BOE21 tour in May help

Whenever we/I travel in Europe, we have found people to be extremely friendly and helpful, whether they speak English or not. They often go out of their way to help. We always learn the obvious words in the appropriate languages; i.e., please, thank you, excuse me, etc. The only people that I have heard complain about a problem in Europe are those of my acquaintances who have a tendency to be arrogant. If you are nice to people, people are nice to you. Do not worry about this. You will be fine. For those people who speak English, if you start in their language they usually will switch right to English. I often have a phrase book, so you can start with the question in their language if need be. Don't worry. Sounds like a great trip. Wray

According to Hotel Beaugency's website the directions fr Gare du Nord to the hotel are:

From Gare du Nord
Metro line 4 towards Porte d'Orléans to Strasbourg Saint Denis, then take line 8 towards Balard to Ecole Militaire; or Bus 42 towards Hôpital Européen George Pompidou to Rapp La Bourdonnais.

So you would take the same directions in reverse. However, if you're unsure or uneasy just have the hotel call a taxi for you. Since you will have luggage it will be much easier with a taxi.

Purchase your Thalys ticket from Paris Nord (Gare du Nord) to Amsterdam: https://www.thalys.com/

Doesn't look too terribly complicated. Can't imagine who told you such things...I think they should be ignored.

I am very bad at all languages (including English-ha) but did not have a particular problem in Paris or France in general. People were as friendly and helpful as they were in most big cities I have visited and enough locals spoke English to get me through. I took a taxi from my hotel to the train station when I departed for Brittany as I didn't feel like getting on buses and metros at 5:30am with luggage etc. It was fairly easy.

Hello Tatiana,

Last October using the RER train in Paris there were a bunch of announcements only in French. I looked around and saw a young person with headphones around his neck and asked him if he knew what was said.

At first he just shook his head, but then the next time they repeated the announcement he was able to translate it for me.

Rick has a three-part show on Travel Skills that you might enjoy: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/european-travel-skills-part-1

If you learn please and thank you in each local language I feel like people respond really well to that. That would be more effort to be polite than 99% of tourists put out.

-Nordheim

Train stations( big ones like gare du nord) have "information" ( i recall often its billets( tickets) and information desks) and usuaully i have seen one booth at least that will have a " english speaking " sign up in window.

I do not speak any other language but english, i can scrape up a bit of french, but only very basic, and we travel all around europe. Its not that hard. Have the name of a place written down, some places have similar spellings and pronounciations, so i find it easiest to have a place name written down and hand to person seeking help from.

You will be fine, your " friend" is a bit of a debby downer, and i question how much actual travel experince they really have.

Hello Tatiana,

I was on the same tour at the same time last year and ended the tour at the Hotel Beaugency. I also stayed there an extra 3 nights. Coincidentally I will also be staying there for 5 nights towards the end of this May.

At the time I had two bags (one bag kept in "deep storage" on the bus for goodies) and decided not to take the Metro (I would have done it with one bag). The Hotel had trouble getting me a taxi (the street is narrow and very crowded) but they were able to direct me to a nearby taxi stand. There were 4 taxis waiting for fares and I was taken directly to Gare De Lyon which is about the same distance to Gare Du Nord. As I recall the taxi fare was less than 20 euros.

You will be using the Metro as part of your tour so you should be comfortable using it after a day or so. I would take the Metro from the Hotel to the Station in advance just to scope it out. If you are taking a smart phone be sure and download the app "Visit Paris by Metro". It lets you enter the starting and ending stops and gives you the best routing. It will include all of the details of the route along with estimated times (22 minutes from Ecole Militaire to Gare Du Nord). You can even have it display a map of the Paris Metro with your route highlighted!

I had no problems in Paris being an English only speaker. The French keep to themselves, ie, they don't greet total strangers like Americans might - that's just their culture - but are approachable if you need help.

I hope this helps!

Davey :)

Thanks again everyone. This forum is a life saver.

Davey, I'm glad you mentioned that you were taken to Lyon instead of Nord. From what I've read I'm still too far out to buy my Thalys ticket, so maybe that is a good thing because I was thinking that Nord would be the station to head to.
Will definitely check outhe the stations while I'm there to get a heads up. Great advice!

I will just add that I have stayed at the Hotel Beaugency both on an RS tour and on my own. Last Fall there was no problem with the front desk arranging a cab for me to the airport and he did drive down the street and picked me up right in front of the hotel. Same thing the year before when I wanted a taxi to go to another hotel to meet up with a RS Best of Paris tour, taxi to the front door. Perhaps it depends on which person is working the desk?

You may feel less confused if you take a taxi to Gare du Nord when you are ready to leave. It is pretty well laid out and there will be people who can speak enough English for you to understand.

BTW, my French is non-existant. I think the attitude that the French or Parisians don't like Americans is very outdated. As a rule they are much more formal than we are, thus I think some people feel they are being rude. If you greet them when you walk in to the hotel, a store, a restaurant that goes a long way to establishing a friendlier interaction.

As far as Germany goes, no one outside the tour is going to know your last name anyway so I would not worry. I think your friends are getting you stirred up for no reason.

Are these people your friends? Gosh. If you are pleasant to anybody they will be pleasant back.

How would anybody know you are Russian? And why would they care? No way.

They are neighbors to the house I just moved out of. Never really got to know them while living there, only besides introduction & pleasantries like waving as we leave the neighborhood etc.
We happen to be in conversation the other day and I was talking about my trip and maybe I just spoke to easy or casual about it for them :) not sure.
Yeah, It's funny he said a few times how difficult it will be for me & said even he and his wife, being German & he, Serbian when they where in Paris it was in no way easy for them.
I told him I wasn't worried about, that I've always been very adventurous & capable so think I will do fine & it will work out ...he just kept shaking his head. :-)

I just decided to take it as one of those things that some people do, like telling a woman that is about to give birth for the first time scary stories about having a baby.

As far as my name, usually as soon as someone especially from Europe asks my name or I introduce myself, Tatiana, they automatically know/assume my background.
I'm glad I posted this, I appreciate everyone coming back so encouraging. I'm so absolutely excited about this trip & Im already planning my next.

Don't some people just love to spoil the pleasure of travel for others. There is always someone who will tell you "the weather is awful in Europe this year" or "
I hear the hotels are full of bedbugs there" or "French people hate Americans"

I am of the opinion that envy is at the bottom of it all. Envy that you can travel, envy that you are happy and excited. Envy that you will return more knowledgeable than before you left. You need to ask those naysayers when was the last time they were in Paris and since they are German/Serbian, how do they know Americans are treated badly.

Do not be downhearted and do not talk to these people about your trip. In fact, do not talk to them at all, ever. Have a lovely time.

Envy and ignorance. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Isn't there a saying "Don't let the bastards get you down?"

And as I recall, when we took the Thalys from Paris to Brussels, we took the bus to the train station. We allowed waaaaay more time than we needed, fearing language or transportation problems. No trouble at all. Have a great trip.

"I was feeling really good about navigating all this until yesterday, in conversation with someone that told me I will have a hard time in Paris doing all of this especially @ the train station because no one speaks English ( of course, I will be doing the best I can to speak their language) and they don't like Americans anyway! Hahaha. So he thinks I will have no help and I'm basically doomed. She also let me know that in Germany, I may not be treated as well because of my name & Russian heritage. Put a little damper on my happiness there ;-) This couple I spoke to is from Germany & Serbia. I've spoke to plenty of Germans, etc, etc before & never had a problem with friendliness, so I'm not counting on that. I grew up in a very multi cultural area in the States. Chicago. & have travelled a lot around the U.S. "

Step 1. Get this jerk out of your life
Step 2 Find new friends

I speak about 10 words of French. NEVER had a problem.

As for the Germany part, Russian tourism is up. They aren't going to offend large groups of travelers with money LOL!