France Trip

Friday we awoke at 3:30 am to get ready to depart for France. After having gone to sleep at 2:30, I was pretty groggy and unhappy about getting up. Our massive group of around 45 got on the bus at 4:15 and rode 2 hours to the London train station. It was pretty odd to see the sun rise at about 4:45. There really isn’t much darkness here. When we got to the train station, Candi discovered that she had left her passport in Oxford. Bad deal. She had to stay behind and figure out a way to catch a train the next day after going back to Oxford to get it. I was pretty worried about her, but she managed to make it to Paris the next day, which was pretty remarkable really. After saying goodbye and good luck to Candi we boarded the train at around 7 and headed towards Paris.

I have never been on a train before, and riding a European train for a first experience was pretty incredible. I’m pretty sure we were going over 200 mph at times. It is neat to watch things fly by at that rate. We went in the Chunnel under the English Channel, but I was asleep by the time we reached it, so I didn’t get to experience it until the return trip.

We arrived in the Paris station after around 3 hours and boarded a bus to head for northern Normandy, a few hours away. A few blocks from the train station we stopped for a couple minutes at a light. I was watching some little old French lady walk around. After a couple minutes a bus stopped near her and she decided she wanted to get on it. It looked like she wasn’t going to make it in time, so this 70+ year old lady started sprinting towards the bus. It was really funny to watch. Suddenly, her foot hit the curb and she totally faceplanted on the concrete. It was pretty much the most comical and intense faceplant ever, so I instantly burst into laughter. Apparently it’s wrong to laugh at old ladies falling though, because everybody in my area of the bus got mad at me for doing so. I was officially dubbed the meanest person on the trip, and for the rest of the weekend any time anybody did something mean, someone said “that’s so Jordan Williams of you.” Oh well. I suppose I should study up on my faceplant laughing etiquette.

Paris is a fairly dirty place. Most of it reeks of bodily fluids and whatnot and the people haven’t discovered the many benefits of regular bathing. I was eager to get out of the city and into the country after an hour-long stop in the middle of the city for lunch. After a 3 hour bus ride and an hour or so looking around Utah beach, we headed for our hostel in whatever obscure town we were in. Our hostel was more like some sort of strange orphanage. There were tons of Disney cartooney pictures painted on the walls. It was an interesting place to sleep. I have a lot more to say, but in the interest of moving on to my next mandatory journal I will end this now.