The night before we left Reims, our couchsurfing host, Germain, was quite helpful.  He found us a nice piece of cardboard from a shot glass set and a good, blue marker for us to write our sign.  Unsure of where would be easiest to hitchhike to from Reims, we created a two-sided sign; one to Frankfurt and the other to Saarbrucken, the first major German city across the border along the main highway.  I did the block lettering and Deenaree added some flair with cute, feminine decorations.  As a final touch, she wrote “S.V.P” on both sides of the sign for “s’il vous plait”.  Finally, we checked on a few websites to find good places to hitchhike around Reims.  It is well known in the hitchhiking world that big cities are a horrible place to try to hitchhike and gas stations and toll booths on major highways are great.  It turns out Reims is not that big of a city and also happens to have a toll booth on a major east-west highway just outside of town!

We were prepared to take a bus to the outskirts of town the next morning and walk the final mile to the toll booth to get to our chosen toll booth, but our couchsurfing host went even further out of his way and offered to drive us out to the spot in the morning.  He was able to get us within 50 feet of the toll booth which was fantastic, except that we were on the wrong side of the road.  I had my first panic attack and wondered if he should take us somewhere where we didn’t have to cross.  Finally, Deenaree talked some sense into me and we managed to say goodbye and cross the toll-booth-stopping-traffic without any trouble at all.

Once reasonably in place on the proper side of the road we settled in for the long wait.  The first problem we noticed was that it wasn’t a normal toll booth.  It was only the place where the drivers pick up tickets at the start of a toll road.  The lines were shorter and the windows were not down as long.  We watched many cars pass and were fascinated by the reactions.  Some people ignored, others shook their heads in disgust and others gave a knowing, apologetic smile, acknowledged that they couldn’t help us.  Either way, the cars kept going past.  There was a small rest area just past the toll booth that we thought of switching to if we waited for too long.  We started questioning our decision especially since it was a bit chilly outside and our feet were getting cold.

Luckily, we were picked up after only 30 short minutes.   When it happened, it was hard to see the face at first before he actually pulled over.  It was a nice car and it looked legit.  We pointed at ourselves to make sure he was looking at us, amazed by the first time we had been offered a ride by a perfect stranger.  We threw our bags in the back and hopped in for the ride.

It turned out that our ride was Mori from West Africa (Guinea to be specific).  His parents had immigrated to Germany before he was born.  They now live in Paris and he was living with his wife and two children in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.  He was on his way back from Paris after visiting his parents for the long weekend.  He offered to take us all the way to his hometown, where we could easily catch a train for the last hour to get to Frankfurt.  He turned out to be a very pleasant fellow, discussing life in Germany and Guinea.  As we were already considering a trip to West Africa, we were filled with questions and he gladly answered.  His goal in life was to retire to his land on an island just off the coast of Guinea where he would open a small bed and breakfast.  He was incredibly helpful, stopped for bathroom breaks and even offered us some of his stockpile of Aldi orange juice.

The five hour drive went quickly and we felt we had a new friend by the time he dropped us off at the train station in Bad Kreuznach.  He told us of his friend in Mali, who could help us if we decided to travel there.  We exchanged information and he walked us into the train station and helped us buy the ticket we needed to get to Frankfurt.  We said our farewells and were sad that our first wonderful experience with hitchhiking was over.

Currency: Euro (1 Euro=$1.5 USD)

Cities Visited: Toulouse, Paris, Reims

Beware the scams (advice from a Frenchman)-
- demanding a tip. A 15% service charge is by law added to the bill and should appear on it. No tip is required. Lose change or a couple euros or nothing are enough.
- pushing consumption, including bringing larger sizes/portions on the table and have you pay for them
- you can always ask for tap water in the restaurants and it should be free (by law I think). Tap water = “eau du robinet” [ro-bee-ne(t)] – last syllable is like the fishing ‘net’ without pronouncing the ‘t’

You may be required to pay a bit extra for showers at your hotel.

The Louvre is closed on Tuesday.

In order to avoid the lines anywhere in Paris, arrive well before opening hours.

Couchsurfing in Paris requires early planning and is pretty much impossible during the summer months if you don’t start months ahead.

Visit the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, near Notre Dame, as it is the best bookstore on the planet.

To access the 3rd floor of the Eiffel Tower, you will have to pay an additional amount.

Champagne is only called “champagne” if it comes from Champagne.  Otherwise, it’s “sparkling wine”.

When saying cheers, the word is santé (at least in Toulouse) and you must look in the other people’s eyes.  Otherwise, you will be cursed with a bad love life for several years.

Hitchhiking is easy here, especially for couples.  It is sometimes preferred over other methods of transport because they are really expensive.

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Anything that came from the French bakeries, the happiest places in the world
• Experience: The “sparkling” Eiffel Tower
• Something to remember: Come back to experience the rest of France

Ben´s list…

• Food: Cheese, cheese and cheese
• Experience: Wandering around Toulouse, my favorite city so far in France
• Something to remember: Seeing a biker get intentionally hit by a car in Toulouse (don’t worry, he only had minor injuries)

However, as soon as we exited the train platform, walked down the stairs that led out of the station, and saw the Eiffel Tower’s outline against the pre-dawn sky, I was instantly revitalized.  I was in wonderful “Pair-ee”, city of romance, fashion, and culture!  There was no sleep to be had!

We spent the next hour and a half walking quiet city streets in search of reasonable accommodation.  Some hotels were closed and some contained groggy owners who had no rooms for us.  It was quite a trek with our big bags, but witnessing this city wake up has gone down as one of my most precious memories to date.  When we finally did find a room, it was in a small hotel that had a 40′s style cafe on the ground floor and an old French gentleman as the owner.   After surveying the room and relieving tired shoulders of heavy bags, we left the hotel and headed towards France’s famous icon.

Our early morning arrival allowed for great photo ops as traffic had not made its way to our location in front of the tower.  We took our share of pictures and then made our way to the ticket areas underneath.  Seeing the giant iron lattices looming above us was dizzying and magnificent at the same time.  I couldn’t believe that we were standing here!

Because we had arrived before the opening time, we found a bench and waited it out by eating a breakfast of bread, jam, peanut butter, and various cheeses that had accompanied us from Toulouse.  While we waited, steady streams of people started to line up.  We noticed that the line to walk up the tower was considerably shorter…ok, it was nonexistent…in comparison with the elevator lines so we opted for the walk up instead of the hour long waits for the elevator.

The walk up was worthwhile because there were signs on each landing with interesting tidbits of information about the tower.  On the 2nd floor, detailed signs were posted pointing to various buildings and monuments around the city.  We also learned all about the history of the tower from it’s birth as a temporary exhibit for the 1889 World’s Fair to its status as most visited monument of the world.  We took a considerable amount of time on this floor just soaking in all of the information before lining up for the elevator from 2nd to 3rd floor (walking was not an option).  On 3rd floor, we had more of an opportunity to walk around this outdoor deck and take more pictures before heading back down.

Motivated by our visit to this monument, we spent a few hours that day hitting up some more Parisian hot spots with a walk down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées on our way to the Arc de Triomphe.  At night, we returned to the tower because I was hoping to see it lit up.  Plus, I had a notion that it might “twinkle” like in the movie, Devil Wears Prada, when Anne Hathaway’s character heads to Paris and they cut to a view of the city with the tower twinkling.

When we arrived to the lawn across the street, we saw that a crowd had already gathered.  We asked a couple of men, from India, about a potential light show and they told us it would be at 9:00, which would be in 20 minutes or so.  We waited with anticipation and finally the moment came.   Sparkling lights coursed the length of this impressive structure for approximately 10 minutes to the oohs and ahhhs of the crowd and to my awestruck gaze.  It was nothing less than spectular!  In all of our travels, I have to say that our first day in Paris has gone down as one of my favorite days of all.  But, of course, when it’s Paris, who could expect less?

Toulouse is known as the Pink City.  No one we talked to is sure of the true story behind the nickname, but everyone assumes it is because of the large quantities of red brick that are used for the vast majority of the buildings in the old area of the city.  Upon arrival by our shuttle bus at the main train station in Toulouse, we had to burn 4 or 5 hours before we could meet up with our Couchsurfing host.  We were able to find his apartment and a really nice cafe where we enjoyed our first French coffee with a view of the cathedral of Toulouse across the street.  The owner was nice enough to let us leave our big bags with him so we could spend the rest of our waiting time exploring a bit of the city on foot.  Neither of us had been to France before, but the old center of town immediately struck us as the France we always expected to see.  The streets were narrow and crooked, with stylish cafes and shops at street level and attractive looking apartments above (at least from the outside).  We managed to stumble across a few parks during our walk, which were incredibly quiet and peaceful at the center of a city of at least 1 million inhabitants.  One of our last stops was at the tourist office and the Capitole, the seat of the local government and a gorgeous building.

Once we met up with our host, had some lunch and settled in, we started to see the true charm of the city.  As usually happens, our experience was centered on the food of the place we happen to be.  In this case, it was French bakeries, wine shops and cheese vendors.  Our host was particularly knowledgeable about these things and we learned much from him about the best places to find the best to be found in Toulouse.  A local bakery he led us to had the best croissants and sandwiches we have yet tasted.  We were surprised to see upon our arrival at his house that he stored wine in plastic water bottles.  Actually, a local wine shop at the market near his apartment sold his wine out of barrels and would fill up plastic bottles for you.  The wine was cheap, less than 2 Euros a bottle, and was delicious.

Perhaps we learned most about cheese.  Cheese was sold in amazing quantities and varieties at a vendor near our dear wine shop and we much enjoyed reviewing all of the options and selecting a few out that looked particularly good.  Our host also taught us the proper consumption of cheese.  First, good cheese should never be pasteurized or stored under 11 degrees centigrade because the quality is diminished.  Also cheese should always be cut at an angle to avoid awkward cuts at the end of the piece, where the wax would make up three sides of the slice.  We felt like we were on our way to connoisseur status!

When we weren’t eating or learning about cheese, we were wandering around the city.  Perhaps our favorite place in all the city was the riverfront park.  Here, students, parents, employees and bosses seemed to come together at the end of the day.  It was the perfect spot to watch a sunset and many would spread out a blanket with their bottle of wine and slice of cheese, and even a guitar in hand to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.  Just about every night we were in Toulouse we would walk through this area to enjoy the atmosphere and spectacular sunsets.

While our time in Toulouse was relatively short, we felt like we got a crash course in the French lifestyle.  It was the perfect place to go before we boarded the train to head to Paris.  We never did get to go to the Airbus factory, but it only means that we will have to take the opportunity to come back to the Pink City sometime soon.  That day will be a pleasure.