Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2003 - 11:28 a.m.

Bonjour, mon amis de Diaryland!!!

I had a great time in France. :) I have to tell you, though, that french keyboards are not the same as american, and all kinds of things are in different places, so after 32 days of french keyboard typing, I am having to relearn my american keyboard, and it's kinda a pita...

Seriously, though, France was totally awesome. The best. And the people were almost entirely great and super nice. I have, however, come to a conclusion...the time to visit France - or at least Paris - is before all the tourists get there, and leave before they all arrive. Which gives you about a week after the Tour de France ends. Once the tourists get there and the Parisians (the nice ones, anyway) leave, the whole place changes, and not for the better. At that time, I do not recommend it, but before then, it's totally gonzo.

Also, and totally apropos of nothing, really, I have also come to the conclusion my max enjoyment and tolerance for vacation ends at roughly 3.5 weeks in. After that, I start to get crabby and want to be in my own space again. And also apropos of nothing, I want to add that during my trip, Paris was uncharacteristically hot, and fellow babies, that heat SUCKED. I actually got sick from it and spent the last 3 days there slowly and miserably roasting in bed, a pasttime I do not - whole-heartedly, half-heartedly, or otherwise - endorse. Heat I can take; I live in Los Angeles and grew up in Texas. But 100 degrees (or more) and 95% (or more) humidity???

Uh-uh.

I now have the flu, brought on by heat exhaustion or prostration or whatever the hell you wanna call it, and it sucks. So did that 3.5 hour wait in US customs in the Toronto airport, but we won't go into that right now, other than to say that I and my fellow travellers bonded over it in a way only WWII veterans can understand. And then some.

The bottom line is that whatever unpleasantries sometimes occurred, the trip was awesome, and I am totally in love with France and want to live in the Loire Valley pretty badly right about now. Truly it was a phenomenal experience, my friends, and I am sorry it is over.

I will report more later on all the totally cool stuff I saw and did, but for now I have about 8 million things that piled up while I was gone - other people apparently have very little tolerance for the fact you've put your life on hold for an entire month (damn, lighten up, Robespierre) - so I have a few things that passed up pressing importance some days ago and have now progressed straight to Impending Disaster of Cataclysmic Proportions, which warrant I suspend my pleasant apres Paris glow and plummet back to real life. At least briefly. But I have a renewed sense of creativity and desire to follow that thru (Thank God), so it is my supreme hope things are about to change radically around this little neck of the woods. And that is GOOD.

So I will talk atcha later, kits.

Peace out,
Katie

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Au revoir, Paris; bonjour, triste.

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In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
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In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
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