Random thoughts about France and travel in general

Why do women wear shorts, tights and high heels when it's freezing and there is snow on the ground… all of these women were absolutely freezing. I don’t get it?! Even if I thought it was fashionable I wouldn't do it.

This is just one of the many examples... It's hard to take pictrures of people and not get caught. ;)

Do any of you remember Reading Rabbit? Well he’s taken over the French Metro as the warning system to preven you from doing stupid stuff like shutting your fingers in the door.

How do you live in a city with a dog? Well you simply take it everywhere with you. Stores, subways, buses and even motor scooters… yep motor scooters.

If you watch cartoons then you’ll be interested to know that Pepé la Peu is not French in France, he is Italian!

I mentioned in one of my blogs that the French love correct change. This isn’t an exaggeration. They seriously will wait forever for you to find correct change. Totally different than here in the US, where we hate to wait for people to dig for change.

The city is full of advertisements and grafitti. I love seeing advertisments in different languages. :)

Every toilet in France is different so don't be surprised if you end up spending some time trying to figure out how to flush it. I tried to find a picture of ours but couldn't. Basicly it was 2 different buttons you push that go into the way.

Everything in France is small... seats, portions, apartments.. you get the point. It really makes ya think. I guess the more space there we have the more space we will use. The US is Texas sized. ;)
Now for some hints to travelling in Europe:

When you are in France or any foreign country for that matter you should remember to be respectful of the customs and differences. Remember that if you can’t speak their language, getting louder doesn’t help the situation. Not everyone speaks English and honestly if a French person walked up to the majority of us in the US we wouldn’t even be able to communicate with them at all… but most of the French are able to speak English at least a little bit. I shouldn’t use blanket statements but the number one rule to travel is to not be that horrible American stereotype that we’ve heard of and that should prevent different cultures from being the stereotypical anti-Americans that we’ve all heard of.

Anytime you have access to a bathroom you should use it!!

Beggers: Do not make eye contact. If they approach you on a subway you may have to say “no” but on the street my technique for the sellers and swindlers is to look past them and even if they put the item in your face keep walking. They don’t want you to mess up their product anymore than you want to buy it.

Crazies: All cities are full of crazies. Again, don’t make eye contact and keep moving if you can. On the subway there was a crazy woman bugging people. I decided I didn’t care and sat right next to her and ignored her. Next thing I know she’s feeling up a guy standing next to her. He actually just ignored her. I guess that’s an option but I would have gotten up and moved had she continued. A second occurance was again on the subway. This guy dropped a cigarette under my chair and then started going on and on either about smoking or smoking weed to me. I just ignored him but it was really hard not to laugh. Do your best to keep a straight face and again move if you are uncomfortable or feel unsafe. Lastly some people like to bug the beggers…. and as they yell or do whatever they’ll do the same thing back. At one point there was a guy with his family yelling “yeah” back and forth with a begger going the opposite way on the escalator. Again funny, but I sick to my guns in saying keep a straight face, look past the event happening and keep going.

Try new things but make sure you know what they are. You don’t want to end up eating something raw like Beef Tar-Tar but you do want to experience different cultures.

Lastly I just want to say that I LOVE to travel. :) I love to embrace the new place and culture and try to live the way they do. I'm so greatful for the time we got to spend in Paris. I wouldn't change a thing.