Blogs from France, Europe - page 1622

Advertisement

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris April 11th 1993

A competitive soccer game between two nations can be a friendly and exciting experience, but also a very tense and even hostile occurrence. This one lands about inbetween. The opening scene is a sign of an impressive experience; the cute French girl in the entrance line to Parc de Princes gives me the smile of a decade. Regardless of the outcome, I have my Paris face. The stadium is not among the largest of Europe, but it certainly must be one of the loudest. The acoustics are magnificent. A stadium "bowl" in its most literate sense, as opposed to its American counterparts with that name. The Swedish crowd amounts to some 2,000 fans. The rest, some 40,000, are French supporters. The noise when Martin Dahlin gives the Swedish side the lead is loud. Standing in the ... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris December 15th 1992

Paris is my hometown. Paris is where travel begins. I walk around small and large streets, I come across people and places. Some persons remain in my memory like some places, marked by an interrogation on the world. Walking around Paris is already like travelling, as one can feel in all big cities, it is not made only of itself. Life from outside the city, from the earth comes to inhabit Paris. I go around Paris streets seeking where life comes from. May be it comes from this white, dusty, building, from the dark windows, from this curved street which descends towards the centre of the city, from the succession of neon signs. In a few hours, I will leave. I will go far away. It is the first time and I will not sleep tonight. ... read more
Paris night time
Luxemburg bird
--- 00003


You wouldn’t be inter-railing if you didn’t spend at least one night on a train, so I travelled overnight to Marseille. After a two hour wait, there was then a train to Aix and, when I eventually managed to track down a pay phone that took cash, I met up with my cousin who went to university here and has since made it her home. Provence is incredibly laid back - as is made clear in the book “A Year in Provence”. It was great to take it easy, drink Pastis (a local drink that tastes a lot like Pernod or the Greek equivalent, Ouzo), eat great food and watch everyone else do the same. My cousin really looked after me and showed me all the sights of Aix and the rest of Provence. She took ... read more
Roussillon
Roussillon

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris March 31st 1992

I'm sure that no matter how many times you visit Paris, there is still lots left to see. This, coupled with the fact that it is the natural first destination when you cross the Channel into mainland Europe, means that any British Inter-railer inevitably spend some time there. I travelled overnight, but this was before the tunnel had opened, so after a train, a midnight ferry and another train, I arrived in Paris early in the morning, having not had much sleep. It brought back all those horrific memories of my previous Inter-railing experiences (see ). Why am I putting myself through this again exactly? My last Inter-rail adventure was to mainly Southern Europe, so this was my last chance to see some of Northern Europe before I was too old and no longer qualified for ... read more
Gare d'Orsay Clock
Eiffel Tower
Paris Statue

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris June 13th 1991

Geo: 48.8567, 2.35099Thought we'd (C & I) give this inter railing lark a go, so with no particular plan got the ferry from Rosslare to Le Harve - booked seats only but when we went to try to sleep in them other people had sprawled all over them & were asleep, didn't fancy a fight so had to get a cabin that the key was lost for but only after we had to pretend we were married (why Irish Ferries cared I duuno.) Anyway got a train to Paris & thought now what? Wandered around for the day looking at monuments & drinking coffee in very parisian cafes & for some reason (maybe we couldn't get accomodation) decided to get the train to the 1st place possible & that place was Amsterdam ....... read more

Europe » France May 28th 1991

Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097... read more

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Calais August 23rd 1990

We woke up when Paris started coming back to life and we went into the station to catch the first train to Calais. We’d just got settled when a guard came along and told us that the train was going to be split half way through the journey and we were in the half that was not going to Calais. We found the correct carriage and were just getting settled again, when I heard this familiar Welsh accent. Two seats back was Allan, half way through chatting up a group of French girls. Coincidence or what! Allan was on his own, as Richard had had his passport and Inter-rail ticket stolen. He was still in Paris trying to sort it out. We waited in Calais for him, but it was three hours before he turned up, ... read more

Europe » France » Aquitaine » Bayonne August 21st 1990

Unfortunately I didn’t make it was far as Bordeaux. I woke up in the morning to discover that my backpack had been searched and my camera, Walkman and sleeping bag had gone walkabout. For the second time I wanted to sort out the seedy looking characters in the corridor. I had a faint memory of being woken up by someone coming into the room and he had left straight away when he realised I was awake. He had obviously come back again later. Bastard! I decided to get off at the next station and report what had happened. As I was packing the bag I relalised that the films containing all my Nice, Monte Carlo and Venice photographs had been in the camera case and had gone as well. I think that I was more gutted ... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris August 21st 1990

Had a comfortable night’s sleep. It got a bit cold and since I no longer had a sleeping bag, I ended up requisitioning an SNCF blanket from the first class carriages. No where near as good as my sleeping bag, but it did the trick. When we arrived in Paris, the Australian guy then off to meet some friends, leaving the English guy and I to check out some more of Paris. First stop was the Louvre. The queue was huge, but we eventually got it. I was to be very disappointed. Like the galleries in Florence it was just full of religious art. Baby Jesus, dying Jesus, dead Jesus, the Mona Lisa, Baby Jesus, etc. De Vinci’s masterpiece did look a little out of place. The Louvre is so huge that you could walk round ... read more
 Pompidou Centre
Steet Performers

Europe » France » Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur » Nice August 20th 1990

I’ll avoid the corny line about Nice being a nice place. Too late. To be fair it is very, ugh, nice! Dam, I’ve done it again. I can see how it would be a nice place (there’s three) to go if you were quite old and loaded with cash. It was well out of my league and, despite no longer being in Italy, I felt like a bit of a tramp. Everyone was dressed in designer clothes and all the cars maintained the same rich image. Sports cars everywhere and, unlike those in Paris, they weren’t covered in dents. There was no point in me going into any shops as I would have been thrown out the moment I walked in through the door. The tourist circuit took about half a day, taking in a chateau ... read more




Tot: 0.464s; Tpl: 0.005s; cc: 22; qc: 83; dbt: 0.0697s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb