Travel Tips

Well this travelogue should really start in Cannes on the south coast. Or even in the Med itself as that is where we decided on the group for this trip. Myself and four others, three of which i remain friends with still, decided to head to Paris for the week before christmas 1996. This travelogue is being written in January 2002 so forgive me as it wanders in and out of a story as I remember events differently.

So it was that we started off sometime around noon. When we first arrived in town the first thing we did was head for the train station. Typical MO of ours was to run as far away from everyone else as we could. Upon arrival at the train station we discovered that only first class tickets were available from Marseilles to Paris. So that is what we went with. The next train didnt leave until something like 3 pm so we set off to get some lunch and travelling supplies. We were lucky enough to find a nice place somewhere not to far from the station that offered sandwiches. After meeting some of our friends there we were off to buy snacks and wine.

Onboard the train finally we had to break up into two groups to find seats. Mike and George went one way while Shawn Jon and I went another. It took around an hour to get to Marseilles where we had about 40 minutes to buy more wine and get on the TGV to Paris. What an adventure. I admit others had to do the work for us there as I was already feeling like taking a nap. But soon enough we were on our way and soon our lives would change. This was definately not our finest hour as Americans abroard but everyone has these moments or they spend their lives wondering why not. Needless to say the train was an adventure. We met others in the car and were introduced to a new to me kind of cheese. Was very good but 5 years later I just dont remember the details.

So we arrived in Paris. Yeah. We were all ready to go to sleep and yet we had to find the hotel George had booked for us. Wow was it expensive. And they cried when we had five people. So while I slept Jon went downstairs and spent several hours smoothing things over to get us out of paying extra. But the bad taste for the place was already there. We packed up in the morning and off we went.

Now I like travelling with friends. But when the group numbers five and you all dont want to go with the same flow trouble occurs. We walked around in the frigid cold and finally decided instead of picking a hotel to eat breakfast. Mostly this was tea and coffee. As can be seen on my Strasbourg page I don't speak much if any French and was really at the mercy of Shawn and George. And even that didn't work out very well as knowing french and being willing to use it or attempt to are two totally different things.

Finally a decision was made and we set off for what turned out to be the hotel of choice for the week. We got two rooms and Jon and I took to top floor one. What a time that was climbing the stairs. Something like six floors. Anyway it afforded us the opportunity to store our produce outside on the rooftop. A good idea until they freeze.

The hotel was a nice place run by a woman from California who married a man from Paris and never went home. There was a common room where we could eat and hang out in the evenings and meet the other guests. One particular guest we met was in Paris for a week or so after just completing a dogsledding trip north of St. Petersburg. We managed to stay in contact with him for a while but as we started moving away from each other contact with our newfound friend faded as well. We spent the rest of day one discovering the local surroundings. The next few days we took the tours of the city to check out each site. Everyone had someplace they wanted to see so we worked together to see each place first then take on the 'everyone who has been here has seen this' sites. The one on my list was the Dali museum. We also went to Sacre-Coeur that same day and walked down the hill infront of it as night was falling. At that point of the day I must admit I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the church and art sites. That is one reason why I strongly feel you can't go to a town for a few days and say you have seen it all. You need to start fresh for each new adventure and give each place its own just time. Later that night we went out and found a few places to spend some time checking out the nightlife. As a result Shawn and I spent the whole night out and ended up getting back to the hotel as Mike and Jon were getting ready to go to Versailles. So I missed out on that trip. We basically didnt do much but check out the sites and the people and live a little. We managed a nighttime stop at the Arc and walk down the Champs-Elysees as well as Christmas mass in Notre-Dame.

I am sure as my friends read this they will have something to add here or remove there as my memory might not be 100%. All in all I liked Paris but must admit that by not living in Europe anylonger I will be hard pressed to return here as there is so much more to see that has my interests. Its only a function of time and money right now that I say this. I hope everyone gets to go and make their own appraisal for themselves.