Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
If you can't communicate in French, I would limit yourself to larger cities. While a good number of younger people can communicate in English, most older people genuinely cannot.
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i have enjoyed myself without the native tongue, and been out in the hinterlands in belgum, france, germany, italy, spain, russia, turkey, bunch of central and south american countries and islands. i just do not think it necessary. i presume the people who think communicating in french is so important have learned venetian dialect before going to venice. american english is close enough to lingua franca that it is not positivily necessary to learn turkish to go to turkey
we enjoyed lyon. not much to see and do, but great food and wine.