Amiens, France (2006-05-24)

I left for Paris from Roanoke VA, via Detroit, and it was the first time I really noticed the long walkway in Detroit from terminal A to B that looks like a hippy mad scientist created it. The music sounded like something I heard on Scooby Doo, and the visuals were psychedelic dude.

This is my first time in France where I didn't go to central Paris... just the Gare de Nord train station. From CDG I went there, then took the RER to Amiens. I could have taken the TGV to Amiens but it was around 40 Euros where CDG->Gare de Nord was 8 euros, and then to Amiens was 12 euros. I managed to doze off on the ride to Amiens, when I woke up I saw the nice French countryside and it had me worried cause I thought I overslept and passed my stop. But, only 20 minutes had elapsed.

After a nice nap, I went to Laetitia & Cedric's apartment where Cedric cooked a great meal, and we ate cheese, deserts, and drank good wine. I'm looking forward to when they open a French restaurant around Philly! After going back to the hotel, I slept a lot... you know, since trans-atlantic flights are "movie flights" for me. The next day I walked all around Amiens, and did a great job losing myself. There's lots of great shopping around here, just like Toulouse, but I wouldn't know if the prices are good since I didn't go shopping.

Saturday was Laetitia & Cedric's wedding. For some messed up reason I woke up at 6am even though I went to bed at 2am. At 2pm I walked to Hotel de Ville for the Civil Ceremony... then realized I forgot my camera at the Hotel. For the Civil Ceremony everyone goes into one of the rooms of the building where there is a lot of stuff said in French, of which I understood about 10%. Following the Civil Ceremony is the Religious one, we walked to the Amiens Cathedral for that, which I've been told is the original Notre Dame Cathedral... it sure was bigger than the one in Paris. This Church was the nicest one I've ever seen so far. The reception dinner was next, which was held about 15 minutes outside of Amiens, in some town I don't remember. I learned something new about European weddings at this point... that they usually last two days. The "dinner" lasts until dawn, then people go home to sleep or freshen up, then it's back for "lunch" from 1:30 on. Other than that, it was like an American wedding reception but with much better food. Congratulations Laetitia and Cedric!!

I got back to the hotel around 3AM, I didn't know how long the wedding celebrations lasted, so I had previously booked a flight to Warsaw Poland for Sunday. My train left for Paris at 9AM so I needed to get back for a couple hours of sleep and getting ready. Back in CDG I had about 3 hours before my flight, so I asked the ticketing agent if I could go standby on an earlier (possibly direct) flight to Warsaw, but airlines aren't that nice in Europe. I would have had to pay the difference to do that. At least in the US I can do that any time at no cost! Speaking of cost, I was starving so I thought about buying a tuna roll type thing, but it was 17 euros! screw that! Instead I just bought some Orangina for 2 euros and ate a bunch of granola bars I had packed from Sam's Club :-)

Shout out to Jules Verne! He's from Amiens.

[Amiens, France - More Info (en.wikipedia.org)]