I previously wrote about my recent vacation in France, and discussed all the places we went and fun things we did. I made a few allusions to parts of the trip that were unpleasant, but I didn't elaborate. I wanted to focus on the enjoyable parts of the trip, and save the unpleasant parts for a follow-up post.

I've previously visited the U.K., Denmark, and Germany, where everyone spoke fluent English, and I never had any problems communicating with anyone. I was a little more worried about the language barrier on this trip, since the French have a bit of a reputation for not liking Americans. I was especially worried about our plans to travel outside of Paris, into more rural parts of the country, where I did not expect English to be as common.

This fear proved almost completely unfounded. Almost everyone in Paris spoke conversational English. In the few instances in which we interacted with non-English-speaking French persons (mostly in the country-side), my partner proved to be surprisingly capable of conversing with them. I had no idea that she spoke French (in addition to Spanish and some Japanese), but apparently, she had been studying French in the months leading up to the trip, and was able to hold conversation well enough.

The only thing worse than an airline seat...

The real misery began before the vacation even properly began, with the trans-Atlantic flight. Airlines seem to be going out of their way to do everything possible to make long flights as miserable as possible. It's like they're all in a race to the bottom. The last few times I flew overseas, it was over British Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines, which were both reasonably comfortable flights. This time, I flew a Delta flight partially operated by Air France, and I've also flown Frontier recently. The 7 1/2 hour flight across the Atlantic to Paris was almost as bad and uncomfortable as a domestic Spirit flight. I had a middle seat, with my knees pressing up against the seat in front of me the whole time, and my elbows scrunched into my sides so as not to be infringing on my neighbors' space.

It's as if plane seats have been scientifically designed to be as uncomfortable as possible for anybody who is of average size or larger.

To make matters worse, as soon as the plane took off from my layover in Detroit, I started developing a migraine. I've suffered from migraines my entire life, and they recently have been getting worse. So I had recently visited a neurologist to talk about my migraines, and he had prescribed me a new migraine medication called Sumatriptan. I had taken the Sumatriptan once prior, and it knocked out the migraine within 30 or 40 minutes, so I was hopeful that it would work again. In fact, I expected that it would work again, and didn't even bother to pack my old go-to medication: Excedrin Migraine.

A small bottle of Excedrin is an essential travel supply.

Well, the Sumatriptan did not work.

The only thing worse than an airline seat, is being stuck in an airline seat with a migraine. I spent the entire 7 1/2 hour flight across the Atlantic crunched in a middle seat, with a migraine, unable to sleep or relax, and unable to read or watch movies. I had even taken my gaming laptop with me, with the expectation of going on a 7-hour Civ bender during the flight. No such luck. I had to just sit there with my eyes closed and my head in my hands, counting down the minutes until the plane landed. Thankfully, once I got out of the airport and metro stations in Paris, and out into fresh air, the migraines started to recede on its own, and I was able to enjoy the rest of the day with just a dull headache.

I've since taken the Sumatriptan again, and it also did not work. So I guess it's back to taking Excedrin Migraine until my doctors can find something else that does work...

In any case, the experience was so miserable that I spent the extra money to choose my own seat for the flight back. I did not want a repeat, especially considering that the flight back was an 11-hour flight that landed in Seattle for a transfer to Vegas. I picked a seat on the aisle in the back row. This would allow me to stretch my feet into the aisle, and being in the back would give me immediate access to the restroom if I needed it (I didn't end up using the restroom during this flight, but you'll understand later in the blog why I wanted this).

I've finally been working at my current job for long enough that I have more than a month of paid time off. This affords me more time to be able to take extended holidays throughout the year without having to worry about saving time for sick days or to take time off around Thanksgiving or Christmas. After a few years of not taking any major vacations (other than short weekend road trips) due to having a baby at home, my partner and I finally decided that the toddler was old enough to be able to stay with his grandparents for more than just a weekend. So we finally treated ourselves (and our daughter) to a real vacation with another trip to Europe.

I spent a week on vacation in France
with my lovely partner and our daughter.

This time, we decided to go to France!

My partner actually spent almost 3 weeks abroad with our daughter. They went to the U.K. as well. I did not go with them to London, since I have already been there multiple times, and I didn't want both of us to be away from the toddler for too long. I decided to stay home while they were in the U.K.. My partner already had the experience of being a single mother and not being able to do things like travel because of having a baby, so I volunteered to stay behind so that she would have the opportunity to do the things that she wanted to do. Instead, I flew out to Paris to meet them during the 2nd week of their trip.

I'm going to write about the plane flight and my feelings about modern air travel in a separate post, since I want to reflect on the pleasant parts of the trip first.

2 Days in Paris

The first part of the trip (for me) was 2 nights in Paris. Overall, Paris reminded me a lot of San Francisco. The nice parts of the city are beautiful and a joy to walk around. The other parts are filthy, and full of homeless people. And these neighborhoods can literally be separated by a single block. It can be emotional whiplash going from the awe-inspiring sights like Notre Dame to the heartbreak of having to walk past block after block of homeless beggars (including children!) -- many of whom have given up on even trying to panhandle for cash.

Since they live in Europe, hopefully they at least still have access to health care. Right? Surely one of the benefits of having socialized healthcare is that people like this can at least have access to physical and mental health care. I hope that is the case. Regardless, there's not much that I can do about it, especially since I don't live in France and cannot vote in their elections. All I can do is vote in American elections, and to advocate for more public policies that promote the humane and dignified treatment of homeless people and those in poverty. Plenty of my tax dollars go towards bombing black and brown people in other countries, much to my disgust and frustration. If I'm going to be paying those taxes, then I'd much rather that they go towards services like shelters, food banks, healthcare, addiction treatment, and job training for the poor and homeless, many of whom are victims of circumstance and exploitation, and do not deserve to be in the situations they are in.

My partner likes medieval tapestries, and the Lady and the Unicorn is one of her favorites.

My partner and daughter did pretty much all of the usual Paris sight-seeing. They visited the Eiffel Tower and Palace of Versailles, which are both things that I would have liked to do, but which were lower on my priority list. Together, we went to the Musée de Cluny to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. This is one of my partner's favorite medieval artworks, and we have a copy of one of the tapestries hanging in our living room. We also spent a full afternoon at the Musée de l'Armée, which is loaded with medieval armor, swords, rifles, canons, uniforms, and weapons from medieval history, all the way through Napoleonic Wars, and both world wars -- not to mention Napoleon's Tomb. They even have Napoleon's horse, stuffed and preserved in a glass box.

I also learned from this museum that, apparently, "gun-swords" were a real thing. You win this round, Final Fantasy VIII...

Now that I've finished my series of strategy posts about Brave New World's new civilizations, I want to take some time to look into some of the legacy civs that have received updates since Brave New World. France received a major revision in Brave New World out of the box, having its national trait completely redesigned, and one of its unique units was replaced with a powerful new unique improvement.

Humans have been occupying the land of France for at least 1.8 million years. The caves of Lascaux are a famous paleontological / archaeological site, as its cave paintings are some of the earliest and best-preserved examples of early human art and culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the region was split up between numerous Germanic tribes. One Germanic group, the Franks, eventually came to control most of the region, and this is where the term "France" was eventually derived. They set up the first French Kingdoms, which gained strength during the medieval periods despite threats from the Vikings and English. The European Enlightenment can trace many of its roots to the intellectual circles of France, which eventually culminated in the French Revolution that deposed and executed King Louis XVI and established a fledgling Republic.

Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of this young Republic in 1799, eventually declaring himself the Emperor of France. He was a military genius of the time and an expert in the use of artillery. He conquered much of Europe from Spain all the way to Russia, and even fought campaigns in Africa (although these campaigns were not successful). His conquests helped to spread French culture, ideals, and reforms around the world, including widespread adoption of the metric system, new military traditions, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. His armies eventually fell victim to the harsh Russian winters, which halted Napoleon's aggressions and forced a withdrawl. His reign eventually culminated in a devastating defeat at Waterloo (then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands). He was forced into exile on the island of Saint Helena, where he eventually died of stomach cancer in 1821.

One of Napoleon's nephews, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon III), launched an enormous public works program in Paris in the mid 1800's in order to build hundreds of kilometers of wide boulevards and streets, replace the sewer system, construct parks, and be the first city in the world to install artificial lighting (originally oil-lit lanterns). This made Paris into the world's first "City of Light", allowing people to work and engage in recreational activities around the city during the night, eventually establishing a 24-hour culture and the urban nightlife.