Travel Tales: France — Paris & The Riviera: True Travel Tales

By Michael Brein

THIS SERIES

Over the last few decades, I've interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I've encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, cafes, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series.

THIS BOOK

Travel Tales: France — Paris & the Riviera!

Is a collection of travel stories of one of the travel world's most favorite destinations, if not certainly among the world's handful of the most popularly visited places anywhere. Without a doubt, Paris is by far my favorite city, not only in Europe but in all the world. And I love France as well. And while modern Paris is always exciting for me to visit, it is the old Paris that remains particularly etched in my memories. To be sure, with its marvelous food and drink and phenomenal sights Paris and France certainly do not disappoint. Paris may very well be the most popular city in all of Europe as well as the rest of the world for that matter. The tales perhaps of what we eat and drink in France you will read or hear interesting and riveting tales of the wide variety of occasions where food and drink create for us such great memories of the best that the world of fine dining has to offer. Indeed there are some ridiculous behaviors of the oft hilarious and embarrassing comings and goings of crazy stupit scoundrels on their (our) own National Lampoon-like (summer) 'Vacations' who cannot seem to help themselves (ourselves) by behaving at times as the ugly Americans who we sometimes cannot help but be! It is also one of our purposes of the True Travel Tales series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the world's most popular cities, along with the good comes sometimes a portion of the bad as well. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches. You'll see the good and best sides of Paris and France, and you'll also perhaps sample some of the more discomforting or disquieting darker aspects as well that sadly are also part of the cycle of life in such a diverse metropolitan city as Paris.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Brein
• Release date: Aug 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201846282

Michael Brein

Michael Brein, also known as the Travel Psychologist, is an author, lecturer, travel storyteller, adventurer, and publisher of travel books and guides as well as books on UFOs and the Paranormal. He recently appeared as a guest on CNN, and is regularly quoted in the news media and blogs, and is an invited guest on Internet radio programs on the psychology of travel as well as UFOs and the paranormal. Michael is the first person to coin the term ‘travel psychology.’ Through his doctoral studies, work and life experiences, and extensive world travels, he has become the world's first travel psychologist. His travel guide series, Michael Brein's Travel Guides to Sightseeing by Public Transportation, shows travelers how to sightsee the top 50 visitor attractions in the world's most popular cities easily and cheaply by public transportation. Michael also publishes his True Travel Tales series, a collection of books of the best of 10,000 travel stories shared with him from interviews with nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers Michael has encountered in his own extensive world travels. Finally, Michael also publishes The Road to Strange series on the true accounts of people who have had sightings of UFOs or experiences of the paranormal. Michael Brein resides on Bainbridge Island, Washington. His website is www.michaelbrein.com, and his email is [e-mail].

Book preview

The Travel Archetypes

A Set of Personality Traits

Carl Gustav Jung, the famed Swiss psychoanalyst, is credited for his work on ‘archetypes,’ the basic human behavioral molds, patterns, and tendencies, albeit referred to in the psychological sciences as personality types common to us all, which shape and influence who we are and what we do. You can also, think of archetypes as composite simplified personality types, e.g., personas, roles, selves, or characteristics that define us.

Human personality is a very complicated matter, indeed, and while archetypes do not necessarily explain us, they are, nevertheless, a fun, interesting, entertaining, and useful — if not a bit oversimplified — way of looking at and describing our own travel selves.

Therefore, I have invented a number of travel archetypes, which should stimulate you to think about travel in an imaginative way. We are never simply just one of these archetypes at any one time; we are a complex mix of these as well as many other influences in our lives. ‘

The Gourmand’

Eat No Evil!

By author Michael, a gourmand. Since France, and Paris in particular, likely serve as the world’s premier mecca of the best fine dining to be found anywhere in this world, it is only fitting to provide a capsule view of the qualities of those who are most likely to appreciate this fact. And these would be the "Gourmands" of our travelers.

The ‘Gourmand’ is the true hedonist, out for the pursuit of good sensations, good foods, and bodily pleasures. When it comes to food and drink, in particular, s/he can be a glutton or a gourmet. It all depends on what one brings to a situation. If he is the ‘Child,’ he will be more like the gourmet, inquisitive, and open to trying all sorts of novel foods and drinks.

If he is the ‘Idiot,’ then he is likely to make a fool of himself and turn others off either by his ignorance, his fears, or his boorish manners.

It is the ‘Adventurer’ that carefully weighs the risks as to what he should or should not eat or drink. The ‘Gourmand,’ however, might not hesitate to drink the water or eat the foods, not out of inquisitiveness, but rather, out of careless, sheer gluttony, and, therefore, may open himself or herself up to the possible consequences of doing so.

The true ‘Adventurer’ knows from experience to be prudent, cautious, and carefully weigh the risks of what he imbibes.

The ‘Gourmand’ may very well consume all the wrong foods and drinks in all the wrong places and for all the wrong reasons, such as dubious street food, unpeeled and unwashed fruits, and vegetables, unfiltered tap water, and even potentially lethal shellfish.

And contrary to what you may think, he is not always necessarily so, open to new foods. For instance, he may also, loathe trying out new dishes if they venture too far from his normal regimen.

And the ‘Gourmand’ has the potential to turn ‘ugly,’ as in ‘Ugly American’ if he strikes his local hosts as being too insensitive, ignorant, or boorish regarding the customs, values, attitudes, and norms of the foreign nationals.

The ‘Gourmand’ in me feared eating escargots and other snails and shellfish in France; wouldn't dare eat a local Turkish dish for fear it was rat meat; and traveled with other far worse ‘Gourmands’ who feared eating steak tartare, because it was raw ungainly horse meat served in France, though not much in the United States.

The ‘Gourmand,’ however, can evolve into a true gourmet if only he takes the time to learn the wisdom of his ill-directed ways. Thankfully, the true ‘Adventurer’ in me prevailed at times over many tendencies of the ‘Gourmand’ in me to rule the roost. Fortunately, my ‘Gourmand’ bouts in my travels were few and far between.

From the Internet:

A gourmand, once upon a time, was described as a person who took great — almost hedonistic or excessive — pleasure and interest in consuming good food and drink. Gourmand once upon a time referred to such a person who was perhaps a tasteless, overbearing glutton when it came to food and drink,a person who overeats and drinks excessively for the raw, hedonistic pleasure of it. Nowadays, a gourmand has a much better connotation of one who more or less savors good food and drink.

Part 1: The Allure

The Exciting Side of Paris and France

What Fascinates Us All

The French Waiter

Archetype? Urban Myth?

By author Michael. Is it an urban myth that waiters in France will ignore you, avoid you, be rude to you and not serve you at almost any cost? No, make that at ALL costs! Sounds like a myth, huh?

Well, I assure you: IT'S TRUE! Such waiters do exist, have existed, and will likely ALWAYS exist in French culture (and other cultures as well, probably) but, of course, not all of the waiters! — some of them).

Does this mean they hate Americans or tourists or do they just hate YOU? Who can say? Probably not. But take it from me, courses are being taught this very day, as we speak, in France by the French Tourist Board to such people in order to try to make them more ‘tourist friendly!’ I kid you not. If you don't believe me, please read on.

Shall I say that one ought to consider whether or not strategic temper tantrums cleverly placed ever result in success? By a ‘tantrum,’ I mean shouting, yelling, screaming, gesturing, dishing out rage, and the