Last week I made my way back into Spain from a week-and-a-half journey into the French Republic. It was the first time I had left the country since arriving in Madrid back in September, and I really enjoyed the change of scenery, language, and culture I had grown accustomed to here in southern Spain. Due to time (and wallet) constraints, my travels focused mainly on Paris and northern France, but I also spent half a week in the Spanish Basque provinces and La Mancha before returning home to
Úbeda.
It was my first experience traveling non-stop for more than a week out of a backpack in a country whose language I could barely speak, but it was an experience in which I grew and learned a lot. Below I’m going to talk about what I learned about the country of France, travel in general, and myself while on the road.
What I learned about France
* The French rarely, if ever, lived up to the “rude French” stereotype, and were often actually quite friendly and kind to me. Lots of people were patient with my present-tense, five-verb French, and I was never attacked simply for being American.
* Many, many people in the tourism industry could speak English, from ticket cashiers to train station attendants to hotel concierges. Although I knew enough French to survive, it made getting around very convenient.
* Spoken French can sometimes sound just like Arabic.
* The French rail system is truly world class, so much so that inter-city bus services don’t exist. Speedy trains connected even the most isolated towns, and high-speed trains let me have breakfast in Barcelona and dinner in Paris.
* France wasn’t as .~*aMaZiNg*~. as I thought it would be and was really expensive, especially in Paris. Because of this, I returned to Spain earlier than I had expected I would.