Planes, Trains, Busses, & Boats
Matt & Mary Capps
An American’s Travel adventures to and from Old Europe
In 1776 Benjamin Franklin made the journey to France as a representative of congress. His mission was to persuade the French King that it was a good thing to bet on the worlds newest nation in it’s war of independents against the worlds biggest super power of the time, England.
America clearly needed France but it was not all that clear if France needed
America. The many wars France had fought against England were expensive and
at the time of the American Revolution, France was at peace with England. Franklin
had to charm the French people and persuade the French monarch to back the fledgling
democracy. So with that congress sent Americas best known citizen to the old
world.
Benjamin Franklin made the trip across the Atlantic on board the fast moving American Frigate Reprisal, in a brisk 30 day’s. At the time it was considered a fast trip but it was very hard on Franklin. He got little sleep during the winter crossing and the terrible food consisting of dried salt pork made him break out in boils. While the Reprisal was waiting for favorable winds just off the coast of France to take it closer to Paris, Franklin did not miss his opportunity to leave the American ship early. He bordered a fishing boat and made land at the nearest harbor he could find. He landed at the tiny French village of Auray.
(It should be noted that when he undertook this trip he was at age 70.)
September 13th 2005
As dawn’s rosy fingertips grace Jerseyville’s eastern horizon, a
new day was dawning for both my new bride and me. I had booked our honeymoon
more than 2 months ago and was looking forward to our trip to Europe. The original
plan was for us to spend 6 nights in Rome, but after some thought and research
into the trip I found that it was less expensive if we visit two European capitals.
We could spend two more nights in Europe and save about $1000.
So I booked a 4-night stay in London and 4 nights in Rome. On the very day that
I booked it there was a second terrorist bombing in London, and with that international
incident Mary panicked, and made me cancel the London part of the trip. So I
had to change all my well laid plans. After some debate and many phone calls
later we settled on our Honeymoon plans. It was going to be Paris and then Rome.
We left Jerseyville Illinois at 10am sharp, and made our way to Lambert International
airport in St. Louis via Chauffeured car. We arrived two hours early, checked
our bags in and waited for our plane. The only incident that happened was that
I had packed a pair of carpet scissors that I used to trim my goatee, and of
course I was stopped, my bags was searched, and I had to dispose of my carpet
scissors before they would let me onto the plane.
The flight from St. Louis to Boston went very smooth. The last time I traveled
any ware on an airplane was back in 2000 for my friends wedding in Seattle.
This was the first flight for me since the 9/11/ attacks. It was Ironic that
we would be landing and taking off again from the airport that the hijackers
used to commit their crimes. I was interested in seeing how security would be
at this airport compared to the many other airports we would be seeing. Unfortunately
I would have the opportunity to go through this security check more time’s
than I would have liked.
Since we had a one-hour layover in Boston’s Logan airport before moving
on across the Atlantic. This gave us just enough time for Mary to have a quick
smoke break and for us to grab a bite of food. Unfortunately there was no smoking
any ware in Logan airport so every time Mary felt the desire to smoke we had
to leave the airport and go back in through security. Every time we went back
through security I had to empty all of my pockets, take off my shoes, and take
my belt off also. This time consuming habit was cumbersome to our travel plans.
But we made it back to our terminal just in time for a quick bite to eat. It
would be out last American food for at least 8 days. Little did I know that
this would add much stress to our trip?
The American Airlines plane left Logan airport right on schedule and we were
soon airborne and on our way to Paris. At first the flight past smoothly and
quickly but shortly after the sun went down and some time after the first movie
the trip began to drag on. The minuets seemed like hours, and the hours seemed
like days.
During the second movie of the flight Mary was getting very cold setting next
to the window. So we switched seats halfway across the Atlantic. We did not
fly in a strait line across the Atlantic but took more of a northern root in
the shape of an arch. Because of the shape of the earth it was shorter for us
to travel near Greenland, Iceland, and back down across Great Britain before
we flew onto the continent it’s self.
I remember looking out the window at the black sky thinking if we were ever
going to make it to Europe. Now I know a little of what Charles Lindbergh must
have been thinking as he made his way across the Atlantic. Just as I was contemplating
the flight of Lucky Lindy in the Spirit of St. Louis, I spotted my first sight
of land. It was still dark out but I could see the unmistakable lights of Ireland
directly below me. This gave me strength in knowing that our long flight was
coming to an end soon. Mary was by now wrapped up with multiple layers of blankets.
When I told Mary the news a smile came to her lips. The long 7-hour journey
to Europe was close to coming to an end.
We landed at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris right at 6:30 am sharp. With
my feet back on land I was tired but excited about being in France. Benjamin
Franklin must have felt the same feeling more than 200 years earlier when he
landed at the seaport at Auray.
September 14th 2005
After clearing customs at the airport, losing Mary and all of my luggage, finding
the driver who was late picking us up at the airport, and a hair raising taxi
ride through the morning rush-hour of Paris we finally made it to hour hotel.
By the time we checked into our hotel “Les jardins du marais”, it
was 9am Paris time and 2am Illinois time. We were tired and suffering jet lag.
But we had some good advice, “do not go to bed no matter how much you
desire to”. We were told that if we want to adjust to the time zone we
should make a effort to stay up as long as possible. But after some breakfast
we took a short walk and then returned to our hotel room. Mary was tired and
a little sick from the plane ride so she took a nap while I went out and explored
the neighborhood around the hotel, and of course sample some of the wine that
Paris had to offer.
This is a picture of the courtyard of our hotel "Les jardins du marais"
This picture is the court yard taken from our 8th story room.
The view of paris we had from our hotel room
Mary sleeping off the Jet lag on the first day of the trip
Motor bikes was a major form of transportation for the locals in Paris. We seen all shapes and size of motor bikes. This Harley Davidson shop was just 3 or 4 blocks from our Hotel room.made in the U.S.A.
This picture was taken from infront of our Hotel
Tree lined boulevard
This park was just a few blocks from our Hotel
Late in the afternoon we both awoke from our nap and decided to walk out into the city to find something to eat. Mary was still feeling sick from the plane ride, she did not care for the food they served on the plane and did not care for the French breakfast we ate that morning. Mary needed to eat something before she would start to feel better.
It was about 5pm local time and most of the city’s café’s where not open for dinner yet. But we found one that was still serving hot sandwiches so we decided to stop. This was one of the few times where we could not find any one who could speak English, and at the time my French was still in it’s early stages. Later in the trip I became good enough that you could call my French bad. But at this time it was even worse. But after some time looking through my little French book I was able to order us some bottled water, a diet Coke (the French called it light Coke), and a hot ham and cheese sandwich. I new Mary had a finicky appetite so I thought I could not go wrong with such a simple order. However I was mistaken. Mary took two small nibbles from the sandwich turned her nose up at it and refused to eat any more. So as I sat at the table and finished my half of a very delicious hot ham and cheese sandwich Mary put her head in her hands and started to cry.
So here I am 7000 miles from home, in a strange city, can’t speak hardly
any French, I have only been married for 4 days, I am on the first day of my
honey moon, and I have a emotional wife crying because she is starving to death
and she won’t eat any thing French. What was I to do?
Mary finished her light coke, I finished the rest of her hot ham and cheese
sandwich and we left. Mary decided she was strong enough to finish walking down
toward the Bastille. As we walked down the boulevard I was contemplating how
I was going to cancel the rest of the trip and fly back home early. Things were
looking very grim when a miracle happened. We turned the corner to the Bastille
and wa la. Their it was, we seen our salvation.
For as long as I live I will always be forever grateful to McDonalds
After watching Mary eat a ¼ Lb with cheese (Royal with cheese) French fries and a light coke we finished our walking tour of the Bastille, then went back to the hotel to plan our adventure for the next 3 day’s.
The Bastille, this was a good land mark for us. No matter where we were in Paris we could always find our way back to this land mark.