Special requests

It's time to settle the final bill with the travel agency, and somewhere in that process I was sent a copy of the dossier the agency has compiled on each of us so that the crew can prepare for us in advance of our arrival.

Most of this information came from the booking forms you all sent in (thank you!), and a big chunk of that form was dedicated to special requests, dietary needs and interests you have.

What struck me as interesting is that, other than me, only one of you had any special requests at all, and that request was sooo modest--that the boat be stocked with plenty of Cokes and Sprites. I'm sure this would have been taken care of anyway, and I suspect the real request should have been that the boat be stocked with plenty of ice. Cokes can be had pretty easily in France, but that's not always true with ice that we take for granted.

Don't worry, I'm sure there will be glaciers full of ice on the barge--they know they're catering to a boatload of Americans and won't want to disappoint us.

But here's the deal: don't you realize that in filling out this booking form you all had a once in a lifetime opportunity to become divas and instead chose to continue to behave like the happy, well-balanced and easygoing people I know?

What a waste! Where's that spirit of entitlement? Where is that whole Ugly American vibe?

Just think of the things you could have insisted on in the special requests section. To help you, I'll give you some ideas of things you could have asked for, but didn't:

1. That the crew addresses you as Your Eminence at all times. If tney insist on addressing you by name, they should call you Lord Cromwell.

2. Your bed should be repositioned so that its head points to magnetic north each day when the bed is made. This is both a medical request and insisted upon by your feng shui master for your spiritual well being.

3. The barge crew needs to play only Lithuanian folk music over its stereo system, and if they try to substitute any Latvian folk songs, there will be hell to pay.

4. There must be a crew member designated as the official taster of the group to prevent intentional poisoning of the guests.

5. All white lights on the boat must be removed and substituted with light blue lights because they make for the best looking skintones at night.

6. And continuing with the blue theme, Blue Jello must be one of the dessert offerings each night.

7. Two words: toga night.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Hey, the next time you get a chance to unleash your inner diva, I hope you take advantage of it.

France on Strike

The big news in France today is the general strike that has been going on for the last day or so.

Somewhere between one and three million Frenchmen and Frenchwomen took to the streets in 200 French cities and towns yesterday to protest the current economic problems. How not working is supposed to help their economy kind of escapes me, but we'll ignore the politics of this for the moment.

As a result of the protests about a third of the flights out of Orly airport in Paris and 40% of the regional train schedule were cancelled. In addition about 10% of the nations electrical output was reduced.

The French seem to enjoy going on strike and they do it a lot. The last time a whole bunch of French folks went on strike was all of two months ago.

If there's a strike on while we're there, we're not likely to even notice it unless we run into a demonstration on the streets. French people adapt well to strikes and they tend not to shut down services that would keep tourists from coming to or enjoying their country.

For instance, during yesterday's strike, the Paris metro ran a full schedule and the international flights out of CDG weren't impacted.

Mass strikes like this usually begin genially and end up with young people throwing bottles at the cops while they fire tear gas back in return. Generally the protest culminates in the burning of a few random cars and everyone goes home happy. Yesterday was no exception to this general rule.

Walking Tour

My list of must see sights in Paris on this trip is pretty small.

1. The Orsay Museum
2. Versailles
3. Saint Chappelle/Notre Dame
4. Nighttime bateau mouche trip

If you've never been to Paris, the Louvre and Le Tourre Eiffel are probably things you need to check off of your lifetime list, but I think I'll skip those this time through. Also, I think the ladies are plotting a shopping day, and I'll bow out on that as well.

After that, it's pretty much up for grabs for me. There are a few other "lesser" sites like the sewer tour (or the catacombs, but only one underground visit) and the advertising museum (with my advertising professor wifie) that I may want to visit time permitting.

One thing I'm planning to do is to take several walking self-tours in Paris. I've found a really good book called "Frommer's 24 Great Walks in Paris" that happens to be published by my employer that I'm going to be using.

I got this book a few months ago and have only recently begun to really go through it. It contains 24 themed walks that each cover less than two miles and should take a couple of hours each. Some of them really sound interesting and I'm going to try to knock out several of these while we're there.

Realistically, I don't know how many of these walks I can cover given our limited time in Paris and weather will certainly have an impact on my walking tour plans. Paris really is one of the greatest cities on our planet and there's no way to cover it all in the short time we'll have there.

If you want to join me on any or all of my pedestrian excursions through Paris, you're more than welcome.

There's also a service offered through the Paris tourism board that matches a local volunteer with a small group like ours for a free walking tour. I'll investigate that as we get a little closer.

So much Paris, so little time!

What Not to Pack #2

At the risk of outraging our medical team, I'm leaving the hand sanitizer at home. Here's my rationale--I don't carry the stuff around with me over here and I travel all the time--in fact I'm writing this from a hotel room in Troy. I spend my working days at universities, which are heaven on earth for germs. So if I don't use the Purell on this side of the Atlantic, why should I add weight to my luggage by toting the stuff with me to Europe?

The bathrooms of France typically come with soap and running water as standard equipment, so if you just follow common sense hygiene protocols and wash your hands regularly, you'll be just fine.

Also, I'm sure at least one of you is going to pack an industrial sized bottle of this potion anyway, so if I have a hand sanitizer emergency, I'll bet I can mooch off of you.

The only time I ever do use hand sanitizer is at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and, trust me, it's necessary to douse yourself in gallons of the life saving goo when you're at Jazz Fest. If you've ever been to Jazz Fest, you know exactly what I mean.

If you do feel the overwhelming urge to bring hand sanitizer with you, remember the whole stupid "liquids and gels" rule limiting what you can carry on and how you have to pack it.

What Not to Pack #1

Here's my first suggestion on items best left unbought or left at home if you already own them. Remember, you're a grownup and you can bring whatever you want with you--this is just my humble opinion. My dear spouse has already warned me that she's planning on writing an impassioned defense of today's what-not-to-pack item.

Today's suggestion on what not to pack is that inflatable mini-flotation device known as the neck pillow. The idea is that it's supposed to make you more comfortable on that long flight across the Atlantic.

I think these are a total waste of space in your carry on bag. The deal is, that you're going to be miserable anyway packed in like a sardine on that 10 hour (or whatever it is) flight from Houston to Paris, and that silly neck pillow isn't going to help you a bit. I've tried them and, if anything, I find them more uncomfortable than just suffering suffering stoically and telling yourself "I can put up with anything for 10 hours" over and over.

The thing that helps me the most is the GPS image that they have on board that shows you where the plane is in relation to where you've been and where you're going. It really helps me know that we're making progress and that the flight will be over at some point.

Packing List--#1 in a series

With less than three months to go, it's time to start thinking about packing for the big trip. So I'm going to give my highly opinionated list of things that I believe should consider taking with you (and I'll also suggest a few things best left at home). Please feel free to pass on your must-have items for inclusion in the list.

My overall rule for packing is to try to keep it as light as possible, although I don't always succeed at this. When planning what to bring with you, try to keep in mind that people have been living in France for thousands of years and everything necessary to sustain life is available over there. So if you forget something, or regret not packing something, don't fret. You can very likely buy whatever you need over there too.

I do suggest that you carry on a change of undies and socks and the minimum number of personal items (cosmetics and sundries) necessary for a day or two should your luggage not arrive with you in France.

Today's entry is that all-purpose tool, the Swiss Army knife. You never know when or why you're going to need it, but you definitely will somewhere along the line to repair small electronics, open up a bottle of wine, cut a piece of cheese or bread, perform minor surgery or who knows what else.

The thing to remember about this item is that it needs to go into your checked suitcase and not your carry on bag or you're likely to donate it to the TSA. I've lost several knives over the years when I've forgotten they were in my carry on and they got confiscated in the interest of public safety.

Found while looking for something else

Another fashion possibility

Here's another sample of current Paris fashion for you ladies to consider as you ponder shopping in the City of Lights.

From the Paris Catwalk

Here's the latest in Paris fashion. The UK Daily Mail describes the Alexander McQueen collection that was just exhibited in Paris as a "triumph." You decide. All I know is that this marks the 100th post on the Marjorie blog.

Quick Mental Vacation

I can't remember if I've shared this before, but here's a nice photo gallery I found of the Marjorie 2. Click here and then click on the top left picture and then keep clicking next. Enjoy.

London Calling?

The French government tourist website has all kinds of groovy stuff on it, and they run scads of different contests. Their latest contest involves the Eurostar, the train that connects London and Paris.

If you want to see a fairly amateurish, but mercifully short video about the Eurostar and enter to win a trip to Paris and London, click here and then go to "become a Paris London Eurostar expert". This is a site that's well worth exploring.

Anyway, here's the deal with the Eurostar: It's a train that takes you from the heart of Paris, under the English Channel and into the heart of London in two hours and fifteen minutes. That's pretty cool and very, very fast. That also means that it would be very possible for anyone who really wanted to see London for a day to leave early on the Eurostar, have a full day of sightseeing in London and still be back in Paris by bedtime or even dinner.

Teri and I have been on a lot of trains together, but only on one of the high speed trains in Europe--the Spanish AVE train between Madrid and Seville, and it was a wonderful way to travel.

If you've never been to London and think you won't get back to Europe any time soon, it might be worth considering a day trip to see the Queen. I just priced out a ticket for the Saturday we'll be in Paris and you can buy a round trip ticket to London that leaves Paris at 7:15 a.m. and gets you into London by 8:30 a.m. You can head back to Paris at 8 p.m., getting you back to Paris at 11:15 p.m. (there's a time zone thing going on, Paris is an hour later than London). The price of that round trip ticket is $103 (Dollars, not Euros).

If you want to do this, I'd book the tickets now, since I noticed that some trains on that day were already fully booked.

Hell's Kitchen Goes Michelin

I'm a huge fan of reality television shows. I love Survivor and the Amazing Race, but I like most of them. It's a true guilty pleasure for me. I don't know if you've ever watched the Fox TV show Hell's Kitchen, but if you've never seen it, I can bring you up to speed in a couple of sentences.

The idea of Hell's Kitchen is that chef Gordon Ramsey, a really foul mouthed British chef with a $100 million + restaurant empire and an ego to match, humiliates, abuses and otherwise mistreats a bunch of aspiring young chefs. Each week one of the chefs gets kicked out of Hell's Kitchen and the last one standing at the end of the season gets rewarded with a job as executive chef at one of Ramsay's many restaurants. If you think about Donald Trump's show The Apprentice, only with food instead of real estate and with a huge mean streak thrown in, you'll pretty much have the idea.

The other thing you need to know is that the Michelin Red Guide is the worldwide authority and bible of gastronomy. It rates the best handful of restaurants in the world between one and three stars. If a restaurant is awarded a single Michelin star that places it in the upper echelon of restaurants on the planet.

Ramsay's restaurants have already been awarded a total of 14 Michelin stars and only two other Chefs in the world, both of them French, hold more stars than he.

Oh, you also need to know that the French take the whole food thing seriously, very seriously. The French president has even gone so far as to ask the UN to name French cuisine as part of the world's heritage.

So, here's where these things intersect. Last year Ramsay opened his first restaurant in France, Gordon Ramsay au Trianon, at Versailles. Naturally, the French being French, it opened to fairly hostile reviews. One famous French critic labled it "Gordon Ramsayland". The French mocked it for being out of Paris and said it would only appeal to tourists and not the more discerning French people.

Well Ramsay just got the last laugh. He just became the first British chef in the 109 year history of the Michelin Guide to win two stars for a restaurant in France.

If you want to take a peek at his very pricey menu click here.

So the next time you turn on the TV and Hell's Kitchen appears, you'll know that this dude really does know how to cook or knows how to hire people who can.

Great travel article on France

My patron saint of European travel Rick Steves (the guy in the public television DVD) has just written a very good article about travel in France that you might want to read. Here's a link to it: Rick Steves article.