Not what I thought

Last year we traveled to England with an excursion to Paris, which I wanted to visit , but with some reservations. I think I had listened to many stories about the aloofness and attitudes of the French and I had some trepidations . We had taken a large tour bus from London to Dover in preparation of crossing the English Channel. Now you can go under the channel in the famous Chunnel, float across as we did, or fly. Some people have actually swam across ,but not us. The motor trip from London took about two hours and we arrived at the famous seaside city of Dover. Historically Dover has been the sea side port of entry from France and is famous for the white chalk cliffs that are visible from sea. The white cliffs were often the landmarks of WW 2 bombers as they returned from missions against German targets. In like manner they were the first landmark of The German Luftwaffe as they attacked England. As we motored up to the Ferry terminals I was shocked to see monsterous ships of multiple decks taking traffic on board from 4 lanes of traffic. Our large bus was swallowed and we entered what appeared to be a modern parking garage. We got off the bus and took elevators 4 or 5 decks up to a mini shopping center with a gambling hall,shopping, and eating facilities. We all ate an English breakfast and watched the progress across the channel on a gray, chilly morning. The sea and the sky were both the same color of gray. About an hour later we entered the French port of Calais, which was large and full of container ships and huge cranes. At the time the ship conveyed many campers and cars of British origin crossing the channel for vacation in Europe, which is fascinating that you can motor all over Europe without restrictions due to the European Union. All money is in Euros and all European members enjoy a world rather easier than those of us with US passports. I do think Brexit will change a lot of this convenience for British Citizens. We started our journey toward Pari

s, which took about 4 or 5 hours through the vivid green country side. My first impression of Paris as we entered the outskirts was a sprawling metropolitan area befitting one of Europe's oldest cities of nearly nine million people. Modern Paris was a forest of construction cranes atop looming skyscrapers. The city, old and new, went for miles. The Charles De Galle Airport is about 45 minutes out of town as we were to learn on our later departure.The bus took us to our Hotel , the Novotel Paris Centre Eiffel Tower, which is considered a mid range value for around 300 Euros per night. It is a high rise  building with about 900 rooms. Situated on the banks of the Seine, it is close to transportation and about 40 minutes from De Galle Airport. Rooms are small, but larger than New York . The breakfast buffet is good and beats British food by a lot, which isn't saying much. We took a night cruise on the Seine and it was raining and chilly, but the Eiffel Tower at night lives up to reputation with gold lighting like jewels, and the occasional flash of strobe lights. The only negative was an extended family of Indians was also touring with a pack of wild children who evidentally had consumed buckets of sugar and ran over people like young jackels the entire tour.An interesting note was the antique houseboats moored on the banks of the Seine which were grandfathered in from earlier times. There are only permits for 60 some boats, one of which is owned by the President of Cartier. There are many historic bridges over the river, most of which I had previously seen Jason Bourne cross in fast cars. We toured The Palace Of Versailles, the Biltmore of Louis the XIV. The Sun King certainly knew how to live.We toured the Louvre , the world's oldest and largest museum. Enhanced with the fairly new glass pyramid, by I M Pei, the Louvre lives up to its reputation. The crown jewel is of course the Mona Lisa. Da Vinci's masterpiece is small in reality compared to what you would imagine it to be. You are in extreme danger of being trampled any where in the Louvre by herds of rude, obnoxious Chinese  tourists with every known variety of photographic equipment hanging around their necks. The Chinese will push you out of the way with hands and elbows, never thinking of manners. I honestly think they have to push people around because it is the way they live in China. I have noticed the same rude Chinese behavior in NYC and San Francisco.The French people are saints compared to the Chinese. The thoughts of the rude Chinese and Indians have worn me out, so I will talk about the nicer things in France in a later

post.