Paris départs: London, Brussels, Agadir

I love Paris also for the fact that from here I can easily reach many points dear or not so dear to my heart easily. It used to take me 6 hours (from New York), 12 hours (from LA) or 24 hours (! from Melbourne) on a 747 to get to London. Now I can hop on the Eurostar and be in London a mere 2 and a half hours later. One can also hop on the Thalys and be in Brussels in just over an hour (and to Amsterdam and Cologne in about 4 hours). Train travel was never much of an option when I was living in the US or Australia (The only train line I took often was the NJ Transit from Princeton to NYC. Though indeed I still wish to travel the Orient Express, both the European version and its equivalent in Australia that traverses the continent from east to west). Train travel in France is fast, comfortable, if not so cheap. Most of the cities in France are linked to Paris via the high speed trains, le TGV (Trains à grande vitesse).

Le TGV remains one of the technological prides of France. It reduces travelling time within France considerably and links Paris to many of the other cities in the country, if exactly not between these cities themselves. For the TGV, Paris is still very much the center point from where all trains depart. Now, we can be in Marseille in just three hours and the new line to Strasbourg has just been celebrated with great fanfare (Paris-Strasbourg can now be done in just over 2 hours instead of 4. This also has a side effect of reducing air fares between these two cities considerably). Considering that many Parisians are settlers who maintain close psychological ties with their terre in the province (province refers to anything outside the Paris city limits, by the way), le TGV that progressively makes every town within comfortable reach from Paris no doubt contributes to the mental well being of many Parisians.

Paris has several main stations (gares) from which trains depart depending on your destination. Gare de Lyon handles, for instance, trains to the southeast such as Marseille. Gare Montparnasse for trains to Bordeaux and La Rochelle or the southwest, Gare de l’Est handles trains to the east such as Strasbourg and Luxembourg for the foreign destination. Gare du Nord is probably the station that you will get to know if you arrive from London via Eurostar or from Brussels via Thalys. This could mean that if you travel from Brussels to Marseille, you have to change not only trains but hike it from one station to another. But all in all, trains are very efficient and popular means of transport in France and from France to neighboring countries. Besides, you get to enjoy the scenery even at over 300km/h. Again, trains might not always be the cheapest travel options from Paris. These days, travelling to London by air can be much cheaper than travelling there by train, for instance. Checking the internet for special fares can be rewarding though. In Paris, best to avoid departing on Friday nights (when everyone goes to their province) and Sunday nights (when everyone comes back to the city) when all the stations would be a madhouse of people on the verge of a mental breakdown for fear of missing their trains or the last metro.

Paris - London (Londres)
Whenever I feel nostalgic for an anglo life style, I take a day trip from Paris to London to get my dose of friendly and polite waiters/waitresses, munchies and eating at all hours of the day (in Paris many restaurants do not serve out outside the hours associated with eating, namely lunch and dinner. Forget trying to get something cooked between 4 and 7 at night, for instance). I leave at the reasonable hour of 10 am, arrive in London in time for lunch (London is one hour behind Paris) of maybe fish and chips (Of course, none of my French friends could understand that I sometime have a craving for this supposedly not so refined food), do a bit of window shopping (especially the Australian shoe/boots shop Blundstone), take in the Tate modern and take the train back after a spot of coffee towards 19h (or a ride on the London Eye) to be back in Paris at 11 pm in time to go for drinks with friends in Oberkampf street.

To me, no two other cities seem to be so different and so alike as London and Paris. They are alike as both have the big city feel that you also get in New York. You feel the rush, you feel the energy and possibilities in both cities. But Londoners can still be polite even if in a hurry, euh, unlike Parisians. My image of Paris (generalization, of course, based on salient features, but as you know, this is a very basic cognitive tendency among humans) is Chic and Conformist. Of London, I have a schizophrenic image that is both conservative and punk, and creative. If London was a gay man, he would be dressed in tailored grey suit or in leather with all the accessories. If Paris was a gay man, he would be dressed very chic with attention to the last details (including how his scarf should be tied just so around his rather wrinkled neck, for instance). Despite the individualism that Parisians may attempt at how they look, they would still conform to this idea of chic that is shared by everyone. You cannot define chic alone!

Paris - Brussels (Bruxelles)
On those getaway days when I don’t feel like bringing my umbrella, I take the Thalys to Brussels instead. Arriving in Brussels’ Gare du Midi (or Zuid), you can take the tram to go to the Grand Place and admire this little spot that features 17th century buildings or older (eg. the Hotel de Ville) with eclectic architectures reflective of the region. Brussels overall has wonderful art nouveau buildings. Everything is nearby, including the Manneken Pis (Manekin Pis) which I imagind being a lot bigger that it actually is. Among the myriad of cafés in the Grand place, there is also a wonderful bagel shop that serves good bagels with all kinds of toppings. You put in your order downstairs and bring it upstairs in a room that looks out on the Grand Place and is decorated as if the living room of a friend. Parks are wonderful in Brussels including the Parc Cinquantenaire and the Royal Art Park (both, by the way, are very cruisy at night). And of course, the French fries in Brussels are the best (I have heard that Brussels claimed to be the birth place of French fries?) to be eaten with the special mayonnaise and not ketchup. And don’t forget Belgian chocolates. Paris may be known as the place for fashion haute couture, but Brussels is the place for haute couture of chocolate! If Paris has Jean Paul Gaultier, Brussels has Pierre Marcolini!
If chocolate could substitute for sex, I can understand why the Belgians do not make love as much as the French (Again, stereotype!). Once I went to a Parisian bar before taking in a movie on the 5th arrondissement. During the conversation with the bartender I mentioned that I was going to see the film ‘La vie sexuelle des Belges.’ (The sex life of Belgians). Without missing a beat he said that oh well that should be a short movie! Back to Brussels, shopping streets are all within walking distance from the Grand Place, including an aeroplane model store (for my aviation enthusiasts friends) on the small street just behind the Grand place on the cafés side. Brussels I find small enough to have that small town feeling, but still offers enough to visitors. In both London and Brussels, you can buy day tickets that you can use for unlimited travel on their public transport system.

Paris - Agadir
Paris also is well served by air service to many points that could serve as weekend getaways. Morocco represents an exotic destination reachable in a mere flying time of 3 hours. One grey January in Paris, I took a short break to go to Agadir, in southern coast of Morocco. Three hours after I left Orly on a 737 of Royal Air Maroc and said good bye to snowy and cold Paris, I was in my shorts lying on the beach sipping exotic fruit juices in sunny weather. The water was a bit cold but hey, the sand was warm and the men were hot. And to find a totally different country climatically, linguistically, culturally, politically and in many other ways just 3 hours away (and not very expensive either, the ticket prices were about the same as if not lower than flying to other parts of Western Europe) what more could one ask? Hotels were reasonable and often right by the beach. All this after just a few clicks on the internet and, Voila, you find yourself surrounded by warm friendly people who are eager to welcome you to their country.

Being so different, Agadir/Morocco could be very eye opening. The difference between the rich and the poor is still visible as it is in many developing countries. I was invited by a new Moroccan friend to his home that was probably more appropriately described as a hut. No flooring, no toilet inside and reached via a small dark alleyway that inclines sharply outside the city limit (I had to admit that I started to question my decision to go home with this man of whom I knew nothing about then. He turned out to be the sweetest man! Despite being poor, he was generous and insisted on giving me a cadeau of very kitsch plastic yellow flowers that my Paris friends would find simply horrifying before he took me back to my hotel. I still indeed have the flowers to remind me of him, though they are well hidden in my closet). In contrast, another (Moroccan) friend that I met through the gay network lived in a beautiful traditional house that incorporates different levels, open spaces and huge!

Restaurants vary in prices depending on whether they cater to tourists or not (though all is still cheap compared to Paris). I ate at the port of Agadir with a Moroccan friend, eating freshly caught fish cooked right there with salad and bread and it cost the same as drinking two cafés au lait (or crème as we call it in Paris) in a café back in Paris. Expect to pay more in tourist restaurants, naturally. Many restaurants in the city don’t serve wine or alcoholic drinks either, though the hotel bars were very well stocked.

In Agadir, I understood for the first time the ugly tourist concept: Moneyed men from rich countries who buy off and surround themselves with young men. Having observed one closely in a restaurant (where the tourist flaunted his cash for all to see, with an apparent sheer conviction that he could buy everyone there with his money), I slunk away shame faced as if these moneyed men’s behaviors unavoidably reflected on me. I suppose despite the fact that I did not see any link whatsoever between these men and myself, I am well aware that the people here might lump us in the same category of tourists. On the other hand, walking around late at night, I was also approached by local guys who right away declared their love (or at least their availability) though I felt they also anticipated that you give them something in return (ie., money). Money talks I guess. And it beckons those who are in need, late at night in Agadir.

Agadir is not one of the imperial cities that have beautiful traditional architectures or typically Morrocan feel to it as Fez or Marrakech. The city was destroyed by an earthquake some forty years ago (1960) and was therefore rebuilt new. Nonetheless, the people, the beach and the weather make this place very special. There is a center for local artworks where you can see local artists at work. There is the traditional market or souk. There is also a birdpark right in the middle of the city which, despite its name, strangely included non-bird 4 legged animals! Walking around this park, you escape the hustle and bustle of the city and car noises that are typical of any city. Along the beach, you find cafes and places where you can get fresh juice of fruits that you cannot even name but are simply delicious. People come to the beach to surf (body suits needed for January though) or just to lie on the warm sand and sun with a book as I did. Oh yes, and you can ride camels on the beach too.