France

Hôtel Rivoli — On Rue de Rivoli at Rue des Mauvais Garçons (just east of l'Hôtel de Ville), +33-1-42-72-08-4. No web site or e-mail, call them on the phone (be ready to speak nothing but French) and mail them some Euros to hold your reservation. I've stayed there twice now, the second time in room #25, on the top floor at the end of the hall, with a view that included Nôtre Dame and down Rue de Rivoli to the column at Place Bastille. The beacon on the Eiffel Tower is visible at night, although the tower itself is not.

Hôtel Sully — 48 Rue Saint Antoine, a few blocks east of Hotel Rivoli (Rue de Rivoli turns into Rue Saint Antoine between the two hotels).

Hôtel des Medicis — 214 Rue Saint-Jacques, +33-01-43-26-22-35-01-43. They don't take reservations, you have to just show up and take your chances. I got lucky once in late October and got a room there. This is where Jim Morrison lived for a while. Click here for a page with pictures of the exterior and interior.

"But do they have electricity there?"

I usually put up a slide show of pictures during the lunch hour, typically a large collection of pictures from a couple of canal boat trips in France on a couple of days, and from one of several trips to Turkey on the others.

One of the students one week worked at the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, where civilian engineers and scientists work to develop systems to defeat sophisticated threats in the naval aerospace environment. Notice that this means understanding and anticipating:

Part-way through the lunch hour's collection of pictures of French canals and their surroundings, he asked, "Do they have electricity?"

I started explaining that the only electrical power on board was 12 volts DC, used to run small interior lights and fans plus the automotive stereo system. If you wanted 230 volts AC, you would have to plug in to a shore power box at a marina or village pier, although that wasn't generally available.

That's right, he figured that the major cities in France probably had electrical service, but he honestly didn't know if citizens of France outside the two or three largest cities had access to electricity. Remember that his job involves understanding and anticipating foreigners' use of technology.

We tried to explain to him that France has managed to tame the electron (as has the rest of Europe), that France is decades ahead of the U.S. in nuclear power generation and distribution, and that the largely electrically powered French rail system makes America's look relatively primitive.

So enjoy my pictures of France, and do keep in mind that they have electricity there.

The French should ask, about America: "But do they have banking there?"

There's a traveler's inconvenience caused by the U.S. being a little behind the rest of the world in some ways: Almost all countries' banks now issue credit cards that are smart cards, with electrical contacts and an embedded chip. It's a very nice security feature, you must use a PIN to use the card and so a stolen card simply cannot be used. All Australian credit cards have been smart cards since 1985. The problem is that old-fashioned American credit cards don't work in a lot of the automated kiosks, for example, the handy system that sells tickets in French train stations. We have to go stand in line with all the other Americans at the staffed ticket window where we can still use our quaint no-security cards.

"Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond anything I had conceived to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence, to, in science, the communicative dispositions of their scientific men, the politeness of the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their conversation, give a charm to their society, to be found nowhere else. In a comparison of this, with other countries, we have the proof of primacy, which was given to Themistocles, after the battle of Salamis. Every general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles. So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? — Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France."

— Thomas Jefferson, writing in his autobiography about his time in France

Travel in France

How to pilot your own rented canal boat through France

Normandy — The D-Day invasion sites

Jim Morrison in Paris

Megaliths

Budget Places I've Stayed in Paris

"But do they have electricity there?"

The French should ask, about America: "But do they have banking there?"

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