Public Transportation for a Montana Girl is TOUGH

Week 1: 09/15-09/22

Welcome back to /miel/, a blog about my life in France and all the mess-ups, stories, and updates.

This last week has been a LOT. My lovely mother, Val, and I flew last Wednesday and Thursday from Bozeman to Minneapolis to Charles de Gaulle Paris. While we left Bozeman Wednesday morning at 6:20 am, we arrived in Paris on Thursday morning at 7:40 am! It was a lot of flying, but we were able to sleep a lot and managed to get sent back to the gate only two times to assess mechanical issues.

We landed at CDG, deplaned on the tarmac, and were shuttled over to the terminal 2 to go through customs. When we arrived at the customs line, you couldn’t even see the front of the line! It took us about 90 minutes to get through, and finally we got our first European stamp in our passports. From there, we took an Uber to our Airbnb in the 11th arrondissement (similar to neighborhoods or districts in Paris) and were completely surprised that we had to hike our four suitcases up FOUR (4) flights of skinny stairs to our apartment. The apartment was very petite but served all of our needs.

In Paris, we explored many places, including the Bastille, Musée d’Orsay, Musée de Rodin, Eiffel Tower and the Seine river. These were all amazing places, with the musée d’Orsay and Eiffel Tower being my favorite. This is a museum mostly dedicated to Claude Monet, but had artists from every period, and had both painters and sculptors represented. We spent about 4 hours inside, and could have easily used 1-2 more hours to see everything. The Eiffel Tower was everything I had dreamt it to be, and more. Seeing it light up at night and sparkle for 5 minutes every hour was a dream come true. That’s all I can put into words.

We left Paris on Sunday morning to head to Bruges, Belgium. After multiple bus and train rides, we only missed one train, were running for another, and had a lot of help from the security guards at all of the stations (thank you!). Compiegne was definitely our favorite train station, as it was completely slowed down compared to Paris and Brussels.

In Bruges, we were greeted by Gothic housing, incredible palaces and museums, and a once-a-year festival on the day we arrived. We were able to sit down with our bar server, Mathieu, after his shift, and received all the wisdom a young 22-year-old Belgian had. We walked easily over 10 miles in 2.5 days and were met with such friendliness everywhere we went. We were advised to visit the Bier (beer) Museum and Chocolate Museum, but instead we just ate a lot of chocolate and drank a lot of beer! The town was absolutely beautiful, and the 30-minute tour through the canal was the perfect cherry on top to see some different views.

Currently, we are riding a high-speed train at 200 mph to Noyon, my hometown for the next 7 months. I will be checking out my apartment options and we will be exploring the petite ville for the next few days, until Val flies back to Bozeman on Saturday morning.

On my Travel Tips page here, I will work to post travel tips about the places I have visited. So far, being Paris and Bruges. What is worth your time, possibly not worth your time, and hopefully how to save some money along the way.

TL:DR (Too Long: Didn’t Read)

High: In Paris, seeing the Eiffel Tower. Everywhere we saw was amazing, but the Tour Eiffel really took my breath away.

High #2: Finally getting the hang of public transportation (for now).

Low: In the 11th in Paris, ordering “deux oeufs plats” instead of “deux eaux plates” and receiving two plates of sunny side up eggs, instead of two tap waters… in turn granting us a rightly annoyed server.

Low #2: Missing a train in Paris by 3 minutes, and holding back tears on the platform.

New French Word:

l’addition -> the bill/check (at a restaurant)

Lesson(s) Learned:

1. Speak more slowly and annunciate.

2. The trains wait for NO ONE.

3. Americans are not the only ones that block the sidewalk and stand in the way.

4. It’s even more beautiful in person.

Until next week, I wish you all well. I miss you all incredibly much. Please send me a message, an email, some snail mail, whatever suits you best.

All the love,

Abigail