Current Location: Nice, France
Jon and I have been spending the last four days in the French Riviera. We took the train from Barcelona to Perpignan, France. When we crossed the border into France the passport police boarded the train and started going car by car checking passports. The officer had almost reached us when he paused to look back at his fellow officer who had been knocking on the door to the bathroom since entering our car. Suddenly the door opened and this dread-locked, and seriously dirty, hippie girl rushed out and tried to hurry past the officer and go into the next car. He started calling out to her and following her and the officer who was about to question us rushed past and joined him. They ended up pulling that girl, and three of her travel companions off the train with all of their stuff, and questioned them on the platform beside the train. Finally another officer boarded and glanced at our passports for a second and moved on. This was a point of slight worry for me because I’ve been having some problems with my passport. It was issued in 1999 before I went abroad to London to study for a summer. After that I traveled for a few weeks to various countries, and since the EU passport freedoms had not been imposed yet, I received a stamp from every country I went to. Upon my return to East Lansing, I promptly misplaced my driver’s license and chose to carry my passport in the back pocket of my jeans on countless nights out to the bar. Then a year after graduation I moved to Dublin, and received a stamp, and traveled to a few more countries and received stamps… So… let’s just say that my passport has seen better days. It’s all crumpled, and the US seal on the front is pretty faded when compared to Jon’s. The edges of the pages have started to yellow from age, and in the picture I look totally different. My hair was halfway down my back and I was in mid-blink which gives the overall impression of me being totally stoned. On top of all of this, when Jon and I first flew into Europe we went through Point of Entry Passport Control in Paris before continuing on to Madrid. For whatever reason those assholes just looked at our passports and didn’t stamp them. I didn’t think about it at the time but they have to be stamped upon entry! When we went to Morocco they questioned us at passport control as to where our point of entry stamp was, but ended up letting us go forward. When we re-entered into Spain they re-stamped us but the guy who did mine didn’t press hard enough so it looks like it says 2006 instead of 2008. I was really given a hard time by the passport control in Portugal and I think that if Jon wasn’t traveling with me with the exact same stamp, but one that had turned out, on his passport, they wouldn’t have let me forth. Anyway, I guess it’s not a big deal in France.
In any case the delay caused us to get into Perpignan an hour late, but we picked up our cute Opal convertible and headed on our way. Opals are made by GM which we thought was appropriate considering we are from the former GM capital of the world.
France has been wonderful! Everyone has been amazingly friendly to us. The idea of the French being rude is greatly exaggerated. I just think the only place most people go to in France is Paris and you often find that in big cities people might be a little gruffer than in other places. It would hardly be fair if people from other countries judged how nice Americans are as a whole by the average New Yorker… I know, I lived there. It’s hard living in small places and having to fight your way for anything- a beer, a parking spot, a sandwich, whatever.
It is utterly spectacular here. I don’t have my camera on me right now but I will try to post pictures soon. I especially loved the French countryside. It’s breathtaking, and peaceful and absolutely lovely. I would love to move to France someday. It’s really been a great trip. We went to the best preserved Roman arena in the world in Nimes (much better preserved than the Coliseum in Rome) and the aqueduct which was really cool. But mostly we’ve just been touring along the coast, enjoying the weather and the scenery.
Tomorrow we head to Monte Carlo, Monaco for the day and we’re hoping to strike it really rich because we feel like we’ve been hemorrhaging money. Wish us luck!
Next Stop: Monte Carlo, Monaco
This Way Maybe 