Le Meilleur des Mondes

As this hits your screen, I should be somewhere in between Paris and Cairo.

As I leave Paris, I wanted to make a little advertisement.

While I was in Paris, as you might have noticed, it was easy for me to access my emails and update this site. It was all possible thanks to my friends Siegfried and Sharon that provided internet access to me at their internet cafe located close to gare de Lyon. Thanks guys, I should be back in August ;).
I have known Siegfried for almost 14 years now. They are cool people. If you are in Paris around Bastille or Gare de Lyon, come by and ask for them, they will be more than happy to meet you.

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Their cafe is a very nice place, with 11 posts and a very good connection. It is called “Le Meilleur des Mondes” and is located at 4 bis rue Michel Chasles 75012 Paris.

Oh yeah… they offer wi-fi if you have your own computer and they have two computers with QUERTY keyboards if like me you have become AZERTY keyboard disabled.

Egypt, here I come

Some news before I leave tomorrow for Cairo via Vienna :D.

I got my passport back from the Syrian embassy yesterday morning as planned so it means I now have everything I needed before leaving. My backpack is ready and as I wrote last time, it all fits and weights at 17kgs (38lbs).

The last few days have been very laid back as I was meeting with family and friends during the evening and doing mostly nothing but reading, watching movies and seating in front of a computer the rest of the day.

Actually, one thing stroke me. While I have no trouble doing nothing for the day, I have this strong feeling of guilt nagging me by the end of the day. I feel I should be doing more. So, I will have to work on that later. Not on doing more… but on suppressing this damn nagging!

Talking of the future, the next 2 or 3 weeks should be very busy since I plan on visiting very actively all over Egypt. I have two possible contacts in Cairo provided by Jacques-Alexandre and Raphaele so it should go well. Thanks guys! After that, the plan is to spend at least a week on the dead sea, tanning, scuba diving and doing nothing (this for my conscience).

Anyway. Paris has been great. It was really nice hanging out in family and with my friends but I feel two weeks is enough especially as the pastry shops around here are running out of pastries to try and I have been over the standard brasserie menu (crazy how all brasseries serve close to the same things) almost twice already ;).

Since starting from tomorrow, I will be in Egypt, I am not sure if I will be able to post as much as I have been posting in the last two weeks but I will do it whenever I find a place to do so. It has been great so far. I got some good feedback and exchange with some of you. If you read this site, do not hesitate to comment on my posts or send me an email even if it is only to say hi.

Alright, write to you soon from Egypt!

Paris, c’est chez vous!

French people love their pets. My parents have a dog, a cat and around 15 lovebirds. And they call them their babies since my brother and I left the nest several years ago. It is not rare to see a Parisian whose only “family” is a dog. That said, maybe related to the destruction of the family cell I talked about last time, it is not surprising that Paris counts more than 200 000 dogs for a population of around 1 million people…

That many dogs leads to one serious issue that has been plaguing Paris and its streets for many years: dog poop. Parisians love dogs but do not like to pick-up after them (a case of incivility we could discuss later) hence the need to watch where you step while you walk in the streets of Paris! When I was living in Paris, there was this side street 2 blocks away from my place that we used to call dog-shit-alley because all the dog-owners of the neighborhood had decided to use it for their dogs. That street was the worst street ever and if you had to take it, it was better to walk in the middle of it than on the sidewalks.

hum, enough details… :).

To fight this, the cleaning services have been more and more creative including the “in”famous but now disappeared “motocrotte” (poopybike!) as well as the construction of special areas all over Paris.

But nothing is changing and Parisians, as French people in general and other nationalities I guess, understanding only when it hits their wallet, the town hall started a new campaign to remind them that not cleaning after their dog can cost them €183 (around $220 as of today). This new campaign is named “Paris, c’est chez vous” (Paris is your home) with TV commercials as well as posters all over the city like this one:

ParisIsLikeYourHome

It is quite visual! But sadly I am not sure it will change anything except if people start to get fined aggressively and Parisian cops usually have better things to do than track dogs and their uncivilized owners.

Until better times, while in Paris, do not forget to watch your steps ;).

Moral lessons in 1932

Last weekend, as I was visiting the new house of my parents, I discovered in the attic a stack of old books and notebooks from the thirties that were left behind by the previous owner. There were well conserved school books on subjects like physics, mathematics, French litterature, English and other “normal” subjects as well as more surprising subjects like farming. Accompanying these were some notebooks written in a nice handwritting of the type I stopped using when I was 12 y/o. All except one dated from 1932.
Amongst these notebooks, I found one that particularly attracted my attention because of the nature of its subject: Moral. I took it downstairs and read through it. I found some good wisdom, interesting ideas and even an edgy warning representing ideas of that time. I took some notes and I thought it might be cool to share them with you. I will translate the best I can.

There is some good wisdom:

Will is the power that allows us to get into action – “La volonte est la puissance qui nous permet de passer a l’action”

Moral is the science of good conduct. It teaches to separate good from evil and recognize duty in all occasion – “La morale est la science de la bonne conduite. Elle apprend a discerner le bien du mal et a reconnaitre le devoir en toute occasion”

Conscience is a fair judge but not always a good adviser – “La conscience est un juge integre mais pas toujours un bon conseiller”

Some funny (but maybe true) statements:

Only lazy people or ignorant people know boredom – “Seul les paresseux et les ignorants connaissent l’ennui”

The lazy person is unhappy and sick – “Le paresseux est malheureux et malade”

The single-child family is incomplete. The single child is insufferable and unhappy. – “La famille a enfant unique est incomplete. L’enfant unique est insupportable et malheureux.”

And the pearl, the “echo of the time” statement for which I am not assuming any responsibility:

France, country of singles and single childs, becomes depopulated and is going straight to its death. In thirty years, the German population will be triple ours. The riskiness must be stopped. – “La France, pays de celibataires et de fils uniques se depeuple et marche a la mort. Dans trente ans, la population Allemande sera le triple de la notre. Il faut conjugerer le peril.”

Interesting! Funny! Isn’t it?

Ticket to Cairo

I spent most of my day yesterday looking for a plane ticket to Cairo. I had already looked before leaving California but I did not want to buy before knowing how long it would take to get my visa to Syria. Now that I knew, I was able to buy it.

When I looked last time, I had found a one-way ticket with Olympics for $350 but I did not really like arriving at 2AM in Cairo and also, reviews for Olympics are not very good. I also had found out that I could get to Luxor via Munich with Air Berlin, a discount airline based in Germany, for around the same price and with more confidence in their quality :). And I was entertaining the idea of staying a couple days there and go visit Neuschwanstein Castle at the occasion. But, looking again yesterday, there was no more planes scheduled from Munich after the 30th so this option was dead :(.

So, I started looking for more options.

After Olympics, the cheapest one-way tickets to Cairo are at least $650 with companies like Jordanian Airlines and Czeck Airlines.

I then investigated vacation package (that use charters to get you there) that are advertised as low as $415 but when you add the airport charges, taxes, single surcharge, fuel surcharge, compulsory tip(!) and other fine prints, it ended up being more like $800.

But then, I remembered that sometimes, roundtrip tickets cost less than one-way (if like me, you always wondered why, go read this) so I checked for that and found out many options for around $500. Some airlines I would prefer not to fly with but I liked the reviews of Austrian Airlines. As usual, I went on their website (less expensive than the portals like Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity that I use to identify options) and got rewarded when I found out that they had specials if you where flying on specific days. I ended up buying a roundtrip leaving Sunday 2nd for $400. Of course, I will not use the return ticket since it is for the 11th but well!
Only one more week to go with the great Parisian weather as shown on the following pictures… 🙂

ParisUnderTheRain