Paris, as a Transition Stop

A decade ago, we took our immediate family on a trip to South Africa. My wife and I set up our flights with a stopover in Paris on the way over from Washington, DC. We had never been to Paris and thought a three-day stopover would break up the travel. We also thought that stopping in Paris would give us a chance to adapt to the jet lag, as the remainder of the air travel was almost exclusively due south. By the end of the three days, we concluded that our plan suceeded and we thought we would visit Paris as a stopover again in the future.. it took us a while, but we are back !!!

I think it is good to have a city as a designated transition destination. It doesn’t have to be Paris … I know some who have designated London … and we use the Hawaiian Islands as a stopover on trips back from Asia on the Pacific side of the world. We have also taken advantage of airline promotions to add layovers at no additional charge for flying their national airlines. Lisbon vis TAP and Dublin via Aer Lingus are examples.

But back to our choice of Paris … It is located in Central Europe, has many airlines who fly there from a multitude of other cities on nonstop flights, and it never gets old visiting here. It has attractions that can be visited repeatedly without wearing out your welcome. I asked our guide how long it would take to fully tour the Louve, and he replied “a month.” which would be a lot of layovers !! This trip, we visited Cathedral Notre Dame and got partially caught up on its restorations.

To have designated layover cities requires a high level of travel … It’s so terrible that we qualify for membership in this club !! It also requires selecting a city that captures your heart … a city that always seems to invite your soul to revisit and increase your knowledge on each visit. This is a personal choice and sense of belonging. But once again, I feel blessed that we have the time, interest, and resources to make this a reality.

Some thoughts about Paris … The people treated us really well, especially since our President is very unpopular here. No one held this against us. We toured Versailles for the first time, and Mrs Bear found a guide who showed us the Cathedral Notre Same, the architecture of the Louve, and Sacre Coeur. Both were excellent and really added to our knowledge and affection of the city. The food and drink are great, especially the breads and cheeses.

I was surprised and fascinated by the number of African citizens in Paris, and couldn’t help comparing how they were treated by the French people. This interest grew from my comparison to how Americans have treated Black citizens. Our country’s acceptance was influenced by our history of slavery while the French did not have to deal with this issue… but Mrs Bear remarked that the French do not like the Muslim influence of many of their immigrants so the comparison is not clean. Still, if I were a sociology grad student, this would be a great research question for a dissertation.

So we are off to our primary destination: the Normandy Coast. But, we have confirmed our commitment to visiting Paris again for three days on our way to Morocco, South Africa’s sardine migration, or Israel. What a great spot to manage a jet lag !!!