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Published: December 30th 2013
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With the inevitable passage of time, ones tastes and ideas change. It is only in the last few years that I seem to care a little more what kind of wine I am drinking or whether the food I am eating is made with quality ingredients. Likewise, I have come to loathe the backpacker hostels I once revelled in, though I have grown to appreciate the kind of independent and affordable travel made possible through couch surfing, I like comfy beds, and a little privacy, things I once gladly did without while on the road, partially out of economic necessity, but mostly because I didn't care. Maybe these changes come from my ability to afford them, or from the fact that my body doesn't respond as well to junk food, cheap beer, and hostel bunk beds as it once did. There was a time, not that long ago when I was happy to show up in a city without a plan, and spend my time there idly wondering the streets and watching people. I would go to free museums, and look at historical sites, but rarely would I hire a guide or even rent an audio device to lend stories and
meaning to the places I was. I still enjoy soaking up the atmosphere of new cities, sitting in cafes, deciphering strange menus, and watching children chase pigeons in town squares, but somewhere along the line this ceased to be enough during travel experiences.
Not long ago when I saw a bus or walking tour while travelling, I would walk in the opposite direction. If huge crowds and "tacky" tour groups were there, it mustn't be the "off the beaten track" independent style trip I was seeking. This kind of thinking is what enabled me to find some pretty incredible back street locations, and in a few cases, get myself into some dangerous situations. This kind of thinking was also pretentious and condescending. In my mind I acknowledged tour group travel as a baby step towards something cooler and more adventurous, but privately disapproved of the name tags, matching backpacks and incessant picture taking. Fast forward some years and I am presented with an opportunity to do a whole lot of big group travel. Through the school where I teach, I have agreed to organize an EF Tour to Scandinavia at Easter, and I have been invited to chaperone a
school trip in late January to El Salvador. Part of the orientation to being a teacher leader with EF Tours is a Paris orientation tour over Christmas break. And so, with 3 big group travel opportunities in a short span of a few months, I prepared myself to leave independent travel behind and embrace the benefits of the tour group.
In "The Sun also Rises" Hemingway writes about travelling from his home in France during the summer months to visit the Fiestas in Spain with a group of friends. He arrives in Pamplona intending to fish the Bayonne before the fiesta begins. He is waiting for Brett a female friend he is likely in love with, but without worrying that she is 3 or 4 days late,leaves a note with the hotel and goes fishing. I mention this partially because as I sit on our tour bus in Paris enroute to the the neighbourhood of Les Halles to visit the church at St. Eustache where we will grab lunch at one of the many cafes on L'espanade de Eustache before a walking tour along the Sienne to the Tuilleres palace, I am reading his book and thinking about how
the nature of travel has changed. Dennie is not on the tour group with me but has come along to Paris where she is exploring independently while I am guided on sightseeing tours. At the end of each day we attempt to meet up to spend time together in the evenings but with patchy internet we struggle to find each other and it is only by coincidence that we ever seem to meet up. Since Hemingway published the book in 1926 we have become so dependant on technology that when faced with a situation without access, we panic and lack the sense to make things work. As the days go on we rediscover these simple but important travel skills - rendezvous points and back up plans - which enable us to have some lovely evenings together away from the tour group exploring the Latin Quarter near Notredame, or visiting a Christmas market in Montmartre.
There were times during the day when I envied Dennie's experience. While I was stuck fighting the crowds at the Louvre she saw amazing contemporary art at the Pompidou Centre, and while I was herded once more around Versailles she explored modern curiosities in the
Parc de Villette. At the same, there were elements of the tour group I came to deeply appreciate. Having been to Paris independently, there were narratives and stories that brought life to things I had seen before. And, having been one of those people in the long line to go up the Eiffel Tower, I can now appreciate the line skipping authority a tour group possesses. I am also impressed with, given a short amount of time in a city with as much to offer as Paris, how much we were able to see and experience. As such, there were many places I fell in love with that I hadn't seen before (places like the Luxembourg Gardens, The Pantheon, or the lesser known churches like Saint Severin or the Dome des Invalides).
We spend our last night in Paris, New Years Eve, with our tour group dining on mediocre Italian food in the Latin Quarter, then drinking unlimited free pints of Guinness at an Irish pub around the corner from City Hall. I try to imagine what this night might have held had we been on our own. I want to believe we would have found an incredible backstreet
bar filled with locals drinking craft beer and dancing on tables to a French folk band playing in a corner. But evidenced by the crowds standing in the rain outside every cool looking cafe, bar and brasserie we pass, and by the obscenely inflated prices on new years menus, I am thankful for my tour group and bottomless pint glass. To the tour group!
clink.
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