Mesdames et monsieurs
I’m smashing out a small blog entry on the 3.5 hour train trip from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to the regional town/city Annecy.
So after a horrific plane trip from Dubai to Paris where the little boy in the seat next to me soiled his nappy not once but twice – I have been haunted by the smell of baby poo!
Everything after the plane trip has been really great though. I had ordered a shuttle transfer from Charles de Gaulle airport to my hotel in the 11ème arrondisement on my own back in Perth and I wasn’t sure what to expect because they couldn’t charge my credit card and told me to pay cash to the driver. This left me kind of … wary of the reliability of the service. However! The guy was there (he was actually the owner) with a sign with my name on it written faintly in a ballpoint pen with a friendly attitude. I expected my ‘shuttle’ to be a blocky van type thing but lo-and-behold Micky (the driver) picked me up in his spanking new shiny black BMW sedan!!!! NAICE!
My hostel was not quite as nice as the Sheraton in Dubai :p The pillows are bizarre – they’re this long flat affair and aren’t very squishy at all… The walls of the hostel were a bit thin but I fell asleep quite easily nonetheless.
I was hungry when I got to the hostel so for eats I went directly across the road from the hostel and got a chicken kebab!! And so I have carried on the tradition of eating late night kebabs on a Saturday night ;) Even in Paris! Hehe.
So I have been trying to speak as much French as possible – as long as the topic of conversation is about inane things I can cope quite well! I am making an effort to start every conversation in French – and only swapping to English if I really do not understand.
I thought arriving in Paris would be more of a shock. I think I was more impressed that my driver drove a BMW! This is not to say that Paris isn’t a completely stunning, ultra-European and beautiful place – it’s more that… I don’t know. I just felt relaxed about being there – as if I went to Paris all the time. It was pretty surreal. Travelling is surreal :D I think maybe it’s because I’ve been imagining this trip for so long that it was easy for me just to slip into the mentality of being in France. Also – speaking French is lots of fun (when I understand and am being understood…)
This morning at my hostel I had a breakfast of what was literally bread with jam and water. I wanted cereal but I didn’t think the milk was soy…
With my frikn 27kg suitcase I decided that I’d better not hoof it to the Gare de Lyon so my hostel ordered a taxi for me – which cost 11euro - 11euro well spent! I got to the station about 50 minutes early and was stress-free.
So now I’m currently zooming past the French country side which is pretty green with smallish sections of fields with not much growing in them. Interspersed through these fields are little farm houses or lil towns! Very quaint.
At 1:30PM today I will reach Annecy and meet my host family for the very first time! I’m keen :D Then I will go look for food haha.
A bientôt
Jessica
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