I love to travel. Honestly, it might be an addiction. I never thought I would have it this bad, but I am such a dedicated connoisseur of world travel, that I have worked two jobs, entered a pageant and lived off frozen meals just to travel the world. The pageant part I will discuss later, but it involves traveling- you get where I am going with this...
Anyways, due to my love for traveling, I decided that it is about time that I write a travel series, since it's so natural for me and is such a big part of my life. Just thinking about it now gets me giddy with joy, as I reminisce about all the good times. Good times with good people. But before I continue, I need to mention that I haven't traveled around the whole world (I wish), and there are still so many countries on my list that I want to visit. However, I have done quite a bit of travel in my life that I feel is worth documenting for my travel series. In fact, here is the list of the following countries and cities I have traveled to: France (Paris, Bordeaux, Carcassonne), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), Andora, England (London), Grenada, Grand Turk, Peurto Rico (San Juan), St. Maarten, St. Lucia, New York and Florida.
I traveled to these countries over the past four years and I had such a great time. I think it is so important to learn about different cultures and people that live in the world. Traveling not only makes one much more cultured, but also allows you to see the beauty in other parts of the world. It is such a great experience, and I am happy I took a chance to jet-set.
Paris
To start off my travel series, I think I will begin with one of my favorite cities: Paris- the city of love. Paris is probably one of the few cities I visited and considered moving to, but realized the immense difficulty I would have there, considering that I cannot speak French. HA! The little French I have been learning in the Canadian school system since grade 1 did not prove to be helpful at all. In fact, I would be lucky if I could say a few random words at best. "Oui."
Nonetheless, I did not have to worry much, as I was still able to communicate with the Parisians as they were pretty fluent in English. As much as I wanted to speak French and show my lack of -er skill I decided it was best to speak in English. I have to admit, I feared all the rumours I heard about the French being annoyed with tourists, but in my two visits to France I have had a great experience with the people. They were really nice and thankfully pretty well versed with the English language.
My approach when asking them a question: " Excusez moi, Parlez-vous anglais?"
Which translates to: "Excuse me, do you speak English?"
I found this one sentence, which I memorized and lived on for my entire stay to help me out so much. After I would ask them if they could speak English, I was able to figure out if they could assist me. Most times I was fortunate to find out that they were able to communicate in English. Thank goodness.
My suggestion is that if you are traveling to a foreign country, try to figure out a way to communicate with people. It will make things much easier for you when getting around and make you feel much more reassured.
The food
Prior to going to Paris, I always heard great things about the food. My stay in Paris was no exception. The food was amazing. I remember the first day my friend and myself arrived, we decided to grab something to eat. We had no idea where to go, but we decided to look around. After walking for about 15 minutes we found a small little restaurant and decided to go in. We ordered two pizzas. Honestly, it was amazing! It was so good, I felt like ordering a second pizza for myself. Keep in mind these are individual sized pizzas. I was shocked. I didn't realize I could find such great pizza in France.
But, it didn't just stop at the pizza. The french fries were also amazing. Honestly, the French make great french fries. This whole time I thought I knew what fries tasted like. Ha, not until I had some frites and steak did I find out the truth.
And it just kept getting better. I recall one day, after walking around for hours in the city with my friend we decided to stop for a nice meal. We found a cute restaurant with a patio. The name of the restaurant: Bar Du Central. I ordered the lunch special.
Impeccable. One world. Impeccable. I honestly think this was probably my favorite dish while I was in Paris. It was delicious and truly made me feel like I was having a Parisian experience. Every bite was savoury and enjoyable. If I go back to Paris, I definitely need to visit this restaurant again.
It's obvious that I was impressed with the food in Paris. It is just so delicious and flavorful. Although I loved the food, there is so much more to this lovely city. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post which continues with more on my experiences and adventures in Paris.
Have you ever been to Paris? If so, how was your experience?