Scandinavia and Baltic Cruise 2026

Travel and Leisure

Part two of our European trip took us on a Princess cruise through the Scandinavian countries as well as stops at other Baltic countries. This won't be a review of the cruise (might do that later; update... here it is), but rather a photo memory-minder for me of where we went and what we did.

Malmö: While technically not part of our cruise itinerary, we had an extra day on the front end due to the rail issue in Hamburg, so we added on a night in Malmö (Sweden), only about a 1/2 hour train from Copenhagen airport. It has a charming old town area, with enough to see and do to fill a day. We stayed at the Hotel Mayfair Tunneln, which is one of the oldest buildings in town; the breakfast buffet is in the basement from the 1300s!

Copenhagen: Back across the Øresund bridge, we parked at the Hotel Bethel for three nights, right in the heart of the action in Nyhavn. I'm glad we stayed there for a while, because there is a lot to see and do in Copenhagen, but wow is it ever expensive! That's one of the primary reasons for doing a cruise in this region, as the Scandinavian countries have a very high cost of living. We met up with our other cruisers over the next two nights, enjoying cold beers on the canal and people-watching in Nyhavn. The Danish royalty participate in an annual event called the Royal Run, where they and over a hundred thousand of their countrymen run around town.

Visby: The "Medieval Gem of Gotland" as it is referred to by ChatGPT, was our first port of call after embarkation. I had done some research on this one, as Rick Steves had not described it in his guidebook. With dozens of ruined churches and a perimeter wall with guard tower and gates, it was easy to see why this was on our list of stops. We followed a rough loop around town to check out the most picturesque church ruins, towers and gates, and then had lunch on Stora Torget across from the ruins of St. Karins Church.

Stockholm: Another large city with a well preserved old town area, we were able to tour around with Rick Steves' walking tour, but still managed to get lost. After exploring historic Gamla Stan, we used our hop-on hop-off boat cruise to get over to the Vasa Museum, where the immaculately restored, 17th century ship was on display. It sank almost 400 years ago as it was on it's maiden voyage, due to poor design, and sat undisturbed on the harbour bottom for over 350 years. And yes, there was another marathon taking place in town.

Helsinki: The weather for our only stop in Finland drew our Rick Steves walking tour to an early close (I've artificially brightened up the shots below). It is a big city, and doesn't have a charming old town area like almost every other port on our cruise. There is some neat architecture, and that's primarily what Rick's walk highlights, but we stopped and took refuge from the cold Baltic wind in a shopping mall.

Tallinn: Probably the most idyllic old town area of the cruise, Tallinn offered a blend of architecture, history and hilltop views. Located on the Gulf of Finland, its UNESCO-listed Old Town is famed for its intact medieval walls, cobblestone streets, and lively Town Hall Square. With plenty to see on our Rick Steves walk, it was one of the stops where we barely made it back to the ship in time for departure.

Riga: Not to be outdone by Tallinn, Riga had it's own charm, albeit on a bit more subdued level. Just when you thought you couldn't find a main town square more interesting than the last, we arrived in Rīgas Rātslaukums, with the House of the Blackheads' ornate façade overlooking it. The town was filled with neat old medieval streets and interesting sights that Rick steered us towards... until we got kicked out of the Russian Orthodox church for wearing shorts!

Gdańsk: When I used to think of Poland, I'd conjure up an image of boring, communist-era architecture and bland surroundings. Boy was I wrong! The Royal Way and "Long Market" were amazing, as were the adjacent streets and historical structures. We had lunch on the Esplanade, a bustling, pedestrian-only promenade stretching along the western shore of the Motława River. Despite being Corpus Christi Day (stat holiday) we barely had enough time to do the Rick Steves tour of the main sights before we had to grab our train back to the ship's port in Gdynia.

Klaipėda: This small port city in Lithuania didn't have as much to see as other stops, but we still made the best of it, by using a ChatGPT walking tour to take us to the notable sights around town. As you can see, this was one of the stops where the ship docked within a few hundred metres of the town centre.  We split up from the girls who went on an excursion to the Curonian Spit National Park; Wayne and I enjoyed a cold Lithuanian beer on the Danė River promenade before heading back to the ship for ice cream.  

Oslo: After a day at sea, we arrived in our last big port city, our only one in Norway. This was another day where the girls went their own way; Wayne and I went to Akershus Fortress and the Resistance Museum there, followed by the Rick Steves walking tour of the Karl Johans Gate. There was a lot happening that day, as it was National Music Day and the Oslo Colour Festival; there were marching bands parading down the street and a lively area set up in the park adjacent to their Parliament. We also stopped at the 1930s City Hall, which was very interesting, with the huge murals inside the main hall and outside carvings. A cold Norwegian beer at Fridtjof Pub with Wayne, and then I was back to the ship to get my aching lower legs a much needed spa treatment!

Skagen: Our last port was certainly the least exciting of all our stops, as Skagen is simply a sleepy fishing town. We did what pretty much everyone else did, and rented bikes to ride out to the sandy point in Grenen, where the North sea meets the Baltic Sea. After a tractor ride out and back on the sandy beach (it's a long way, and not bike friendly), we rode back to the ship for the free lunch. Then we went back into town when the sun came out so that the girls could do some shopping on the cute main street that runs through Skagen.

We woke up in Copenhagen the next morning, and after some difficulty trying to get our Uber to the airport, were on our way home after two weeks in Germany and another two in Scandinavia and the Baltics.

Germany 2026

Travel and Leisure

We did a big trip recently, our longest European vacation by far. This is part 1, the two weeks we spent getting from Munich to Copenhagen. More of a memory trip for me when I am thinking, "where did we go in Germany again?", here's a brief photo essay on our itinerary.

Munich: First stop was Munich, not for any reason in particular, other than it's a big international destination with lots of flight options. It has a surprisingly historic old town, given the destruction that occurred in many/most large German cities during WWII. As we usually do, we don't plan a lot for our arrival day, and we used Munich as our decompression stop from the trans-Atlantic flight.

It was unseasonably cold there, and so we abbreviated the Rick Steves walking tour around the old town area. We did go to the Residenz, which is pretty cool and well preserved. The weather prevented us from enjoying some of the outdoor eating and drinking areas, like the Marienplatz market.

Füssen: This town was our second stop, as we wanted to visit the fairy tale castle of the Mad King Ludwig. What made this side-trip even more fun, was that our friends from Zurich came up for the day to visit with us and see the castles. We toured the inside of Hohenschwangau, as it was actually used and lived in, whereas the Neuschwanstein one was never finished, as Ludwig died before completion.

Nuremberg: The next stop took us to the "recreated" old town of Nuremberg. WWII destroyed about 90% of the Altstadt, but instead of re-building with new structures, they spent decades trying to preserve the medieval landmarks and buildings in the historic core. 

Rothenburg ob der Tauber: This "forgotten" medieval town, sat for centuries after economic challenges and the black plague ravaged the population. It was an easy day trip from Nuremberg, and is definitely a highlight of the Bavaria region.

Leipzig: Rather than taking another long train ride all the way to Berlin, we broke it up into two, and stopped overnight in Leipzig. Again, many sites had been restored in this city to original appearance after the war, and there was plenty of historic things to see. The Leipzig Forum of Contemporary History was excellent, and free as well. The Old Town Hall dates from the mid-16th century, and is now used as a museum and event space.

Potsdam: With so much to see and explore, we set up in an Airbnb for four nights in Berlin. But with weather and museum closure timing, it seemed like our first full day there was the best to do the day-trip to Potsdam. It's kind of like visiting Versailles from Paris; Potsdam is a brief, 30 minute train ride from Berlin. However, unlike Versailles, the palaces in Potsdam are spread apart, so we rented bikes to tour around the Potsdam sites and the old town area.

Berlin: While Christine had been to Berlin before, it was a long time ago, and she says that they didn't have the money to see and visit the places we went to. It's hard to sum up in a handful of pictures, but the Rick Steves walking tour did an excellent job of guiding us around town, and then we did our own tour of the Wall, and other sites that represented the division between Communist East Germany and the West. We also stayed in a great area of town called Prenzlauer Berg, which was great for restaurants and another Rick Steves walk.

Hamburg: We had put Hamburg on the list of places to go in Germany, as it was along train route required to get to Copenhagen. We booked an Airbnb here as well, knowing that we'd want to do one last load of laundry before getting to the ship in Copenhagen. We ended up picking one in a great neighbourhood, a short walk from the main train station. For touring, Rick Steves recommended doing the hop-on hop-off bus & harbour cruise combo, so that's what we did.

We had one glitch in our travel plans, as there was some sort of construction on the rail line we needed to get to Denmark on, and the alternative was a 6+ hour bus ride. So we pivoted to flying to Copenhagen instead, which made for a much easier day. 

Next up: Scandinavia and the Baltics!

Why Canadians used to put flags on their backpacks

and where did Canadian flags go and why they're back again

Travel and Leisure

Back in the 90s and even earlier, Canadians travelling abroad, particularly Europe, would often sew a Canadian flag onto their backpacks. While some might have seen this as merely a patriotic display, most of us knew why this practice was so common: 

We didn't want to be mistaken for Americans.

American Tourists Illustration by Dustin Elliot

If you're Canadian and you're reading this, I don't need to explain this to you. But if you're American, hear me out. While GIs rolling through the streets of Paris in 1945 got a hero's welcome, times had changed since then, and many countries had seen, or more likely heard, enough of Americans. With the advent of inexpensive airline travel, Americans were flocking to Europe in record numbers, and by the 1980s, most had had unpleasant interactions with these new tourists. Well known for their stereotypically loud voices, rude and entitled behaviour, American tourists were easy to spot (or hear) and often were disrespectful of local culture and customs. For most of the folks from the US that I know, this information comes as no surprise; some Americans have even been called out for pretending to be Canadians while travelling.

The problem for most of us Canadians, is that we sound like folks from the West Coast states, and we follow the same fashion trends as the US; we look and sound like many Americans. I remember on my first trip to Europe, how different the styles were, and how easily you could spot North Americans. So Canadians started putting the flags on their backpacks, which immediately distanced ourselves from our Southern cousins. Europeans with anti-American sentiments were quickly put at ease with this minor display, and in general, we received better treatment and service than the US tourists.

While most of us Canadians are quite patriotic, proclaiming our nationality and chest-thumping is not aligned with our stereotypically meek behaviour. Sure, when we beat the Americans in hockey in the 2010 Olympics, our hearts were bursting with national pride. Little Canada, with only 34 million people, had beaten the big brother, USA with a population of almost 10 times ours; it truly was a David vs. Goliath moment. We love our country, but we exhibit our patriotism judiciously; if it's always on display, you tend to forget that it's there.

Over time, the practice of putting our flag on our luggage diminished, mostly because we stopped backpacking as we got older, and I believe we just got better at being good tourists. Whereas Americans were still self-identifying and getting poor treatment at the local boulangerie, maybe we just took the time to understand the local customs and etiquette. Also, when I started travelling to Europe on business trips, I was carrying a computer briefcase and some sort of wheeled luggage, and so I wasn't inclined to stick anything on my precious leather shoulder bag. It's not that I didn't want to show my Canadian flag, it's that I no longer needed to.

But then there was the event that occurred not long ago, that caused us to put away our flags completely. Early in 2022, disgruntled right-wing truckers used the Canadian flag as the symbol of their rallying cry against all things anti-government. Fuelled by skepticism over vaccine mandates, COVID-19 safety protocols and other anti-science theories, they drove their big rigs across Canada to our nation's capital to protest. Hate Justin? You're in! Anti-immigrant? Come on down to Ottawa!

It was ironic (moronic?), that these climate-change deniers and carbon-tax naysayers burned all that fossil fuel to haul nothing all the way to Ottawa. The rest of Canada watched in horror as the "Freedom Convoy" idled their huge diesel engines, blew their horns, and flew our flag in the name of the supposed freedom which we already have. And that's how our flag became a symbol of stupidity, synonymous with right-wing idealism, anti-government, xenophobia, etc. We cringed as these flat-earthers waved our Canadian flag and caught international news headlines around the world. That's why normal Canadians quietly archived their flags, not even bringing them out on Canada Day, the one day that we might be inclined to display one, for fear of being branded a rightwing nut.

Image Trump posted of Switzerland

But now, we are in the early stages of Trump's 2nd term, and unless you have just come out of a coma, you have undoubtedly heard that he wants to annex Canada, making it the 51st state. Right wing supporters will say that this is just part of his negotiation style, as he's levied/removed/re-levied tariffs on Canada (and Mexico) as part of his America-First program. But everything we have seen and heard from his senior staffers and advisors, is that he's serious about taking away the "artificial line" and forcing a sovereign nation to submit to his will through economic coercion or other means. Warren Buffet has these called the tariffs on Canada an "act of war". 

War? Canada has historically responded very well during wartime. We repelled the US the last time they tried to annex part of Canada (then part of Britain), and we even burnt down the White House in retaliation. So now Canadian patriotism is now at an all-time high, and our flags are back, proudly on display.

We even went out and bought a new one to put on the front porch, a practice almost unheard of in Canada. "Buy Canadian" is on everyones' mind as they shop, and travellers are cancelling US trips in droves. And when we most needed it, Canada was facing off against their arch rivals in the NHL's Four Nations final. Again, our boys rose to the occasion, and defeated the USA in overtime with a decisive shot from Connor McDavid.

For Americans wondering why we would resist being part of the US so much, I have a long-winded response for you. By now, you've seen the video of Jeff Daniels playing Will McAvoy on Newsroom where he responds to a question, "Can You Say Why America is the Greatest Country in the World?" If you haven't seen it, here it is - go ahead and watch it; I'll wait.

Whew! Well that was quite the speech. And while the TV series is now over 12 years old, the sentiment still rings true. The factoids however are no longer current; I don't have the source for them, and so I pulled some recent information from the web and compared them with where we sit in Canada. Scholastically, the US has fallen from the data points that Will quotes, but Canada ranks higher in all three noted areas. Life expectancy has dropped in the States to age 79.40 whereas the average Canuck lives to 83.26 years. I don't know how they measure happiness, but Canada leads again at 15 versus the US at 23. In terms of safety, Americans are way down the list at #131, and incarcerate 531 adults per capita - the most of any democracy on earth. Chew on that for a bit.

Canada on the other hand, comes in at 11th in safety, with only 85 incarcerated adults per 100k. What about freedom - that which Americans hold most dear and tout more than any other thing? 17th. Canada, unsurprisingly, ranks 11th. Oh and one last factoid that Jeff Will brings up; there are more Americans that believe in angels than vaccines. So when you hear on the news about random Americans saying, "why wouldn't Canadians want to become part of the US?", now you know why the answer is "Sorry, but no thanks".

And to our cherished Maple Leaf, we're sorry that we abandoned you for a while there. But we're ready to put you front and centre again as we fight for our country. 

We display our Canadian flag because we're proud Canadians; we don't want to be Americans, let alone be mistaken for them. 

Elbows up Canada!

Things I learned in France

Travel and Leisure

Ok, so this isn't going to be a history lesson - that's not what I mean by the title; it's more like "what I learned about travelling on our own in France". Let me start by saying that this wasn't our first time there, as we'd stopped at a few places on our 2009 Rhine river cruise, but it was definitely our longest French visit, at 19-nights. See, when you're on a guided tour, as most of a river cruise itinerary is, you're not really getting much local culture, as I commented recently in the FB Group. You're typically surrounded by Americans and you eat most of your meals on the ship, not getting immersed in the people and surroundings. Sure, you get a neat, guided walking tour in each port, where a local explains the history and sights, but it's all taken care of for you. No language barriers, no (or not much) navigating on your own, and certainly not having to find a decent restaurant. What was/is great about river cruises, is that you get a taste of a lot of places, without having to pack and unpack every day, as you're essentially on a floating boutique hotel that follows you along the river.

We were all over Colmar

On our Rhine cruise, we loved the Alsatian town of Colmar and the nearby Wine Route villages, so we put that on our self-guided itinerary for a solid 5-nights. With almost three weeks for France, I decided that we'd use the high-speed TGV to get around, keeping any particular day's travel to around 2 hours or less. That put stops in the Champagne region, continuing to the Alsace, then down to Burgundy, and back to Paris to close it off the loop. So in no particular order of importance, here are some of the things I learned about travelling in France.

France requires pre-planning

Some pre-France planning

What I mean by this, is planning that is beyond what I'm assuming that all of you would do when going on a self-guided, European trip; booking airfare and accommodations is a given, but there are a number of other considerations that require your attention long before you start packing your bags. Sure, during the course of booking your hotels or Airbnbs, you needed to decide, "how many nights do we need in Dijon?" and that sent you off to Google to figure out what day trips you would do while staying in Burgundy. Exploring by car? Book it as soon as you can; prices usually go up as you get closer to departure date. If they go down, you can just cancel and re-book at the lower price. Read more here.

Using the TGV system: If you're going to be using the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), that's where you might need to start planning ahead, as the lowest fares go on sale about three months in advance. Yes, I know that this does kinda lock in your schedule, but you can change your tickets, only paying the difference in fare (if applicable).

TGVs are fast and efficient

This pre-planning only worked against us once, where I should have purchased morning tickets from Colmar to Besançon, and spent the day there, rather than backtracking as a separate day-trip. I purchased the SNCF Carte Avantage, which at 49€ may or may not save you money; I found out later that the discounts that this card entitles you to, are strangely applied, or not at all. We saved on only about half our TGV trips, but it also worked for some REB (regional) train prices as well. Only one person in your party of two needs to buy the Carte Avantage, as you can purchase tickets for the both of you on the SNCF app, and the discount will automatically be applied. In the end, we saved about 40€ using the Carte Avantage. 

Advance tickets for museums: This is really only a consideration for Paris and Versailles, as these venues attract huge mobs of tourists, even in off-season times. This is where the French quirkiness kicks in, as not all museums and attractions use the same booking system, and rules change depending on which site you want. Combine that with the fact that the Paris Museum Pass (PMP) is separate entirely, it makes for very confusing planning. I'll save you the trouble, and say that the 48-hour PMP is worth it, if you plan on hitting the biggies plus Versailles one day.

You'll want to book ahead for the Louvre

You should pre-book times for the Louvre, L'Orangerie, Saint Chapelle and Versailles; again, since these are separate sites, the window for advance booking varies wildly. We happened to be in Paris on the first Sunday of the month, so most museums were free, but we stayed away from the popular ones, and hit the Cluny and Rodin museums. We had planned on stopping at Les Invalides to see only Napoleon's tomb, but it was the end of Fashion Week, and the Army Museum was closed for some event. Unlike most visitors to Paris, we felt that the Eiffel Tower was a great monument to see, but not necessarily worth the price/time/hike to go up; those that do want to see the view from there should book ahead (not covered by the PMP).

Restaurants and other things: We're not foodies and as such, didn't bother to research the best restaurants in each city and make reservations. You can make wine tour reservations in advance, which we would recommend, after waltzing up to the Martel champagne house, only to find that they only open on specific days and times in the off-season. We went on a walking tour with a local in Nancy using a free service called "Nancy Greeters"; this required booking a week in advance, and was definitely worth it.

To explore the Wine Route in the Alsace region, we had booked a hop-on, hop-off shuttle called Kut'zig, which stops at a half-dozen neat little villages. It seemed like a much better idea than renting a car, which is really the only other way to explore the area in a day. But in practice, it failed, as despite being a reservation-only system, they seem to have overbooked on the first day we tried it. We waited by the Unterlinden in Colmar, but the shuttle filled up at the first stop (Colmar train station), and they didn't send a backup overflow one. Similarly, on the the next day when we did get to use it, they left passengers behind at Eguisheim; those folks had to wait another 90 minutes for the next one and queue up again.

Parlez-vous Français?

As Canadians, we get taught/are forced to learn French in high school, the latter because if you wanted to go on to university, you had to have French. This rule might have changed since then, but I resented having to learn it in my youth for that reason; now I regret not having kept it up. So, after booking our airfare, I started using the Duolingo app to refresh my French language skills. I would say that it helped a bit, getting me re-familiarised with the verbs and which words are masculine versus feminine.

Duolingo phrases may not be very useful

But "le cheval mange la pomme" isn't much value in day-to-day use in Paris, and you don't have the time to compose a message on your iPad/iPhone when the bus driver blurts out something before you try boarding. However, Duolingo did help dust off my skills a bit, and I felt pretty good about my ability to ask for help, or order food etc. at restaurants. There'd be a tiny rehearsal in my head, "avez-vous une table pour deux pour le diner s'il vous plaît?" to which the restauranteur would say, "à l'interieur ou l'exterieur?" and then I would say, "l'exterieur". But, what I found is that if I did a credible job of my first question, they assumed I spoke French (well), and they'd reply with a fast barrage that I could only guess at. I quickly adapted to saying something to my wife clearly in English, before asking for anything in French, and that negated that issue going forward. Menus were often in both French and English, and likely due to the advent of Covid-19, some had a QR code to scan for an English-only version (in the Alsace, the printed menu was often in French and German only).

You might need Google translate for the menu

At one restaurant that we stopped at for a snack where the menu was only in French, I saw something called "Rillettes de Poulet Rôti"; I figured, it's roasted chicken, what could go wrong? Anyhow, a 350ml-sized jar filled with some sort of chilled pâté arrived, with some sliced baguette to spread it on. It was delicious! In general, in tourist places and restaurants, most staff will have some English skills, but it's still proper to greet them with a "bonjour" or "bonsoir" as appropriate, and "s'il vous plaît", "merci", and "au revoir" are customary everywhere. You will find that other spots like the pharmacy or supermarket that they don't speak English at all, and that's where you'll need to bumble your way through. The only time I saw a rude response from a Frenchman was when an equally rude American marched up to the bus driver and exclaimed loudly, "Where do we get bus #69?"; she might have received a more courteous response if she had started with "Excuse moi, parlez-vous Anglais?". Luckily, that was the extent of the stereotypical loud American tourist experience in France, but the message is, put a little bit of effort in, and you'll be greeted warmly by the locals. In a pinch, pull out your iPhone and use Google Translate.

Dining in France (and other vacation destinations)

This Alsatian dish was offered everywhere

Speaking of eating, one of the things we've encountered in many places, not just France, is that they offer the same regional dishes over and over in a given area. For example, in Colmar and the Alsace region, there are a few menu items that get repeated in almost every restaurant in the tourist zone. This is great - for the first night or two. But after a few days in one city, we found that it was hard to find something different to eat; I'm not normally a fan of eating dishes that don't match the region, but I was definitely eyeing up that curry place on our 5th night in Paris. Actually, Paris is the one city where you can find a decent variety, but you had to go looking for it. Steak tartare? Escargot? Steak and fries? Almost EVERY Parisian restaurant offered these. We weren't yearning for North American food, but they do make a good burger in France, and I ended up having a great one in Dijon.

Luckily for her, the French do like their vegetables and salads, although they don't seem to know exactly what goes into a Caesar salad. We ate often in brasseries, preferring the casual nature and energetic vibe over formal dining establishments. As such, meals were not too expensive, certainly not as much as I was expecting for Paris. And since you don't tip, what you see is what you pay; we only paid more than 50€ once (for dinner). While I'd say the food we can get here in Vancouver is better, on average, but once you add in the taxes and tip, the price was only about 10-15% higher in Paris. Service was expectedly lacklustre, as we've come to expect from countries where tipping is not required. The only time you'll see your server after they've dropped off your plates, is when you ask "l'addition, s'il vous plaît?". Most restaurants brought the credit card machine with the bill; in a few places, you'd go up to the counter to tap your card/phone.

Expect a lot of walking

This goes without saying for pretty much anywhere in Europe, but for some reason, everywhere we went in France, we ended up walking 10-12 kms per day! I don't recall walking as much in places like Rome or Prague, but despite best planning efforts, we wore ourselves out every day of our French vacation. I have a theory that because many places "seemed" walkable, we chose to do so, rather than take the bus or metro (if available). Actually, in many cases, the metro was not faster, and it required almost as much walking to get to and from the stations that were necessary.

In the example pictured, it would have taken us the about the same amount of time to take the Metro, and we would have only saved 500m of walking! Not to mention that you don't get to see as much of the city if you chose the metro option. But the walking can/will usually be over uneven cobblestones, which is another reason why our feet hurt so much at the end of the day. While we both brought along very good walking shoes, you can't prepare yourself for the additional pressures that the uneven pavement places on the bottoms of your feet.

And don't even think about trying to wear fashionable shoes; besides, these days the there are so many shoes designed with comfort in mind that don't look like hiking shoe, so make sure you've checked out some of those for your next European trip. It took weeks for our feet to recover from this trip, so I went out and bought a pair of New Balance 327s. They were like walking on clouds, but I found that the soles wore quickly, so have just replaced them with these Merrell ones, pictured here.

Fashion is not a concern

I've written about this before - Europeans are more fashionable than North Americans. Period. While there's no arguing this, it was also not as noticeable a difference as I was expecting; I think this has slowly changed over the time that I've been travelling to Europe. Sure, we were often in tourist areas, where a lot of who you see are not locals and therefore what they are wearing is not indicative of the fashion trend.

I didn't need my blazer for this trip

But when we were around what we assumed were real French or Parisian folks, they weren't dressed for the runway or red carpet. Admittedly, we didn't see women in Lululemon/yoga gear or guys wearing their Arc'teryx Gore-tex jackets, but I'm pretty sure we didn't look too out-of-place either. Of course we did see Americans that stuck out like sore thumbs, usually due to their baseball caps or clothing logos, but we typically "heard" them before their style choices identified them as being from the US. So unless you plan on going to the Michelin-star restaurants or traipsing down the shops on the Champs Élysées, you can pack comfortable travel clothing, without worrying too much about how you'll look. I wrote a post on my packing choices here.

Getting around can be confusing

The Owl Trail markers in Dijon

While this one isn't unique to France, it is something that we definitely struggled with. Picture two adults hunched over an iPhone, "Where is this?" "What direction are we heading?" "Are you sure this is the right street?". Unlike many other places we've been where there's mountains, a river or an ocean to give you bearings, most of the places we visited didn't have that kind of intuitive navigational landmarks. Once in the old town areas, every street looks the same, and even Google Maps sometimes couldn't give us a correct compass bearing. Some cities have neat little brass markers in the sidewalk to help guide you around. This is one trip that I'm glad I got an Airalo eSIM so that we had data to help us get around, and I often would keep the app open as we walked, and watched which way the blue dot was heading in order to make sure we were going the right way. As with the rest of Europe, the street names are on the side of the nearest building at the corner, but often it's not named. 

And then there's the bus/Metro/RER system. All I can say is that without Google Maps, I don't know how we'd have figured it out. It definitely isn't as easy as say, the Swiss system, where one ticket will take you from the high speed train, onto the metro, and then even onto a tram or bus if necessary. We got the hang of it pretty quickly, but for newbies, I'd recommend going onto YouTube and watching a few videos (like this one by Les Frenchies) on how and what tickets to buy for different purposes. Chalk it up to just another one of those French idiosyncrasies. I wrote a separate piece on using the train system here.

A croissant isn't a croissant

I have had great croissants, surprisingly not in France. The Art Deco Hotel Imperial in Prague comes to mind. As does a little café in the Galeries Royal Saint-Hubert in Brussels. Or the Coop Supermarket in Saas-Fee. As such, I was expecting big things from the birthplace of the croissant; and so I tried to eat my way around France, one croissant at a time. Strangely, there were a some disappointments, where the famous French croissant didn't live up to the expectation.

Breakfast of Champions

Maybe I had over-hyped them in my mind, but I had heard so much about the French butter, and how it made their croissants over-the-top crispy, flaky heaven. Don't get me wrong, I had great croissants there, but they weren't mind-blowing. I was happy to find that most could be had for a little over 1€, with the most expensive being maybe 1,40€; a French café near me sells them for $4 each! I think my favourite boulangerie ended up being Le Pain de Mon Grand-Père in Dijon, with the chain bakery, Paul, as a close second (we have one in Vancouver!). A tip to restore that fresh-from-the-oven crispiness is to stick them in the oven at 350°F for around 5 minutes or so; an airfryer is even better! Anyhow, there's a boulangerie or patisserie about every second block in France, so you'll get plenty of opportunities to sample their carbs; we were surprised to see that the French weren't all fat!

Pepé Le Pew

Ok, as you can tell, I'm trying to make light of an otherwise offensive topic. Yep. That's what I mean. No, I'm not joking. But is it a coincidence that famous animator Chuck Jones chose to make this stinky rascal French? Honestly, it was so bad that we'd have to slow our gait along the sidewalk to avoid the body odour of the person or persons walking ahead of us. Sure, there's been many a time where I've encountered poor hygiene in other places, but it seemed that in France it was much worse. No, deodorant isn't illegal in France, but you'd think it was by the smell of things there. I looked it up, and there is indeed statistical evidence that only 47% of the French admitted to bathing daily, versus 80% of Dutch and Danes! And not to mention that the nationwide average soap consumption is only 1.3 lbs. of soap per person, whereas Germans and Brits use 2.9 and 3.0 lbs. respectively. I'm not making this up folks. The study indicated that "40% of French men, and 25% of women, do not change their underwear daily". Eww. They also state, "Fully 50% of the men, and 30% of women, do not use deodorant". Pee-ew indeed!