Go for it - flying in France is great fun - friendly people / airfields, cheap landing & parking lots of places to see / wine to drink / food to eat.
Flight plan - remember to put estimated time en route to crossing the FIR boundary in the "remarks" area of the plan. Always talk to London Information for the channel crossing to the boundary - they can get very busy so be prepared to give the info. they need in the correct order - Reg / type / from / to / altitude / route including point at which you cross the coast and ALWAYS estimate for the coast and estimate for the FIR boundary. Good practice to work these out before your initial call to them.
Also make sure you have all required aircraft documents with you and pilots licence. There is very little Class A in France - mainly around Paris so X countrys are easy - you will find Class D & E around some airfields but transit is not normally a problem once you give them a call. If going inland get the French half mils from Transair or somewhere. Watch out for danger / restricted areas as always - active mainly during weekdays and crossing service normally available.
Finally if doing a lot of French touring get hold of the Bottlang guide which gives you VFR plates for all of the fields - a must have as far as I am concerned.
I'm off to La Baule in Brittany tomorrow in my Arrow via Deauville wx permitting - looks like I may be storm dodging or sitting them out! We have got a group of 5 aircraft going from Blackbushe / Rochester / Panshanger with about 16 people so should be a good B Hol weekend!
Enjoy,
arrow 2
[This message has been edited by arrow2 (edited 25 August 2000).]