Hi, I’m Deb Aoki, and given any excuse, I will travel for comics-related stuff. Follow along on my 2-week journey to France, from November 2 – 18, to see the epic Bande Dessinee (Comics) 1964-2024 exhibit at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Worldwide Webtoons B2B conference in Monteux, followed by a stop in Japan to check out the IMART (International Manga Anime Festival Reiwa Toshima) conference in Tokyo.
Besides sharing my day-to-day adventures, I’ll also share some of my embarrassing travel mishaps, stuff I bought and ate, and other things I’ve learned along the way about the ups and downs of traveling in France and Japan. Ready? Let’s go!
Day 0 – Day 1: SFO – CDG – Paris
Left SFO on Saturday afternoon (Day 0), then landed in Paris CDG on Sunday morning at around 9:30 am. Managed to get some sleep on the flight over (amazing), which was good since I needed energy to deal with the first travel curveball thrown at me: needing to drag 2 suitcases up the non-working escalator since both the escalator AND the elevators from the airport shuttle train station were out of service.
Rule 1 for France Travel: You may have to carry your bags up a flight of stairs. This will suck.
There’ll be times when you may have to carry your luggage up a flight or two of stairs. It’ll happen when you least expect/want it to happen, like at a train/subway station or even at a hotel that doesn’t have a lift/elevator. Also, those double decker trains in France? You gotta drag your suitcases up the stairs yourself — there’s no baggage check-in. More on this later.
Rule 2 for France Travel: You will probably be jetlagged when you arrive.
Usually, traveling in an eastward direction (like San Francisco to Paris) makes you more prone to jetlag than traveling in the opposite direction. I usually use the TimeShifter app to prepare for these types of trips. You just input your flight information and dates, and it gives you custom recommendations/notifications on your phone about 1-2 days before your flight to help you acclimatize slowly to the time shift. It’ll tell you when to sleep and when to wake up, when to get exposure to sunlight or bright light and when to avoid it, and when to get some caffeine (tea, coffee, caffeinated drinks) and when to avoid it.
I forgot to use TimeShifter on my SFO-CDG flight, so I went with Plan B: I didn’t sleep much the night before my flight and tried to get some zzz’s on my overnight flight. When I arrived in Paris, I tried to spend as much time as possible getting exposure to sunlight during daylight hours, and stayed up until bedtime, France time. Just in case, I dropped by a pharmacy to get some melatonin (look for Chronobiane brand).
Rule 3 for France Travel: Trains may be unreliable, so it helps to be flexible.
There were signs saying that the RER train (the usual train from CDG to Paris) was running on a limited schedule, so they recommended catching a cab instead. Given that the difference the day pass ticket to Paris was about 15 euro vs. 60 euro for a cab, I decided to take my chances with the RER, especially since my hotel was near to Gare du Nord, the Paris station that was the last stop on the RER line that I rode that day.
Would it have been worthwhile to spend the extra 45 euro to sit in quiet comfort by myself for 35 minutes in a cab vs being squooshed into a RER train? Maybe, but it wasn’t totally miserable, so I’d say it was an OK decision.
Got to Gare du Nord, caught a cab to my hotel, which leads me to my next tip:
Rule 4 for France Travel: Your cab driver might not speak English or accept credit cards.
When catching a cab, have your hotel address printed out and be ready to pay with cash.
If your French language skills are mediocre (like me), it’s a good idea to have your hotel address printed out and just show it to the cab driver. Why printed out? Because it’s not a given that you’ll have wifi/internet access when you arrive in France.
Some cab drivers speak and understand some English but having your hotel address printed out and having Euros to pay for your ride rather than expecting them to take credit/debit card payments will make things faster and easier for your driver, and less stressful for you.
On a prior trip, I landed at CDG and could NOT find a working ATM at all. I only had a few Euro in my wallet and mostly US Dollars – and not enough Euros to pay my cab fare. The driver didn’t take credit cards, so I had to bargain with him to accept payment in whatever Euros I had and the rest in dollars. Ever since then, I make sure to have at least 100 Euro in my wallet before I leave the US.
Rule 5 for France Travel: Get an eSim or international data plan on your phone.
Paris streets can be tricky to navigate, so I rely on maps apps like Google Maps to help me get from here to there and use translation apps to read menus and signs. Some cell phone carriers like T-Mobile offer free international roaming with some plans, but data speeds will be slow, which can be aggravating.
You can buy an eSim at the airport, or you can check your carrier to see if they have ‘pay as you go’ high speed international data plans. If you travel frequently, you can also get a wi-fi hotspot like Skyroam Solis, which offers data plans by the GB, or monthly plans.
Okay, so that’s my first batch of how to prep for a trip to Paris tips. Next is the rest of Day 1 travel diary: My visit to the Centre Pompidou Bande Desinee 1964 – 2024 exhibit.
