France Trip 2008

Only one post in Nov. 2008 ? And no post until now in Dec too ? Gulp. There is a good reason for this, and the reason is that I was traveling to France and Belgium. After the efforts (read: fruitful struggle) that we did 2-3 months prior to our departure, we finally got our Schengen Visa, and our vacation in France was definitely worth the effort, and the expense too.

The best thing you don't want to miss in Paris, in my opinion, is the walk around River Seine. We were blessed with a very clear day on our last day in Paris, and we walked around Notre Dame de Paris (wiki), which according to my French friend, is better than Champs-Élysées, and I agree with him.

We also went to Mont. St. Michel (wiki), guided by my friend whom I first met in Keio University. The place is really awesome, and we lost time inside it. I felt like entering a middle age themed RPG game, while my wife told me that it seemed we had traveled through time to the 15th-16th century.

We have also spared some of our time during our travel to France to visit Brussels in Belgium. It's only two hours travel from Paris using Thalys (wiki). This photo below was taken near Atomium (wiki), Brussels. There was a snowstorm then, uh, but only near Atomium. We were a little unlucky though, since it was raining, although lightly, most of the time in Brussels.

From my perspective, I dare to say that French is not difficult, at least compared to Japanese or other languages which don't use Roman letters. Of course, neither can I speak it now, nor am I used to the pronunciation. To me, it felt just like learning a new English-like language, which is also the same as saying that English is a French-like language. Not knowing how to pronounce French words, is just like trying to pronounce English words before learning English, but at least you know the letters !

I am really glad that my university has a joint program with universities in France so that I can have French friends. It felt kind of a miracle too since I wouldn't dream of going to Europe a year ago, and Paris is really nice ! The only minus though, from Asian perspective, is the "hard" bread. I've uploaded other pictures on Facebook, so you can take a look by clicking the links below.