09-02-2014, 01:39 PM
Will Collier wrote:
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Having heard tales of rude Frenchmen (and -women) all my life, I was quite ready to hate Paris in the single brief day I spent there (I'm not counting getting stuck at De Gaulle Airport a couple of other times; getting stuck in any airport by definition sucks), but to my mild consternation, every single Parisian I so much as bumped into on the sidewalk went out of their way to be nice to me.
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I have to concur with this assessment. I love Paris. The author didn't believe there would be poor people in a major world city? Get a clue!
A few years back, we arrived at Gare du Nord with too much luggage and needed to get to Gare de l'est for a trip south. Unfortunately the taxi queue was way long, so I stupidly thought that the Metro was a good alternative. Several Parisians helped rescue us from this foolish decision even to the extent of carrying some of our luggage up several flights of steps.
If I had to pick a city that didn't thrill me, it would probably be Milan. Nothing really disappointing, just nothing memorable. It's a nice, old, generic European city with not much to do except eat Italian food, which isn't my passion.
However, overall, I have to say that I enjoy my visits to Europe, even Milan.