The KSB
4-4-11/11-5-11
I live about an hour outside of France, about four hours outside of Paris (five hours if you're driving with two little girls). For the last month I've been to France on several excursions. The first, I spent several days in Paris for New Years. The second, I took my daughters to Disneyland Paris for my last weekend before I head over to see my old pal 'stan. I seriously belive the french have gotten a bad, undeserved reputation. I absolutely love traveling France, and the French in general. I have found them to be direct, but not rude. I suppose the directness could be mistaken for rudeness, but it's a quality I appreciate. Plus, if you think the French are rude, you should spend some time with the german military. Below are a few of my thoughts.
Driving in Paris is war! Unlike the french military, parisian drivers never surrender. A word of advice is avoid driving in Paris at all costs. They are the craziest drivers I have ever seen. Fortunately the Paris Metro is excellent. One of the best I've ever been on. I think a two day pass cost us about 20 euro for the family. If you do some research ahead of time you can get deals on them.
Paris in general is the most remarkable city I've ever been to. It may very well be the most american friendly city on the european continent. American food is widely available. I know the availability of american food would not be a selling point for most travelers, but I've been living among the germans for six months now and there is only so much schnitzel I can handle. If french cuisine is on your mind, the french food in Paris is fantastic! The street food is fantastic. The food in general is fantastic. We walked by the Louvre but didn't go in. The line was too long. However, the grounds outside of the Louvre are worth exploring. We went to several other museums and loved them. Just walking the streets was impressive. The french really do arcitecture right. We went to Notre Dame de Paris. Unlike the University of Notre Dame, it has not faded with time. I was disappointed with the noteable lack of hunchbacks though. There were a lot of gypse con artists outside though. After about a half an hour I saw the french police desend upon them. They rounded them all up, roughly I might add, and carted them off. One of the locals told me they do this every day almost. You have to hand it to the gypses, they are gluttons for punishment. The Eiffel tower was nice. It is much better seeing it in person. I wouldn't say it was the highlight of our trip, but certainly worth taking a look when you are there. That's pretty much wraps up our first trip there.
We did Disney Paris on a seperate trip. It was pretty good. It's not nearly the size of Disney world in Florida. I've never been to Disneyland in California so I can't compare. Disney Paris isn't worth scheduling a whole trip around, but would make a great side trip while in Paris. We went during the week at a very non-tourist time so we didn't have to deal with any lines. We had a blast. I don't really have much to write on it though. Just FYI.
Driving in Paris is war! Unlike the french military, parisian drivers never surrender. A word of advice is avoid driving in Paris at all costs. They are the craziest drivers I have ever seen. Fortunately the Paris Metro is excellent. One of the best I've ever been on. I think a two day pass cost us about 20 euro for the family. If you do some research ahead of time you can get deals on them.
Paris in general is the most remarkable city I've ever been to. It may very well be the most american friendly city on the european continent. American food is widely available. I know the availability of american food would not be a selling point for most travelers, but I've been living among the germans for six months now and there is only so much schnitzel I can handle. If french cuisine is on your mind, the french food in Paris is fantastic! The street food is fantastic. The food in general is fantastic. We walked by the Louvre but didn't go in. The line was too long. However, the grounds outside of the Louvre are worth exploring. We went to several other museums and loved them. Just walking the streets was impressive. The french really do arcitecture right. We went to Notre Dame de Paris. Unlike the University of Notre Dame, it has not faded with time. I was disappointed with the noteable lack of hunchbacks though. There were a lot of gypse con artists outside though. After about a half an hour I saw the french police desend upon them. They rounded them all up, roughly I might add, and carted them off. One of the locals told me they do this every day almost. You have to hand it to the gypses, they are gluttons for punishment. The Eiffel tower was nice. It is much better seeing it in person. I wouldn't say it was the highlight of our trip, but certainly worth taking a look when you are there. That's pretty much wraps up our first trip there.
We did Disney Paris on a seperate trip. It was pretty good. It's not nearly the size of Disney world in Florida. I've never been to Disneyland in California so I can't compare. Disney Paris isn't worth scheduling a whole trip around, but would make a great side trip while in Paris. We went during the week at a very non-tourist time so we didn't have to deal with any lines. We had a blast. I don't really have much to write on it though. Just FYI.
