Potty Page

November 6, 2003

Thoughts from France

Well I suppose it's time I wrote about my thoughts from France, whilst I've got a spare second or so...!

I suppose I'll add on what Amanda wrote really :) Gives me a starting point.

Well the trip to the airport was pretty uneventful - apart from not being able to let myself out of the train in Leicester... I'm so used to automatic doors! Oh well :)

I've decided that Luton is a pretty crap excuse for an airport :)

I also got highly pissed off by the people at the security check thing.

There is a huge queue and there is two people stood talking next to the X-ray machines. So, I helped myself to a box and put my camera and phone in it. By this time the woman there had woken up and put them through the machine.

I waited to be let through the metal detectors... I thought I'd been given the signal to come through, but oh no... I couldn't, because there was someone being searched on the other side. He goes away, and she then points out to me that my handsfree headphones and mic (whice are around my neck from when I was listening to the radio) will need to go through the x-ray machine! So, I have to awaken the silly woman and she gives me another box. Maaan, it's a wire with a microphone and 2 little speakers on it. How the hell can you conceal anything there? If we are putting wire through, surely I should be putting my watch through! I suppose that it could have been because she thought it would set off the alarms, but she talked to me as if I was stupid.

Anyways, upon arriving in Paris... I realised that Luton was not that bad an airport at all. CDG 3 mings.

After looking for Mandy, I finally found her by a pure fluke as we'd both gone to the same place, thinking it was the place where the other one was at, where in reality it was neither! Lucky!

We then headed off to our hotel. Which was nice(ish) and had wonky floors and steps which were all at an angle!

Then we headed off to the Eiffel Tower to find a place to eat, by now it was pissing it down, which wasn't nice. We found somewhere that we thought was nice, but we were wrong! They put us upstairs, where there was no one else - at all during the whole meal. They also served us cold food. It was shit.

Then we went up the Eiffel Tower, which was cool (well cold and wet)

That was it for that night.

The next day we went to Verdun on the train. Pretty uneventful, but it's when I realised that coming back could be an arse not knowing french! The rail replacement bus thing scared me. Oh well. I suppose it's one of my problems, I can never trust myself to do the right thing, even if I have, so I always like reassurance, but you can't get it when you don't speak in a common tounge.

We went shopping and bought good food, and cooked good food and it was good. Although it was very flavourless, as Amanda doens't do condiments! :-D Remind me to take salt and pepper next time!

The next day we went to the Citadelle which had quite a good train ride with some cool AV stuff going on. As Amanda said, we met a guy who graduated last year from here, and he was an electronic engineer! How freaky? it's a small world! It was quite humourous talking to him about common things!

The evening meal was balls again as we seemed to do our thing of picking a bad resturant again... the constant feeling of being watched wasn't nice at all.

Then it was Sunday, we got bread and stuff and made lunch and then went into town to buy stuff for later. Denied. Everywhere was shut! Well appart from 'the' coffee shop and a bakers, where we bought some Maribelle drink (no idea how to spell it, I'll let Mandy correct me!) But it's alcholic, local, and tastes odd.

Self-made dinner once again was good. I don't beleive all this the French are so good at food bullshit, I'v decided.

That was about it for that night.

The next day was the Monday when I was going home :( That was once again uneventful, but I've also already told you about it!

Posted by Ed at November 6, 2003 4:54 PM | Trips |