Reflections on Europe Part II: France Day One

Okay here is the second part of my Europe trip. Here we will move on to France. First let me say, that I only met two rude Frenchmen while in Paris. When we arrived to the coast of France, we boarded a bus and travelled for about three hours to the capital. The drive was pleasant, we were able to see small towns and villages, which, unfortunately, we were unable to stop at, but were interesting to see. More interesting were ruins of homes and random buildings spread throughout the countryside probably left over from World War II. This was neat because there isn't anything like that here in America that tells of our recent history, so seeing pillboxes in England and ruins overgrown with weeds and vines in France really gave me an idea of the destruction of WWII. When we finally reached Paris, I was really turned off by what I saw. I was expecting to enter via the Arche de 'Tromphe, but instead, the first thing that greeted us was a New York Style neighborhood where graffitti covered walls and the general area was rather ghetto looking. Imagine our delight then , when we saw the old Paris that came after these depressing sites. Cafes and shops came into view and the picturesque postcard Paris turned frowns into smiles.