Visiting England is like discovering a country of absolute contrasts: its sprawling cities with London in the lead, like its small market towns, its adherence to Europe and its fierce resistance to the euro, its small markets as well as its ultra-modern shops. trends; its traditions and its avant-gardism.
English symbols
Above all, this very old European monarchy has preserved a constant creativity and a sense of enterprise among its fellow citizens that we continue to envy on this side of Europe.
It is also a country of very strong symbols: the red telephone booth, even if we cross it less than in the past, the London cab, this taxi that we hail at every street corner or its pubs are there to call him back. There is no particular season for a trip to England, but springtime can be particularly enjoyable. Of temperate oceanic type, the temperatures there are actually slightly cooler than in France, England being also further north, it is a geographical reality! But it does not rain any more than in Paris on annual average. It’s enough to keep quiet the bad languages that signal that it’s raining all the time! The transport infrastructure is important and will facilitate your travel from your hotel in England. They encourage travel both inside and outside the country. While trains remain expensive and quite old-fashioned overall, with the exception of Eurostar, which links London to Paris and Brussels, England has a large number of airports.
London
London is served by four airports: Heathrow, the largest in Europe, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. Outside the British capital, the country has a number of regional airports such as Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, or the East Midlands in central England. The historical rooting is very present, from north to south. Remnants of the prehistoric period are present at Stonehenge, famous for its megaliths dating back to 2800 and 1100 BC but also to Rudston, where we can discover a monolith, known as the highest in England. Finally Devil’s Arrow and Cromlech from Castlerigg can also offer an interesting alternative. The Roman roots of England are also reflected in the ample supply of amphitheatres, temples and Roman roads and forts. The most vibrant example of this Roman reminiscence is undoubtedly the Hadrian’s Wall, built from 122 AD, which runs along the entire north of the country.
The main English regions
In contrast, in the southwest, Baths in Somerset illustrate the rooting of England in the Romanesque period. The Norman conquest in 1066 then brought its share of castles, the most famous of which remain the Tower of London, the Windsor Castle, an hour away from London by road, or that of Durham. For lovers of Gothic architecture, the era of Plantagenets gave birth to many buildings in the image of the Cathedral of Canterbury or even Westminster Abbey. The treacherous Albion, which is one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom, is a large country; its area is close to 131,760 km², or about two-thirds of Great Britain. And its population of more than 50 million people represents 83.8% of the population of the United Kingdom. It is also a country surrounded by the seas: that of the North, the Irish Sea, the Celtic Sea, the Bristol Channel and finally, the Channel which separates it from France. The country has common borders with Scotland and Wales.
In the same category