Paris Olympics? Also Visit French Villages

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France has other bread beside the baguette, that long pole-like bread. Visit a boulangerie when you go to France for the Paris Olympics.

Olympics. Most people kill two birds with one stone, in any city hosting the Olympic Games: watch their favorite teams and also do some sightseeing. Paris architecture is old. That’s important for Canadian and American visitors because they are used to newer apartments with newer forms of heating, plumbing, newer elevators etc. So, patience is the key, if some challenges crop up. But there are certain things you can control, yourself. 

Cash

France used to have francs but I don’t know what the situation is with the euro. As you know, France is a founding member of the European Union (EU) therefore, the euro is their currency. When the euro first came out, stores had the price of a jacket in both French francs and euros. Do some research, because you need cash on you, for a ham sandwich or buying a ticket for the Metro (subway and bus system). The person with you should have a small calculator so that you don’t bother stores asking them about the dollar-to-euro conversion rate. It’s the Olympics, they don’t have time.

Transport

Driving is not recommended because once again, France is old and therefore doesn’t have straight forward wide avenues and highways like Canada and the U.S. Don’t rent a car if you don’t speak French. Can you imagine getting lost in a country where you can’t read speed limits and road signs?

Paris has a public transport called the Metro. It is excellent and it will be easy to understand if you are used to the London Underground, the Toronto Transit or the New York subway and bus system. Do you need coins to take a train or bus? Do they use access cards now? Find out. You’ll see kids jumping over entry turnstiles to avoid paying. Don’t do it. You don’t speak French which means you’ll be miserable in jail, should you be caught.

Food

Before you leave home or in your hotel room, write down basic food like a cheese sandwich, salade nicoise, bread, soup, fish, steak, curry, shawarma or club sandwich.

France Has Villages

The Olympics is for France, the whole country therefore, plan to take a train to villages outside Paris. Spend a day or two among people who have never been to London or Strasbourg, ordinary people who might invite you to their family-owned boulangerie? What’s that? I guess you’ll find out before the closing ceremonies of the Paris Olympics.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

 

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