Greetings from Gay Paree

[Mikey]

Landed at CDG about an hour ago and waiting for the train for a three hour ride south. Not too much scenery so far.

[Sudden Sam]

Cool! Have fun. Be safe, Mikey.

[Meat Head]

Good times. Don't worry about 'coons dying in your pool.

[Kierland]

If you skip Versailles you’re dead to me.

[FiatLux]

Try not to turn into a pussy. You'll be surrounded by them.

[Mikey]

Try not to turn into a pussy. You'll be surrounded by them.

You mean the cheese eating surender monkeys? Don’t worry I already get plenty of practice just logging in here.

[Sudden Sam]

You mean the cheese eating surender monkeys? Don’t worry I already get plenty of practice just logging in here.

[FiatLux]

Try not to turn into a pussy. You'll be surrounded by them.

You mean the cheese eating surender monkeys? Don’t worry I already get plenty of practice just logging in here.

Yeah.

They do seem to have a lot in common with people from Alabama.

[Screw_Michigan]

Have a great time, Mikey. Make sure to share photos. Have always wanted to visit France, especially Paris and the SE coast. Would die to see soccer games in Monaco (especially) and Paris. Nice would be great, too.

[mvscal]

Keep your wallet and your passport in your front pocket. Gypsies are scum and will rob you blind. The French are awesome, though. Paris truly is "all that." Have a seat at a sidewalk cafe, tuck in to some Moules Marinières and watch the traffic pass by.

[mvscal]

Have always wanted to visit France, especially Paris and the SE coast.

Normandy is absolutely gorgeous. Solid stone farmhouses in the hedgerows, apple and pear orchards and small dairy farms. Get lit on calvados and feast on the some of the best cheese and butter in the world. A baguette with a schmear of butter and a thin slice of ham was the best sandwich I've ever had in my life.

[Screw_Michigan]

Normandy is absolutely gorgeous. Solid stone farmhouses in the hedgerows, apple and pear orchards and small dairy farms. Get lit on calvados and feast on the some of the best cheese and butter in the world. A baguette with a schmear of butter and a thin slice of ham was the best sandwich I've ever had in my life.

Great suggestion, I feel like Dump (aka a terrible American) for not thinking about visiting Normandy on a trip to France. I'm sure I could find a soccer match to mix in around there.

[Kierland]

Have always wanted to visit France, especially Paris and the SE coast.

Normandy is absolutely gorgeous.

Normandy is NW. You couldn’t have picked a place further from where he wants to go. Ginger Hitler not paying attention to French Geography is just too rich.
Pedokkkal goes to France, only food he raves about is a ham sammy. What a galoof.

[88BuckeyeGrad]

We were told that the French were rude and that Paris was dirty. We found neither to be the case. We used the public transportation in Paris (as we do everywhere in Europe), and found the French to be just as hospitable as any other European nation overrun with Americans and Chinese tourists.

I’m a gastro traveler. I want to eat what the locals eat, and not what is fed to tourists. The French love good food and wine. Go off the beaten path and flaneur.

[Mikey]

Our niece is getting married on Saturday at a venue in a small town (“commune”) of about 1000 people called Jaillans. We’re staying close by in Valence , which is about halfway between Lyon to the north and Avignon to the South. You could draw a roughly equilateral triangle between Lyon, Valence and Grenoble to the east. Valence has about 70,000 people and a stop on the high speed rail (TGV) about three hours from CDG. Valence is on the Rhône River and has a lot of stuff to see, like an 11th century cathedral and museum, parks and stuff. We got in yesterday afternoon, checked into our hotel next to the train station, had some dinner and crashed so we haven’t seen anything yet. Plan on cruising into town today to look around before a pre-wedding “apero” tonight. Since we’re in one of the great wine regions of the world, I do plan on sampling my share of the local red (and white), but it’s hotter than fuck here (95 - 100 deg) in the afternoon.

Heading back to Paris for a couple of days on Sunday before flying back home on Wednesday. We’ll be staying in the Latin Quarter right near the Luxembourg Palace and gardens. Been warned over and over about pick pockets in Paris, so that will definitely be on our minds.

Everyone has been very nice here so far, even though I speak maybe ten total words of French. Maybe because this isn’t one of your big tourist areas?

[Mikey]

I wish we had more time to tour around but the wedding is the main thing. I haven’t been to Europe since I was 19 and it’s been a pretty big challenge just figuring out how to get here and back. We’ll probably come back next year with more experience and time to do stuff. I think my priorities are a lot like 88’s. Food and wine are near the top of my list.

[Kierland]

The Tour de France finishes in Valence from time to time. The commentators are always going on about what a great place the Drome Department is. Apparently Nougat is a big thing there. Who knew?

[L45B]

Been to Paris a handful of times, during both the Tour de France and Roland Garros. Also to Versailles, Toulouse, Marseille and Nice. The Frenchies are good peeps and better complainers than Americans. You would envy their high speed rail, Screwey. It’s a shame we don’t have it.

[88BuckeyeGrad]

Heading back to Paris for a couple of days on Sunday before flying back home on Wednesday.

If you are going to visit the Eiffel Tower (and you should), buy your elevator tickets ASAP. Otherwise, you will not likely be able to visit the top (or will have to wait for hours and hours to do so).

https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/rates-o ... t-top-lift

[Screw_Michigan]

You would envy their high speed rail, Screwey. It’s a shame we don’t have it.

I've heard.

[Kierland]

Heading back to Paris for a couple of days on Sunday before flying back home on Wednesday.

If you are going to visit the Eiffel Tower (and you should), buy your elevator tickets ASAP. Otherwise, you will not likely be able to visit the top (or will have to wait for hours and hours to do so).

https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/rates-o ... t-top-lift

As an atty you sure do miss a lot of details. If he is leaving on Wed he has to do the tower by Tue. There is no way he is getting a tix for the top, in the Summer while less than a week out. The amount of things you don’t know is staggering. Probably too busy doin Nazi stuff.

Fuck off traitor.

[Mikey]

Not really interested in going to the top. I did that when I was with my parents when I was 17. I still remember that and once is enough. My wife wants to go there and get a picture taken underneath because she has a picture of her and her brother (also Mike) taken there when she was two years old. We’re doing a dinner cruise on the Seine that takes off right there. Definitely going to the Louvre and Champs Elysee. My stepdaughter worked at the Gucci store there for about a year when she was in France in the late 80s. Playing the rest by ear.

[88BuckeyeGrad]

There were tickets available for the top (on Monday) when I posted the link this morning. Otherwise, I would not have posted the link.

And I agree. Once to the top is enough for a lifetime.

Bon appétit!

[kcdave]

Does most of Paris still reek of piss as it did
when I was there in '87?

[Mikey]

Does most of Paris still reek of piss as it did
when I was there in '87?

I hear that moved to San Francisco.

[Carson]

My wife and I had no problem getting tickets to the top the day we went.

In August.

[Sudden Sam]

My wife and I had no problem getting tickets to the top the day we went.

In August.

Carson, Carson, Carson…obviously you must be mistaken. Kierland clearly pointed out that it’s not possible to get those tickets.

We all recognize that Kierland knows everything about everything.

[Meat Head]

Yeah and he bets he could kick your ass too.

[Sudden Sam]

Yeah and he bets he could kick your ass too.

If he can’t kick my ancient ass, he should start borrowing clothes from Sam Brinson and the Bud Light guy.

[Kierland]

That was literally my point. You Southerners might be slow. That’s it, end of sentence.

And yes I took the ten seconds it took to check before I called him out. Closest they had was Friday. You do understand you have the answer to almost every factual question right in your hand right?

[Mikey]

We’re on the train right now from Valence back to Paris, Gare de Lyon in the Latin quarter. The trains are amazingly fast, smooth and comfortable. It’s a six hour drive by car (568 km), about 2:15 by train on a somewhat more direct route with just one stop in Lyon. Very scenic with fields of corn and rolled up hay, hedgerows, old stone buildings, and some forest. Like I said, the trains are fast and comfortable but they apparently don’t wash the windows very often so I don’t have any good pictures. This is the interior (we’re on the upper level of a double decker coach).

[Mikey]

We were staying in a hotel just outside Valence, next to the train station. 15 minute Uber to the center of town, which is on the Rhône River. Not a whole lot to see or do there, especially on a 96 deg afternoon. There are a lot of outdoor cafes and a beautiful park with lots of shade that makes it a little more pleasant.








Some giant sycamores




A real life Monet





Same fountain as above but from the opposite direction.




Going to take a nap now. Back in a while.

[Bill in Houston]

You’re in one of the greatest wine-producing appellations in the world. Hope you’re enjoying something delicious.

[Softball Bat]

Nice pics, Mikey!

[smackaholic]

It really is a shame our rail system is such shit.

There are a few reasons, number one being we are still richer than everyone which means we put most of our transportation $$$$ into roads.

Also, we are a much larger country. A 3,000 mile trip will always be much faster in the air. The fastest trains out there travel at about half the speed of a 737. The area where rail should be the preferred method of travel, the U&R is hamstrung by the fact that existing rail lines zig-zag a good bit due to the fact that they were layed out in areas that were already heavily developed. This could be fixed, but it wouldn't be cheap.

Then there is the fact that whatever we do, it would be overseen by a federal government entity. So, by definition, it would be dysfunctional.

[Kierland]

You mean like the military?

[Mikey]

I wonder who runs the French National Railway (SNCF)?

I also wonder if a successful national railway system in the US might be considered competition by certain large privately owned concerns. Off the top of my head I can think of maybe oil companies, automakers, tire companies, airlines, and other, privately owned, railroads. But I’m sure that none of them would exert any influence against a successful national railway system.

[Kierland]

As I’m sure you know. We had a rail system. Every major city had rail transportation. SLO had a great little train that went to Avila beach and yes it was those rapacious kleptos that killed them.

[Mikey]

I haven’t had time to add to this the past couple of days, but here’s a short video that I shot last night from our dinner cruise on the Seine. I thought that the combination rain, the reflections in the window, and the lasers from the top combined for pretty cool effect. Every so often the entire tower goes all sparkly for a few minutes. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to pick that up.

[Roach]

Mikey did you decide to try to go to the top of the Tower anyway?


"Two American tourists were found running around naked and sleeping off a heavy night in the heights of Paris' Eiffel Tower on Monday, after dodging security the night before, the monument's operator said Tuesday.

"The inebriated Americans had spent their illicit night under the stars in a spot normally closed to the public between the tower's second and third levels, but "did not pose any apparent threat," said Sete."

https://news.yahoo.com/american-tourist ... 30138.html