Quote:
Originally posted by Aelia Jusa:
Thanks for all those ideas, Mark! We were thinking of a boat tour. Were you able to speak French when you were there? Neither of us do very well at all; we're buying phrase books and so on and we're really going to try but I can see us being pretty hopeless at it - will it be a problem do you think?
|
I can't speak French and my wife Debra does a little, her Mom is French-Canadian. We also stayed with Debra's friend who has lived in Paris for about 5 or 6 years, though she is not fluent either.
The people we met we very tolerant and knew some English so it was never a problem. I think the tourist industry needs to know some English just so they won't lose some business, so it's not a big problem.
We had a few funny encounters due to a perceived language barrier that was just not there.
DO NOT LEAVE PARIS without eating the bread or the Ice Cream. Both are too good too miss!
My vacation in Paris was a perfect one and I really wish we could do it again, but there are so many other places to go. I think we will go again after we retire. I envy the people of Europe. They can visit other countries as easily (especially now that there is a common currency) as we Americans visit other states. There's so much to see that is culturally diverse and historically wondrous.
If you can get it, buy this
book. It's called 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. It doesn't go into deep detail, but it does give you ideas for where to go and then you can research them on the Net. I bought it for my wife's birthday and it will be referred to as we plan future trips. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Mark