How Travel Has Changed

Okay.

My family is gearing up for a trip to France soon. As we’ve been getting ready, I’ve been prepping. Reading books, watching Youtube videos, and remembering.

This will be my third trip to France, and each trip has taken place at wildly different times in my life, AND technology has made this trip quite different from previous trips.

Here’s how things break down:

First Trip Ever:

Age: 19

Travel companions: My roommate, Shanna, and my cousin, Jon.

The flight: I scoured the NEWSPAPER for flight deals, and chose Paris because the airline tickets were pretty reasonable. I don’t recall if I then had to call a phone number to book, or if I booked online, but it is funny remembering that I would read the Sunday paper to help create travel plans!

I was living in Minnesota at the time, so we had a long layover (in Canada, I believe) before our transoceanic flight to Europe. I remember that I was very very excited for the inflight movie, so I took a nap during the layover so I could stay awake during the movie! This was a terrible mistake for two reasons: 1) It meant I went from laying around in the airport to sitting still for hours on a flight. 2) This was back when one movie would be projected onto a big screen at the front of each cabin. For this flight, the chosen movie was Austin Powers. I was 100% not interested in watching Austin Powers, but was wide awake after being well-rested from my layover napping!

Accommodations. Hostel. Except, Shanna and I took the train into the Paris with no plans at all. This was before booking hostels online was really a thing, or maybe I just didn’t feel comfortable doing that; I have no idea why we didn’t book before we went. We wandered the city with all our luggage (more on that below), and I have no idea really what we were doing to try to find a place to stay. Finally, Shanna suggested we going into a tourist office where they booked us the last two beds available in a hostel near Gare De Leon. However, I think Shanna’s bed was actually a pull out bed and our room was so crowded with other girls and their luggage, that she ended up sleeping in my top bunk with me that first night. We were able to upgrade our room as the days went by, and got nicer and nicer rooms.

Luggage. Y’all. I took this huge framed backpack thing with enough clean clothes for an entire week. It was big and heavy. Shanna fit all of her clothes in a tiny Jansport backpack with a bit of Febreeze to refresh. Shanna did things right.

Transportation. Train. We took the train from the airport into the city, and then bought the tourist train pass that gave us unlimited rides in Zones 1-2. This worked out perfectly as Gare de Leon was right near our hostel, and we could basically just wander the city with no fears of getting lost, because as long as we could find a Metro station, we could find our way back home. To this day, wandering around European cities is my favorite tourist pasttime in Europe, and it started with this trip to Paris and finding that there was no fear of getting lost since we had those Metro cards. It was also really fun as young Midwesterners to figure out and confidently use the train. Shanna remembered that her sister told her to always look for the final destination of a trainline, as that is how you know you’re getting on the train going in the right direction. (This is a tip that has worked out to be helpful in basically every city with a subway system).

Food: I remember loving our hotel’s breakfast which was half a baguette, jam, and hot chocolate or coffee. I remember the hostel worker asking me if I wanted “hot choco-latte” every morning. As a result I erronously believed that “chocolate” in France was pronounced “choco-latte.” I spent that entire week going into patiserries and ask for “pain au choco-latte” as a result. Shanna tried to tell me that that is not how they said “chocolate” in French, but I definitely heard the frenchman say “choco-latte” to me every morning, so I thought it was the way to say it. It wasn’t until years later that I realized he was probably trying to say “chocolate” in English! I also remember eating a lot a lot a lot of chocolate e’clairs, and some really amazing fruit tarts. I remember being scared to go to French restaurants, because I didn’t understand the basic rules. Do you sit down? Do you wait to be seated? Do you tip? How do you read the menu? Is there a menu? HOW DOES IT WORK??? As a result, I never once ate in a French restaurant, and I remember eating lots of street food. I vaguely remember stopping at McDonald’s once, as for years I made a point of eating at McDonald’s in every country I visited, but I kept a journal during this trip, and per my journal we ate at McDonald’s many many times! It wasn’t that I wanted McDonald’s, I was just too scared to look like a fool in a French restaurant, so I ate where I knew the customs! So so sad!

Information: I had a Fodor’s or a Frommer’s tourist book, and this is where we got information. I had also made a list of fun free things to do in Paris (gathering information from an internet search), which I printed up. There were some great walking tours in that book, but I also think I missed out on a lot because I didn’t always have information at my fingertips (I didn’t always want to carry that tourist book around with me, so we often went without information).

Most memorable experiences: I remember loving wandering the Montmarte neighborhood! To this day, I love beautiful architecture, so I loved seeing Sacre Cour. I loved wandering the shops and seeing all the street artists out and about. Shanna and Jon both had their pictures drawn by some artists. I also remember buying some adorable Le Coq Sportif shoes, and I felt really proud that I knew my shoe size (I had sold Birkenstocks at the Minnesota State Fair the year before). I also remember looooooving a little strawberry tartlet that I got on the same afternoon that I got the shoes.

Second Trip:

Age: 34

Travel Companion: My 2-month-old baby.

The flight: I booked a flight on a budget airline using points. This was my first time flying a budget transoceaning airline. They didn’t feed us at all! And I’m stubborn, so I sat in that plane and ate all the snacks I had brought, and refused to buy a single thing on the plane! I had a very very successful time flying for the first time with a newborn.

Accommodations: A 2-star hotel. This is when Priceline was big and had that amazing name-your-own-price tool. I loooooved using the name-your-own price tool, because when I travel, I mostly just care about location, and Priceline would let you bid on hotels in specific neighborhoods, so I was usually happy. I did NOT usually book 2-star hotels on Priceline (it was always best for saving $$ on 4-star hotels), but I was trying to save money. I hated this hotel. It was dusty, the walls were thin, and the carpet seemed waxy.

Luggage: Remember that huge framed backpack I used to go to Paris two decades before? Well, I dusted it right off to go back! While I had learned a lesson from using the framed backpack on my first ever trip to Paris, and hadn’t used it again for travel after that trip, I pulled it out for this trip again because I had to be able to carry my baby and all her and my clothes and supplies up and down the subway stairs. This mean that I couldn’t use a rolling suitcase, and because babies do often require multiple outfits per day, I had to bring a massive amount of stuff with me. I then wore my baby on the front of me. It was ridiculous!

Transportation: I purposely picked Paris for my first solo trip with the baby because I wanted to use public transportation (and not deal with a carseat) exclusively. However, for this trip I learned that I could buy the train pass that the locals use, if I just showed up with some small photos of myself. So, I got an unlimited ride metro card and rode around like a local!

Food: At this point, I was much better traveled, so I did NOT eat any McDonald’s! I typically did boulangerie breakfasts, a sit-down lunch, and then street food or grocery store food for dinner. Unless I’m traveling somewhere that is incredibly cheap, one of my money-saving strategies is to have just one meal a day out at a restaurant. In the case of France, they eat so late that it worked very well to have lunch as my main “fancy” meal, as I didn’t want to eat dinner at 8pm!

Information: At this point in time, I still hadn’t graduated to having data on my phone when abroad. I would connect to WiFi when I could, load up Google Maps before leaving the hotel and simply hope that it stayed loaded. My main plan was to eat and wander Paris, so I did some research on unique places to eat before I left the US, and used TripAdvisor once I was in Paris. Not having data on my phone meant that I could never research last-minute things and expect to learn the answer. For example, I didn’t know if there was a charge to go inside Notre Dame, so I didn’t even try. Then it burned up a few years later! I really wish I had been able to look tourist things up while i was out and about!

Most memorable experiences: Traveling with that huge framed backpack on my back and my baby and a messenger strapped on my front was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever done. I remember trying to stay upright on the Metro train with all that baggage on me (because I feared if I sat down, I would be unable to get up, like a turtle trapped on its back), holding onto a pole while the train veered this way and that. That was the first and only time in my life that I thought, “Am I crazy?” and considered that I might possibly be completely confused about how to make good and safe choices.

For YEARS I regretted that I hadn’t been in the Eiffel Tower during my first visit, so I made sure to get that done.

I had a memorable and embarrassing experience when I thought the police were trying to scam me.

The most hilarious experience was when I went to an old, old restaurant that Ernest Hemingway used to enjoy going to. I ordered the plat du jour, and they placed in front of me…tripe soup. TRIPE! Oh my word. It is 100% the grossest thing I’ve ever eaten. It was slimey, textured, chewy, and horrifying. I politely forced down as many bites as I could and left the restaurant (which interestingly had a squatty potty) as quickly as I could!

Third trip (up and coming):

Age: 42

Travel Companions: Husband and school-aged child

The flight: The plan is that we’ll fly with my carrier to France directly from Seattle. I got a bit excited about possibly flying first class there, but as time went on, first class filled up, so we’ll be in the main cabin. WiFi will likely not work for most of the trip, but we’ll have our seatback entertainment system.

Accommodations: AirBnBs baby! I always search prices for both AirBnBs and hotels. More often than not, AirBnBs are cheaper than hotels in the areas we want to stay, and having laundry available is a huge bonus.

Luggage: Okay. This is embarrassing. I am bringing one messenger bag and one carry-on backpack. That part is perfect and wonderful and I am usually really really good at packing reasonably. The problem? My backpack is stuffed to the gills and super heavy. Why? Disneyland Paris, yo. I don’t really know what the line is between being a regular old adult and being a Disney Adult, but I feel I’m starting to teeter towards the line. We’re planning to have 4 days at Disney, which means (of course), I needed 4 days of Disneybounding attire. This means that I’m bringing 4 full outfits that I don’t really plan to re-use! It’s really bad! But…I’m really excited to Disneybound! I think I’m becoming a Disney Adult!

Transportation: Rental car and flights. We’re actually not spending any time in Paris (if we were, we would not have a car during that time). Train tickets are kind of expensive, so it’s actually cheaper for us to fly the longer distances (since I have airline employee flight benefits). There are trains all over France, and we could probably make the train work, but for three of us, getting a car isn’t all that expensive, and gives us a lot more flexibility. We’re getting really fancy in our old age. I think parking can be difficult in some villages, so I’m hoping we don’t end up regretting going the car route.

Food: I will definitely still eat lots and lots of french pastries! I am looking forward to some lovely restaurant meals with my family, and with Google translate, I feel confident I will not make any tripe-related errors.

Information: This is the main area where travel has changed drastically for us. We now have an international cell phone plan, so we’ll be able to use our phones as soon as we land in France. This has made travel 100% easier! I have done a bit of research online, but I’ll be using TripAdvisor, and googling information as needed.

Most Memorable Experiences: TBD

Travel has changed so much during my lifetime! It’s now easier to travel than it ever has been! Get out there and plan your next trip!