Arrival

As first time travelers to France my classmate Shona and I thought we had planned our journey from Cork Airport to the large town of Tours quite well. Upon arrival to Charles de Gaulle Airport we could not have been more wrong. All the usual things such as collecting our luggage had gone swimmingly yet the moment we reached the exit we were approached by a staff member informing us of a taxi strike. We then proceeded to ask where we could get the AirFrance bus as we needed to get to the centre of Paris to board our TGV train. The man's directions led us on a wild goose chase involving trips to all three terminals several times. Eventually after much pulling and dragging of our luggage up and down one of the largest airports in the world we boarded our bus to Montparnasse station. Two hours later tired and somewhat emotional we finally boarded our TGV to find very little space to place our heavy suitcases. People stopped and stared in the cabin as the two small Irish girls attempted to lug 30 kg each down the narrow walkway. Eventually an elderly woman directed us where to place them. It took us twelve hours to reach our penultimate destination that was our hotel. 

      It was our first taste of both French transportation and French society. I'm sure we'll encounter more of these along with many other cultural differences in the months to come. Stay tuned!