Mark's Travels

10 years of travel blogging from 35+ countries around the world

Paris on a fresh passport 23rd May 2010 in Paris, France


I put my British passport to use yesterday with day trip to Paris. The French border guard barely touched my passport before not stamping it and handing it back to me.

Paris is an interesting place but photos of the city don't tend to show the hoards of Roma begging, Africans trying to scam you out of money and generally miserable isolationists in love with themselves you'll come across working wherever you go to buy food. People might say London is awful but there aren't any scammers at our tourist sites, it took the police about a year to round up all the Roma beggars only for them to reemerge with The Big Issue in hand, London is much cleaner than Paris and there is a much wider selection of food here. Sometimes it can feel like a race back to the stone age here in Western Europe but I'm glad the French are winning.

With all that being said, I don't hate France. The south of France is a gem and I hope to visit again sometime in the near future.

Having dodged Vocanos and French workers striking I was feeling on top of the world heading back to London but still, there was something to halt my Eurotrip: Some guys came and stole the cabling used for signalling high-speed trains between the UK, France and Belgium. We travelled at 5 KM/H through the French countryside honking the train horn until we passed the affected area.

I used some new Camera equipment on this trip. I'm still coming to grips with the exposure settings and the brightness and washed out colours are something I'm still trying to address. Rarely do we have a day equally as bright and yesterday in Paris so I was ill-prepared to say the least.


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