After 4 days in both London and Dublin, we hopped over to France for the last part of the vacation. Ever since Mrs. Schramski's French 1 and 2 class in high school, I've had this urge to go to France. The funny thing is college hit and I decided to stop taking French, take Spanish until I realized it would take forever. Then I moved to Japan and am now learning Japanese. Moral of the story, I don't really remember French.
My first reaction getting out of the Airport was that, compared to Japan, Korea, Singapore, and now London the rails are more complicated and the trains are much older and dirtier looking. Still with the rail pass, its the cheapest way to get around town. When we first got on the train, we were bombarded by a panhandling, accordion player. He gets off and all of a sudden a lady pops on exploiting her baby singing some French song. Honestly, she didn't even sound good but then went around trying to get a tip. I'm starting to think what did I get myself into.
After leaving Dublin at 7 in the morning we get to our hostel at around noon. We stayed at the St. Christopher. The place was nice and the people were friendly but they tried to nickle and dime everything out of you. Of all the hostel's I stayed at, this was the first place that charged you to keep your bags until you could go in your room. It was 4 euros for a few hours. Also, you couldn't get wifi ( Travel tip: this is the only way you should use your iphone traveling abroad) anywhere but down in the lobby.
After waiting and wandering for a few hours to check in, we went to the Louvre to meet up with my families former exchange student from Finland. We had no way to actually get a hold of her so we figured we'd just wander around looking American until she found us.
The Louvre was pretty awesome. You could probably spend days in there alone and not see anything. Knowing we had only two days in Paris we headed straight for the Mona Lisa. She's much smaller in person.
From here we went on and walked to the Champs Elysee. This is where tons of really expensive shops are and street performers are. There was this huge guy who was doing all kinds dances from OutKast to Bollywood. He was pretty entertaining.
*Tangent Time:
France was just plain hot and no I'm not talking about the French girls. It was near 100 degrees everyday I was there. On top of that, French don't seem to believe in AC. Our hostel had none and the trains were pretty stuffy. The Saturday we went to the Eiffel Tower was probably the hottest I've ever felt outside of playing basketball in the Philippines.
Tangent Over
That night, we went to see a movie which has turned into a thing for me on vacations. It started as a way to watch movies that Japan doesn't get until months later and generally waay more expensive. Now I've been to a movie theater in Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Ireland, and Paris, France. It's interesting to see the random differences between places. For example, you salute the king before the movie in Thailand. In Malaysia, people talk through the whole movie. In Japan, they stay until the credits are over. In Paris, its pretty much the same as the U.S. except they've got a few more candy options and less English movies. We saw "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," its pretty interesting if you're into biographies (jk).
Sunday, we finally headed into the country. If you ever visit France and only see Paris you're missing out. The countryside is beautiful. My family happened to have an exchange student from France last year, so I thought it would be cool to spend a few days out there with her family. I was really looking forward to getting a feel for how French people really live. From the moment, we met them we were welcomed like family. It was a welcome relief from bouncing from hostel to hostel sharing rooms with 8-12 random strangers and constantly being conscious of your possessions.
The town they lived in, Ernee, was this beautiful town you'd picture out in the French countryside. Stone walls and rustic buildings were everywhere. Sunday evening, we hung out with the whole family and grand parents. They were all great people. They did not speak much English (which I'm used to) but really tried to say a few random words. I attempted French at times with my thick American accent. We played a game that reminded me of Boccie ball, which my team won! ;) Then we had dinner.
One thing I've learned is that dinner is usually after 8 or 9 and lasts into the night. The food was delicous. The first course seems to always be bread, then the meal, then cheese, then dessert, then coffee. I made the mistake of putting cheese on my bread at the beginning. Apparently, you don't each cheese until after the meal.
On Monday, we went to Mont St. Michel which was pretty much a huge church/castle in the Middle of nowhere. I had never heard of it before but it was beautiful especially as you drive up to it. Its also very famous in Japan. As we toured the castle, there were tons of Japanese people there and directions were even in Japanese. Nowhere else during the entire vacation did I see that many Japanese people or signs. It was the last place I had expected to see so many. It was a clear reminder that my vacation was soon coming to a close.
We then went out to the beach out by Normandy on our way home. I had thought it was going to be my first big vacation outside the US without going to the beach. Luckily, the streak is still alive. The beach and its surrounding town was very nice and kind of reminded me of Grand Haven back in Michigan.
All in All a great European Vacation. Now the question is...WHERE NEXT?
