Yes I'm in France after a three-hour train ride from London to Paris. It was a superb train ride. I wish we could have more high-speed trains in North America. Interestingly, my brain automatically switched to French once I got to the train station in London. Amazingly people understood my broken French!
Getting to the hostel in Paris was a bit of an adventure requiring much patience. Many of the vending machines for Metro tickets were broken and of course there was a line of tired and confused travellers. A bunch of us moved from line to line, hoping that the machine wouldn't break down. Eventually got on the Metro and found my way to the hostel.
It was 9 pm when I settled for dinner. I think I had the best meal so far in Europe: le canard fris avec les pommes sallinaires. (I've butchered the spelling.) Then I headed off to l'Arc de Triumphe. As soon I got out of the Metro station, the magnificent structure was totally in my face that I couldn't help but have an actual realization that I was in Paris, France. Took lots of pictures. Yep, traffic going around the Arc was chaotic. Saw some near misses. I was joking with some French soldiers about how there weren't any traffic lines painted in the pavement. I guess I got a bit carried away and I swung my arm with the camera. The camera slipped off and went straight to the pavement. I totally outdid Cyndi Hunter. The camera broke but thankfully the memory card was still intact so I could retrieve the pictures. I was definitely heart-broken but I was able to get a film camera on Champs-Elysses. After lArc de Triumphe, I went to see the Eiffel Tower. Another really impressive structure. There was so much steel in that tower! By then it was past midnight, so I didn't stay out too late because I had to catch a train to Nice early this morning.
Now I am in Nice right on the lovely French Riviera. Oh everything looks like the pictures on TV. I took the TGV with a girl from Texas I met at the hostel. She just so happened to be going to Nice as well. We swapped stories of our travels in Europe. She's been in Europe for almost two months now and she's ready to go home in several days. Both of us are eager to head to the beach because the weather is absolutely gorgeous!
So I'm gonna end off this blog entry and head out to the beach. Off to Milan tomorrow. Woo-hoo! Salut!
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