Back from my kick-ass trip
Sep 11th, 2012, 10:35 PM
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Back from my kick-ass trip
Hello,
Just got back from my trip - thanks to everyone who helped put this trip together, the trip was awesome! And special thanks to swandav and Christina. Shall write a trip report shortly...
Just got back from my trip - thanks to everyone who helped put this trip together, the trip was awesome! And special thanks to swandav and Christina. Shall write a trip report shortly...
Sep 18th, 2012, 07:10 PM
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Hey guys. I'll try to get the entire report in the next few posts. I don't write as well as some of you folks, so bear with me...
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I was super excited about the trip. But what I was most worried about was not being able to communicate in French. So I had put in some time to learn at least something, using an audio CD. It took me three tries to completely get what’s in each CD, but I stuck to it on a regular basis and I was getting the hang of it. I also used google translate and wrote down everything I learned from the cd in English and French, so I can glance through it if I needed to refresh my memory.
Two weeks before my trip, I was talking to my friend who had been to Paris recently. When she heard I’m visiting soon and I don’t speak French very well, she gave me this look, like “oh, you’re going to be in so much trouble”. This got me a bit stressed out, but was also helpful at the same time, as I focused on learning more. I finished the CD set and even went back to repeating the last four CDs. Then, the weekend before the trip, I was talking to this cute French girl at a bar in Santa Monica, and she said that the younger folks could speak English, at least to some extent. So right before the trip, it got me a bit more relaxed.
I had been reading the forum quite a bit before my trip and tried to soak in all the travel wisdom. I had opened a new bank account in addition to my existing one, and had taken with me 2 ATM cards from 2 different banks (credit unions), in case there was a problem with one. I had applied for CapitalOne credit card, which has 0% foreign currency transaction fee, and the GlobeTrek card from Andrews FCU with 1% foreign currency transaction fee – in addition, this was a chip and pin card, in case I needed to use it. I made a separate copy of contact information for the cards, in case I needed to cancel them.
I got to the airport, packed pretty light. One carry-on and a small bag. I am starting to near the end of my patience with carrying my SLR bag around. I love photography, but packing the camera and lenses do take up a lot of space and adds weight. So this time, I just took my Nikon DX camera (crop sensor) and one lens, 16-85mm, with VRII from Nikon. I also took the circular polarizer filter. Plus, I had a backup point and shoot. I left the rest of the camera bag at home and am so glad I did.
I usually travel with my laptop but this time I just got an ipad. All my reservations and tickets, travel related articles, maps and books were organized in ibooks, so that helped eliminate a lot of paper.
The flight was ok. When exiting from the airport, I decided to try out my French on someone who worked at the airport. I just said “Bonjour Mademoselle”. She turned around, smiled and responded “Bonjour Monsieur”. I asked “Vous parlez anglais?” She said, “Yes”. Then I asked something simple about how to get to Customs in English and she responded fluently in very good English. I said “Merci mademoiselle, Au revoir”. That small and sweet interaction got me totally relaxed. I made my way out, feeling confident this would be a really good trip.
Once I got there, my plan was to get to an ATM and get some Euros, I was only carrying some US$ in cash. When I exited, the nearest ATM as I got off the escalator was a Travelex ATM. I had read posts by Kerouac how there are several HSBC ATMs at CDG, and they have good rates. But I was a bit tired and didn’t feel like looking around, and just got my cash from the Travelex ATM. Travelex rate was probably not as good as HSBC. On my way out, I did see the HSBC ATMs . No big deal, but will not be making this mistake next time.
My hotel was in the 6th arrondissement. I read this report about taking the Air France Coach Shuttle from the airport to Montpranasse. A post by Christina had every single possible detail about where to get the bus from, where to get off, how to locate which way to go once off the bus, and so on, that I found very helpful and had a copy of the post on my ipad. I read this a few times before my flight landed. It was extremely helpful and I was able to get to the bus without having to ask anyone at all. The bus was just about to take off and I was the last passenger to get on. “These folks at fodors are pretty badass”, I thought, as the bus left CDG and headed towards Paris…
---------
I was super excited about the trip. But what I was most worried about was not being able to communicate in French. So I had put in some time to learn at least something, using an audio CD. It took me three tries to completely get what’s in each CD, but I stuck to it on a regular basis and I was getting the hang of it. I also used google translate and wrote down everything I learned from the cd in English and French, so I can glance through it if I needed to refresh my memory.
Two weeks before my trip, I was talking to my friend who had been to Paris recently. When she heard I’m visiting soon and I don’t speak French very well, she gave me this look, like “oh, you’re going to be in so much trouble”. This got me a bit stressed out, but was also helpful at the same time, as I focused on learning more. I finished the CD set and even went back to repeating the last four CDs. Then, the weekend before the trip, I was talking to this cute French girl at a bar in Santa Monica, and she said that the younger folks could speak English, at least to some extent. So right before the trip, it got me a bit more relaxed.
I had been reading the forum quite a bit before my trip and tried to soak in all the travel wisdom. I had opened a new bank account in addition to my existing one, and had taken with me 2 ATM cards from 2 different banks (credit unions), in case there was a problem with one. I had applied for CapitalOne credit card, which has 0% foreign currency transaction fee, and the GlobeTrek card from Andrews FCU with 1% foreign currency transaction fee – in addition, this was a chip and pin card, in case I needed to use it. I made a separate copy of contact information for the cards, in case I needed to cancel them.
I got to the airport, packed pretty light. One carry-on and a small bag. I am starting to near the end of my patience with carrying my SLR bag around. I love photography, but packing the camera and lenses do take up a lot of space and adds weight. So this time, I just took my Nikon DX camera (crop sensor) and one lens, 16-85mm, with VRII from Nikon. I also took the circular polarizer filter. Plus, I had a backup point and shoot. I left the rest of the camera bag at home and am so glad I did.
I usually travel with my laptop but this time I just got an ipad. All my reservations and tickets, travel related articles, maps and books were organized in ibooks, so that helped eliminate a lot of paper.
The flight was ok. When exiting from the airport, I decided to try out my French on someone who worked at the airport. I just said “Bonjour Mademoselle”. She turned around, smiled and responded “Bonjour Monsieur”. I asked “Vous parlez anglais?” She said, “Yes”. Then I asked something simple about how to get to Customs in English and she responded fluently in very good English. I said “Merci mademoiselle, Au revoir”. That small and sweet interaction got me totally relaxed. I made my way out, feeling confident this would be a really good trip.
Once I got there, my plan was to get to an ATM and get some Euros, I was only carrying some US$ in cash. When I exited, the nearest ATM as I got off the escalator was a Travelex ATM. I had read posts by Kerouac how there are several HSBC ATMs at CDG, and they have good rates. But I was a bit tired and didn’t feel like looking around, and just got my cash from the Travelex ATM. Travelex rate was probably not as good as HSBC. On my way out, I did see the HSBC ATMs . No big deal, but will not be making this mistake next time.
My hotel was in the 6th arrondissement. I read this report about taking the Air France Coach Shuttle from the airport to Montpranasse. A post by Christina had every single possible detail about where to get the bus from, where to get off, how to locate which way to go once off the bus, and so on, that I found very helpful and had a copy of the post on my ipad. I read this a few times before my flight landed. It was extremely helpful and I was able to get to the bus without having to ask anyone at all. The bus was just about to take off and I was the last passenger to get on. “These folks at fodors are pretty badass”, I thought, as the bus left CDG and headed towards Paris…
Sep 19th, 2012, 02:51 PM
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Great start! I will be following along and looking forward to each of your installments. I too congratulate you on learning as much French as possible before your trip. It will be interesting to hear how much you used during your stay.
Sep 25th, 2012, 10:28 PM
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Thanks for the encouraging feedback. I wrote some more, and more to follow.
NewbieTraveler: I used the CD set by Pimsleur, called Conversational French.
This has 8 CDs, with 2 lessons in each CD. There is not that much material in this set, and I would advise to check this out from the library first, if possible. There are some hilarious reviews for this CD set on amazon, may want to take a look.
That being said, going through this CD set (along with using google-translate to see what the text looks like in French, as pronunciations and spellings in French can be very different) gave me the confidence before the trip, that I should be able to get by, and I can speak some French.
You may want to check out the following links:
http://www.travelphrase.com/EnglishFrench.htm
http://www.fodors.com/language/french/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g1...t.Phrases.html
Hope that helps. My experience in Paris has been very positive. Most people are super nice, friendly and helpful. If you know the very basic greetings and a few phrases, you'll be fine.
-------------------
Trip Report...
I got off at Gare de Lyon bus stop/station. The post I read on here by Christina said head towards the Montpranasse tower from the drop off location. I took out my iphone to see if it would work to locate me, it was taking forever. I quickly gave up and decided to clarify the directions by asking someone, so I don’t head off in the wrong direction. I had a printout map with me too.
The first person I asked was a suited dude waiting to cross the street. I said “perdon…bonjour monsieur” and then realized, as he turned around, that he was talking to someone. I apologized, and was going to go. The guy was very helpful though. He hung up, typed in the address on his iphone and showed me which way to go. I thanked him and was on my way.
A bit later, at an intersection, I again wanted to make sure I was headed in the right direction, and asked the nearest person, who happened to be an attractive woman. I greeted her in French, asked her if she spoke English. She nodded with a smile and I asked if I was headed in the right direction. She was super nice and gave me a detailed description “…and when you see the Odeon metro station, turn right, and you will see…” I was about to thank her and leave, when she asked where I am from. She seemed chatty and continued talking, and was touching her hair a lot. She asked me what my plans were for the day and I said I planned to take the Seine boat tour that people rave about. She asked if she could join me for the boat tour. I said, sure, and gave her my hotel name, thanked her, and left.
I got to the hotel – and here is the suck-y part. Very good location, not that great of a hotel. The Front desk guy who checked me into the hotel was rude, sarcastic and unhelpful. Over the next few days though, the other two front desk folks were very helpful and professional. My room was very small, dark with dim lights, small bed (my feet were sticking out), small shower (2ftx2ft). I realized that I had made a bad decision choosing this place. The daily rate was good, and I had thought, that since I am seldom going to be in my room, it really shouldn’t matter. At first, I felt like I should just go find some other place and check out from this hotel. But upon further thought, I decided to take this as a learning experience and just hang in there for the next few days. I decided I would go check out another hotel (Hotel Eugenie) that I had been thinking about booking, so I could stay there during my next visit. I knew I needed to get out of that room. I brushed my teeth, shaved and showered, and headed out.
Once out of my hotel, I felt much better. It was a gorgeous sunny day outside! I walked into the first place I saw, called “Brioche Doree”, across the street. Ordering was no problem, I just greeted and followed with “Je voudrais ....... s'il vous plait”. I think this is considered fast food, but the food was good and inexpensive (less than 12 euros). They serve dessert with lunch! Cool.
After a good lunch, I decided I would just walk around. The area was amazing, just as people on fodors had mentioned. Tons of people everywhere, most of them pretty well-dressed. Lots of restaurants, bookstores on the sidewalks, stores selling drawings/paintings. I stopped near the St. Michel fountain and took a few pictures. Someone came up with “Excusez Moi” and asked if I would sign a petition… I had read about this on fodors too.
I crossed the street and I was walking next to the Seine. It looked beautiful and there were lots of people walking, taking pictures, enjoying the scenery, eating in restaurants. I walked by the river for quite a bit, and wanted to make sure I knew where the river cruise started from, then headed back to the hotel. I was starting to get really sleepy, I had been up for a while.
I decided I would just lie down and rest for a bit and try not to sleep, but failed miserably. I woke up to the sound of a screaming phone at around 7:30PM from the front desk, saying there is someone there to see me - that woman from the morning had showed up.
We walked to where the boat tour starts, a short walk. I was not really hungry and we both got a sandwich before the boat tour.
The both tour was amazing. When we first started, it was starting to get dark and the lights in the city were coming on. The Eiffel tower was sparkling! The announcer said it would only be for a few mins. It was a bit cold but very pleasant. I totally loved it.
As the boat was coming back from the Eiffel tower and heading further south we saw groups of people and couples, all along the Seine, gathering up, meeting friends, drinking, having picnics. We passed under a number of bridges and the guide/announcer talked about the history. As we were going further south, I was surprised to see people dancing tango along the Seine. Then we saw a group of people dancing Salsa. I asked my new friend if she knew how to salsa, she said she had tried it before. I wanted to check out the scene in Paris as I sometimes go out for Salsa in LA, so we just headed there after the cruise.
It took a while to get to this Salsa spot, this is near the Arab Institute. Turns out, this was the last week they had this by the Seine. People were very friendly and music was good. I danced with her, then with some other girls and then again with her. It was fun. The music ended around 11:50PM, since this is close to a residential area.
NewbieTraveler: I used the CD set by Pimsleur, called Conversational French.
This has 8 CDs, with 2 lessons in each CD. There is not that much material in this set, and I would advise to check this out from the library first, if possible. There are some hilarious reviews for this CD set on amazon, may want to take a look.
That being said, going through this CD set (along with using google-translate to see what the text looks like in French, as pronunciations and spellings in French can be very different) gave me the confidence before the trip, that I should be able to get by, and I can speak some French.
You may want to check out the following links:
http://www.travelphrase.com/EnglishFrench.htm
http://www.fodors.com/language/french/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g1...t.Phrases.html
Hope that helps. My experience in Paris has been very positive. Most people are super nice, friendly and helpful. If you know the very basic greetings and a few phrases, you'll be fine.
-------------------
Trip Report...
I got off at Gare de Lyon bus stop/station. The post I read on here by Christina said head towards the Montpranasse tower from the drop off location. I took out my iphone to see if it would work to locate me, it was taking forever. I quickly gave up and decided to clarify the directions by asking someone, so I don’t head off in the wrong direction. I had a printout map with me too.
The first person I asked was a suited dude waiting to cross the street. I said “perdon…bonjour monsieur” and then realized, as he turned around, that he was talking to someone. I apologized, and was going to go. The guy was very helpful though. He hung up, typed in the address on his iphone and showed me which way to go. I thanked him and was on my way.
A bit later, at an intersection, I again wanted to make sure I was headed in the right direction, and asked the nearest person, who happened to be an attractive woman. I greeted her in French, asked her if she spoke English. She nodded with a smile and I asked if I was headed in the right direction. She was super nice and gave me a detailed description “…and when you see the Odeon metro station, turn right, and you will see…” I was about to thank her and leave, when she asked where I am from. She seemed chatty and continued talking, and was touching her hair a lot. She asked me what my plans were for the day and I said I planned to take the Seine boat tour that people rave about. She asked if she could join me for the boat tour. I said, sure, and gave her my hotel name, thanked her, and left.
I got to the hotel – and here is the suck-y part. Very good location, not that great of a hotel. The Front desk guy who checked me into the hotel was rude, sarcastic and unhelpful. Over the next few days though, the other two front desk folks were very helpful and professional. My room was very small, dark with dim lights, small bed (my feet were sticking out), small shower (2ftx2ft). I realized that I had made a bad decision choosing this place. The daily rate was good, and I had thought, that since I am seldom going to be in my room, it really shouldn’t matter. At first, I felt like I should just go find some other place and check out from this hotel. But upon further thought, I decided to take this as a learning experience and just hang in there for the next few days. I decided I would go check out another hotel (Hotel Eugenie) that I had been thinking about booking, so I could stay there during my next visit. I knew I needed to get out of that room. I brushed my teeth, shaved and showered, and headed out.
Once out of my hotel, I felt much better. It was a gorgeous sunny day outside! I walked into the first place I saw, called “Brioche Doree”, across the street. Ordering was no problem, I just greeted and followed with “Je voudrais ....... s'il vous plait”. I think this is considered fast food, but the food was good and inexpensive (less than 12 euros). They serve dessert with lunch! Cool.
After a good lunch, I decided I would just walk around. The area was amazing, just as people on fodors had mentioned. Tons of people everywhere, most of them pretty well-dressed. Lots of restaurants, bookstores on the sidewalks, stores selling drawings/paintings. I stopped near the St. Michel fountain and took a few pictures. Someone came up with “Excusez Moi” and asked if I would sign a petition… I had read about this on fodors too.
I crossed the street and I was walking next to the Seine. It looked beautiful and there were lots of people walking, taking pictures, enjoying the scenery, eating in restaurants. I walked by the river for quite a bit, and wanted to make sure I knew where the river cruise started from, then headed back to the hotel. I was starting to get really sleepy, I had been up for a while.
I decided I would just lie down and rest for a bit and try not to sleep, but failed miserably. I woke up to the sound of a screaming phone at around 7:30PM from the front desk, saying there is someone there to see me - that woman from the morning had showed up.
We walked to where the boat tour starts, a short walk. I was not really hungry and we both got a sandwich before the boat tour.
The both tour was amazing. When we first started, it was starting to get dark and the lights in the city were coming on. The Eiffel tower was sparkling! The announcer said it would only be for a few mins. It was a bit cold but very pleasant. I totally loved it.
As the boat was coming back from the Eiffel tower and heading further south we saw groups of people and couples, all along the Seine, gathering up, meeting friends, drinking, having picnics. We passed under a number of bridges and the guide/announcer talked about the history. As we were going further south, I was surprised to see people dancing tango along the Seine. Then we saw a group of people dancing Salsa. I asked my new friend if she knew how to salsa, she said she had tried it before. I wanted to check out the scene in Paris as I sometimes go out for Salsa in LA, so we just headed there after the cruise.
It took a while to get to this Salsa spot, this is near the Arab Institute. Turns out, this was the last week they had this by the Seine. People were very friendly and music was good. I danced with her, then with some other girls and then again with her. It was fun. The music ended around 11:50PM, since this is close to a residential area.
Sep 26th, 2012, 05:29 PM
#17
zatrams,
This is reminding me of MY first trip to Paris... I never got into a museum as planned, but a good friend told me on my return, "you can go to all the museums when you are 50 but when you are 23 you should hang out with all the Parisians."
That has turned out to be very true.
I have since caught up on all the great art now that I'm 50...and I'm sure glad I did the other stuff in my 20s!!
More plea
This is reminding me of MY first trip to Paris... I never got into a museum as planned, but a good friend told me on my return, "you can go to all the museums when you are 50 but when you are 23 you should hang out with all the Parisians."
That has turned out to be very true.
I have since caught up on all the great art now that I'm 50...and I'm sure glad I did the other stuff in my 20s!!
More plea
