J'aime Paris

5 minutes from my hotel, Jardin de Luxembourg
Sorbonne (just a 10minute walk from my hotel)



I'm been gabbering on and on about girly-men, pseudo-conservative women, and Bi's imaginary sex life, that I neglected the reason why I'm writing a blog...to talk about travelling. My mind made a long excursion to the androgynous side of the galaxy, but now it's time to get back to business.

So, I just finished my first exam for my French class. It was easy, but I should have been more relaxed and I would've gotten a higher score. Anyway, I'd do better next time.

Why am I taking French when the Timeasia magazine nearest you is telling you to learn Mandarin because it is the business language of the future. http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060626/story.html

Well, I've only been to China once, and I was very young at that time to enjoy the trip, but I have been to France at just the right age and I love it there. I've been to Paris 2x and to Nice once, and I know that I will always return to France until I can no longer travel. I love the language and I love the gorgeous French people. Fortunately, inspite of the general belief that the Parisians are a snotty lot, I only had one bad experience with an asshole who smelled as bad as his manners, it didn't really matter if I never saw him again.

Anyway, back to my favorite city in the world.

The night before I left Florence for Rome, en route to my flight to Paris, I was nursing a slight fever. I'm kindda sickly, although it irks me to admit it, and it gets in the way of my travelling. I usually travel alone, so it's an inconvenience if your body doesn't cooperate with what your mind wants.

The train ride to Roma was fast and scary. The crazy driver was going faster than the morning trips and we were going to arrive in Roma on schedule even though we left Santa Maria Novella station 30 minutes late. When I arrived in Roma, it was midnight, and my flight to Paris was at 6am. I had 4 hours to kill before the bus to the airport will pick me up at the station and I needed a place to stay. Roma is one of the creepiest cities I've even seen at night, and there were lots of shady looking characters just outside the Main terminal who looked like they would make mincemeat out of your just to get a hand on a fake Rolex. I managed to find a tourist assistant who brought me to a nearby hotel where I waited out the night. By 4am, I was out, walking to the bus stop to ride the bus going to Ciampino airport. Let me tell you, that 5 minute walk through the dirty backstreet of Roma was the most heartpounding, and scariest moments of my life.

The flight to Paris was an hour and 30 minutes. It was uneventful except for the squealing kids 2 rows behind me. They were bawling their brains out almost the entire flight and I was suprised no one accidentally laced their milk with sleeping pills. Those kids gave me a splitting headache.

We touched down at Beauvais airport, a small airport (airstrip?) an hour away from Paris. When I saw unending fields of green, few houses, and some cows, I thought, did I ride the wrong plane? It seemed I was landing in a farm field. To get to Paris, we had to ride a bus that would drive us from the French countryside to the City of Lights.

The trip to Paris and my hotel

My hotel (Hotel St. Germain) was located at the Left Bank of Paris, in the Quartier Latin, Luxumbourg, St. Germain des Pres area. The bus will drop us off at La Defense station, and it was up to me how to get to my hotel. I had no intention of riding an expensive cab where the driver thinks he could take me to an impromptu city tour of Paris and swindle me some extra euros. I took the yellow Metro lane that would go all the way to Line 1, but I would get out from Chatelet station, and then transfer to the blue line going to Orly airport. I would alight from Luxumbourg station and walk 2 blocks to my hotel. No problem.

Well, there was a slight problem. My suitcase, although only half filled, was taking too much space and it was difficult to fit it through the revolving bars of the metro entrances and exits. Fortunately, I was the recipient of lovely French hospitality and on one occasion when the credits of my metro card ran out, the lady infront of me used her card to swipe me in--I didn't need to pay for more credits!!! Another time, I was heaving my not-really-heavy baggage over the baggage deposit, when a young man (very cute!) told me in english, "Let me do that for you." Cute and kind! WOW! Unfortunately, he was with his girlfriend! Dommage!

So I arrived at my hotel, sleepy, tired, and hungry, but still in good spirit. Like most budget hotels in Paris, it was cute, clean, and small, but I was in a very nice district so I had no complaints. Funny thing though, when I was inside my hotel room and switched on the TV to watch CNN while I was unpacking my stuff, I saw that there were ongoing riots in Paris where the marginalized urban youths were ransacking and causing chaos in the suburbs of the city.

Eh?

Scary. I just hoped CNN was on it's usual form of sensationalized reporting, and that I would soon find out that Paris is not really in a state of anarchy.

oh well, welcome to Paris!!! Bienvenue vers Paris !