PARIS Paris is.....nice, and you can see the major sights in about a four hour walking tour – as long as you don't go into those sights. But it's not like I have much of a choice – the only way my flights worked out, meaning that the ones I didn't get bumped on, took me from Toronto to London to Paris Orly by 3pm, and because of traffic in the beautiful city that meant I didn't get downtown until 5:30pm; meaning that almost everything is closed.

...And then I became lost, couldn't find the bus to Charles De Gaulle Airport, and missed the last one at 11:30pm. And, all of the hostels are booked solid. And hotels want at least us$60, which seems silly for four hours of sleep. So here I am, writing this, sitting on a park bench in Paris at two in the morning; yes, it seems familiar, since last year I did the same thing in Hong Kong.

This is a nice city, although ridiculously expensive. Those sidewalk cafes are a ripoff, but there are plenty of little places with nearly reasonable prices. At this point in my life, though, I think I'll leave Paris for now. I'll come back in due time, and spend the amount of time and money that it deserves.

Still you must consider this city on the conceptual and colonial level – this is the heart of what was once a massive empire, and shaped nearly one third of the world. This little language called French is spoken throughout the Americas, Africa, and Asia due to these people. They keep their town clean. There are few Africans selling trinkets on the sidewalk, meaning there seems to be little illegal immigration reaching the downtown tourist core. It is a city of what, five million? With an airport so busy it could accomodate a population triple that size. The romance is here, but the politics seem to be hidden. I believe the decisions have always been made in the backroom in France.

































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