I have backpacked through France in 5 different decades and despite not ranking it highly in my favourite countries, there are definitely charms when you take your wandering backpack here. As well as France, I have also backpacked Monaco, Luxembourg and Andorra on my jaunts in and out of the country. It borders a load of other countries and has some easy airports to fly in and out of. But it also has a lot of overland options.
I did a lot of those trips overland. You can easily organise overlanding from Lyon to Val d’Isere online ahead of your trip. My first (and so far only) time in Lyon was in 2016. On that trip, I started in Nice for Euro 2016 watching Northern Ireland. We played our first ever European Championships match in Nice against Poland, losing 1-0 to a Milik goal.
After Nice, we headed on a train to Lyon where we were due to play Ukraine Neutral. This was another great adventure using French trains. I had used them a few times before, including Paris to Marseille in 2007 on my nuts loyal overland backpacking trip.
Lyon was a good base for the next few days and the big match here was Northern Ireland 2-0 Ukraine – what a result!
After the Ukraine match, we hung around in Lyon and did some textbook sightseeing, backpacking the main parts of the city before moving north. By luck and coincidence, Northern Ireland’s matches in France were in a logical geographical path. We started in Nice in the south, then backpacked to Lyon. In fact, in the meantime, we even had time to cross the border into Monaco and back! We toured the sights of Monte Carlo away on that trip too.
Of course next up was Paris, the capital city. I have been to Paris over 10 times now but this was another cool place to hang out in. I stayed with my Dad in Epinay Sur Seine at the start, as Northern Ireland narrowly lost 1-0 to Germany and went out.
After losing 1-0 to Germany, our goal difference was zero and therefore we qualified for the second round as one of the best third placed teams. We ended up playing Wales, again in Paris. Luckily I was reviewing some of Europe’s most famous hostels at the time – Young and Happy Hostel and the Le Regent Hostel. This meant I could stay on in Paris a week longer!
For the Wales match, we ended up battling and going out to an own goal when extra time looked certain. That was an amazing overland experience in Paris and one I dwell on and won’t forget. I was in love with a young girl at the time and went to meet her shortly after before life turned on its head. Paris held some happy times before all that…
