Things I've Learned from France

On our way to Bruges, Jeremy and I reflected on our time in France and compiled a list of things that we learned.

French food can be great, but some is pretty bad, too.
     We ate one or two meals out every day, so we had some delicious meals like our special three hour lunch of French specialties; however, we also had some meals that were much more expensive than we would normally have and not nearly as good.  We learned to take recommendations with a grain of salt and to know the source!

The Eiffel Tower is actually as romantic as they say.
     The views from the top of the Eiffel Tower were beautiful, but my favorite scenes included the Eiffel Tower as part of the sky line.

The French are as crazy about their cheese as the Spaniards are about their ham.
     Both of these are kinds of crazy that Jeremy and I can appreciate and enjoy.  There were cheese shops on almost every street, so we were never deficient of calcium (or delicious sandwiches).

Their may be more to good wine than Riesling.
     I have never been much for rich, full bodied wines; I much prefer a light, sweet white wine.  However, the wine tasting on our last night, as well as the other wines that we drank during our stay, have opened my eyes to new possibilities.

The French should really stick to wine because their beer is terrible.
     To be fair, we only tried a few French beers because we wanted to taste more of their delicious wines.  But when you can't get a good beer at a microbrewery, then it says a lot about a country's beer making.

If I was a spelunker, then I would focus my explorations in the caves of the Champagne region.
     I didn't think that I liked dry champagne until I tried real champagne.  It might not always be worth the splurge, but on special occasions, I won't turn away a glass or two!

According to our unofficial study, about 30% of all metro rides include free musical entertainment.
     We saw musicians playing everything from the guitar to the accordian in styles that varied from rap to classical.  (Disclosure:  only about 10% of the "entertainment" was something tolerable to listen to)

People have a love/hate relationship with pigeons across the planet.
     We saw cute old men feeding pigeons old bagettes.  We saw toddlers trying to catch them and giggling when they flew away.  And, we saw teenagers luring them in and then trying to kick them.  I fit into the category with the old men; I tried to make sure that the pigeons with the missing toes ate first.

We were surrounded by famous art, and yet, it was so difficult to find reasonably priced original pieces to bring home.
     We missed out on supposedly a great art market which may have changed our feelings on this, but we couldn't find anything in our budget that hadn't been mass produced.

The rain in Spain may fall mainly in the plain, but in France, it falls in Paris.
     We figured that we only had sun on two days while we were in Paris.  Most days were overcast and had some amount of precipitation, but we were still able to do most of the things that we wanted to.

Lunch can take over three hours and still be enjoyable.
     (See the post from October 6th)

There are over 130,000 wine producers in France and some of them make junk.
     Not all wines are created equal.  Choose carefully and find a trusted wine shop.

The French love to shop.
     They buy groceries multiple times a week and bread almost daily.  There are small fruit stands and bakeries on nearly every street.  They have flea markets throughout the city on different days of the week.  There are book sellers on the street lining the river.  And, they have one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world--the Champs Elysees.



Jeremy's Top 5 of France:
-Eiffel Tower
-Wine Tasting
-Arc de Triomph
-Three hour cafe lunch
-Museum Day (Louvre, Orsay, L'Orangerie)

Kari's Top 5 of France:
-Three hour cafe lunch
-The Eiffel Tower views at night from the Arc de Triomph
-L'Orangerie museum
-Versailles
-Champagne cave tour

Things that we would like to do someday...
-Eat in the Eiffel Tower (way out of budget right now)
-Normandy
-Montemartre Wine Festival (we missed it by just a few days this time)
-Art Market in Paris
-Making wine when we get home (who's with us??)