Thoughts about Paris

My prior two trips to Paris occurred in early September. Both times, the weather was cool. On the second trip, I had to buy a jacket it was so cold. Visiting in June, I expected warmer weather. Sadly, except for our first day, the weather has been overcast, cool and/or rainy. The forecast for the next few days is not much different. I only hope that Friday, our daughter's birthday, is warm and sunny so she can enjoy Disney.

Having been here for four days, I have decided I made a mistake with my selection of hotels. Though there have been some issues with the hotel, those have not been a factor in that determination. They've done everything in their power to compensate for the initial problems. The issue is the hotel's location relative to the majority of our other locations. It is a ten minute bus ride to Disney. It is a one hour transit via bus and train to Paris. We'll do two days in Disney, six days in Paris - you can see my error. The end result is paying a lot for subway passes, and adding the stress of traveling long distances via train with two children under four. The days are more stressful than they should be. I think my niece will think twice about taking a major vacation before her kids are over the age of 4 when she has her own family.

After three days of busy activity, we took today off, to a degree. Packing three weeks of clothes would have been just as challenging as packing three weeks of baby food. Instead, we packed just over a week's worth of clothes, intending to do laundry two or three times while we were here. Today was laundry day. We had the option of using the laundry service at the hotel. Something about paying $13 to wash a single shirt did not sit well with me. Four days worth of clothes would have cost around $300 at those prices. Instead, my wife, our son and I took a bus to a nearby village that had a laundromat while our daughter stayed at the hotel to go swimming with our niece. Unfortunately, we had no idea where it was. We exited at a stop that looked promising and asked the first person we met if they knew where to find one. They looked at us very confused. I later realized I was saying "leve vetements" instead of "lave vetements". The latter means to "wash clothes"; the former, loosely translated, means "remove your clothes" (literally, "lift your clothes").

Once she realized I was asking where we could wash clothes, and not asking her to disrobe in the middle of the street (though, these are the French, she may have just done what I was asking if I persisted), she pointed us towards the town center, but said she wasn't sure. On the way there, we encountered an older woman exiting her car. We went through the same exercise with her (with me still not realizing I was saying "leve" instead of "lave"), and she offered to drive us. We climbed in the back of the car and she took us to the village only to discover there was no laundromat - it had moved. She then took us to the next village, parked, and walked us to a dry cleaner to ask if they did laundry. They said they did but that there was a laundromat on the other side of town. She then walked us to the other side of town until we found the laundromat. I offered to pay her for her time and her gas, but she refused. We thanked her profusely, and then did our laundry for $20 instead of $300. Travel time and wash time consumed four hours of our day.

After laundry, we hopped back on the park shuttle and ate lunch at Planet Hollywood in Disney Village. Paris has proven quite expensive. I'm very thankful that the buffet breakfast is included in the price of the room, and that we have decided to only eat two, large meals each day - breakfast, and then a 3PM lunch/dinner. If we are hungry at other times, we'll have small snacks like fruit or trail mix. Were we to eat, and pay for, three meals a day, food would far exceed the cost of the hotel.

Before today, we all shared a similar thought that I'm sure others have thought before us: "France would be great if it weren't for the French". I would now amend this to "France would be great if it weren't for the workers in the tourist industry". We have found transit workers to be surly, museum workers to be haughty and rude, and even the front desk at our own hotel to appear exasperated at simple requests. On my third trip to Paris, the city has lost its charm. I would still recommend it to people who have never visited and who love art. For anyone who likes friendly service and fair prices, well, pick another city.