1. Stay at Cecilia’s Guest House.
2. When you forget your razor, you’ll need to go to the local drug store to buy one. The pharmacist will smile patiently whilst you search for “razor blade” in your handy dandy phrase book. When you ask for it and point to the word in your phrase book, the kind pharmacist will say, “We don’t sell those. You’ll need to go to the supermarket down the street,” in perfect English.
3. The local drug store DOES sell Frontline flea medicine.
4. When you go to the supermarket to purchase said razor blades, you will not find them beside the shaving cream and after shave. No. They are in a locked cabinet up near the cash registers.
5. When you eat lunch at a quaint little café in the Tuileries (a beautiful park alongside the Seine River), DO order a hot dog. Seriously! Two hotdogs in a fresh baguette overbaked with cheese. Yum!
6. You could also order a Croque Monsieur: a grilled ham and cheese (Emmental, usually) sandwich, but the cheese is grilled on top of the sandwich instead of in the middle with the ham.
7. When taking the bicycle tour of Paris, do NOT be the weak gazelle! You know, the one off by itself that gets picked off by the lions. Stay in the pack and dominate the road. The angry French drivers won’t be angry enough to squish the whole lot of you.
8. No, your bike won’t have a bell on it. Apparently the folks on the evening bike tour—the one that serves wine along with the tour—those folks tend to think the bells are the greatest fun ever.
9. Croissants taste better in France.
10. Do be willing to stand in line an hour and a half to climb the 424 steps up the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s SO worth it to be eyeball to eyeball with gargoyles!
11. You’ll be held prisoner in the first-level tower gift shop for 10 minutes before the angry French man will allow you to climb further up the tower.
12. The spiral staircases in the towers DO eventually end.
13. The gyro stand a block away from Notre Dame rocks.
14. Yes, you can find your way through the labyrinth called Saint Lazare station. Following the color-coded footsteps on the floor helps.
15. There is a McDonald’s just outside Saint Lazare station. You’ll need to know this because eventually you’ll want to spend less than $150 on dinner for your family.
16. The French people really are lovely! (Okay, other than the occasional angry French driver and the angry man in the Notre Dame gift shop.) Don’t believe the stereotype. Take a phrase book, and have fun!
I will definitely keep these tips in mind should I ever have the opportunity to go to Paris. Since I've never been off the North American continent, that seems unlikely... but ya never know! Great write-up! I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it, Karla. I thought I'd tell about the first part of trip in a fun way rather than the more typical way. I hope you DO get to travel outside of North America sometime. It's a real treat!
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