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The good and the bad of France - France
by Gina | Date >
2004-07-02 | Country : France | City : Paris
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| Well here I was, 18 years old and never been kissed ( a touch of artistic licence here) and the boyfriend of the moment suggested that we take up a cheap deal to Paris. Four nights at the Ibis Hotel, flight included for next to nothing who could resist, well not me especially as he was paying.
The French airport that was supposed to be near Paris was actually a four hour coach journey with a mad driver at the helm. The first evidence of this was the Barry Manilow CD that he played over and over again for the first two hours. After that came the Abba CD, marginally better but not much.
We stopped at a hotel to let people out, there was a car in the way, no problem, the driver just pushed it out of the way using the front of the coach. What are a few dents between countrymen.
After an hour or so we became aware that we were being driven up and down the same streets, hell the driver was lost. We finally found our hotel and guess what, the restaurant was closed. Never mind that we begged, pleaded and offered to sell our souls for a biscuit, the hotel staff would not give us a morsel.
The next morning we rushed down to breakfast to find, well not charming staff and delicious croissants thats for sure. The food was stale and the waitresses were treating us as the nuisances that we so obviously were.
Our fellow guests were muttering under their breaths that we were being treated badly because we were English. As I passed a table of Germans I heard them say something similar about how badly the French treat Germans. NOT SO, French waiters and waitresses treat all their foreign customers with contempt.
Paris was everything I had expected, really wonderful, the spring weather was warm and I had the best of times.
The boyfriend ? Well he didn’t last but the memories of Paris did.
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