the good life, provided you’re not caught up in the treadmill-that-leads-to-nowhere of buying-the-latest-gadget-even-though-the-old-gadget-will-suffice. Also, the dirty dishes are less important than the story you might hear or the lesson you might learn from the conversation that comes next. So, the next time you’re at a lunch or dinner, and you’re having a conversation, but feel guilty about the dirty dishes in the sink, ignore the clutter. You can always get to it later. What you may glean from the question or from carefully listening, however, can open doors to new possibilities.