Visiting Scott in France

I have been a dot watcher before Scott began his journey and have continued, as all of you, to closely follow him every step of the way. From the beginning Scott and I have discussed me joining him somewhere after he has arrived in Europe. When it gets to the point I have to begin to actually plan for my trip, and ask him when and where, his so typical Scott response is, “I have no plans and I am sticking to them". Logistically, this makes planning difficult, as my employers like to know in advance when I am not going to be working, and the airlines need to know where to fly me. They don’t know Scott like we know Scott. So initially I pick my dates to leave, and then try to guess where he will be. 90 days out, it is the Greek Islands or maybe Croatia. 60 days out, maybe not so far east in the Med… so maybe Nice, Marseilles or Barcelona. 30 days out, maybe not the Med, but Lisbon, on the way to the Med. Voila, I buy my ticket! 18 days out, Scott calls and announces a new plan of sailing through the center of France via the river and Lock system, and I should meet him in Paris. So I scramble and search for a new flight without an airline penalty. Nothing to Paris without a dramatic fare increase, but Lyon was available and I make the change.

The TGV train (I think that stands for a very, very fast, good train) transports me from Lyon to Paris in 2hrs, finally arriving in Paris at the Gare de Lyon station, miraculously just 500 meters from where Severance is moored. Equipped with a Google map showing both the dot and station, I walk down to le Arsenal where the boat, Armando and Scott are waiting.

A day in Paris or where’s the McDonalds!

One day in Paris and we put our heads together to decide what to do and we determine we want to see everything. But most importantly, we needed to find a McDonalds as it has free WI-FI, and Armando wants a shake. The boat is anchored at the foot of where the Bastille once stood, before the people got angry. From the square of the Le Bastille, we spotted the famous golden arches. Once we got there, it was only to find it was a sign directing us to the McDonalds. We couldn’t read the sign, so with that said, we never found the McDonalds. And thus Armando doesn’t get his shake.

Lets see the sites!

The three of use are off via le Metro and our feet, to the Arch de Triumph, The Eiffel tower, Left bank, and Latin quarter seeing everything in record time.

Le Arsenal with the Bastille monument in the background

Le Capitan

Scott and Armando in front of another famous Arch




Posted by Jim