Overheard at the Crepe Stand

This afternoon, following a visit to the Musee national du moyen age (also known as the musee cluny), I decided to hit one of my favourite crepe stands for a delicious sucre et canelle crepe. While I was waiting for the crepe man to prepare my snack, the French equivalent of the Snowbirds passed overhead, prompting the couple standing behind me to question if perhaps Paris was under terrorist attack! When the crepe man heard this, he chuckled and explained to them that it was just rehearsal for Bastille Day (July 14th), and then said something to the effect of "glory to the motherland, isn't it wonderful?!" I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but right away the woman rolled her eyes, and responded that maybe they shouldn't be rehearsing because there's nothing much worth celebrating. The exchange that followed went something like this:

Crepe Man: You mean democracy and freedom aren't something that we should be proud of?

Woman: Does democracy really exist?

Crepe Man: Clearly you haven't done much travelling. (translation: you're a moron)

Woman: What?? (translation: listen up you lowly crepe man, who the hell do you think you are to speak to me this way??)

Crepe Man: Clearly you haven't done much travelling, because you would see how good we have it here! (translation: not only are you a moron, but you're also spoiled and ungrateful!)

Woman: Well, there will always be places that are worse off than we are, but I don't think that we really have democracy here either. Maybe it's democracy for some, but not for all.

At this point in their exchange, the crepe man handed me my piping hot crepe, and so I didn't hear the end of the conversation because I was too busy devouring my delicious snack. This is something that I will miss about France: the spontaneous political and philosophical conversations that are struck up all the time, between strangers and friends alike. This is definitely a country that places a premium on expressing one's opinions regardless of how unpopular they are, and being provocative and combattive. Given that I studied political science and international relations, and have always loved rigorous debates and arguments, my time here has been very satisfying.

In other news, I'm six weeks away from packing up and hoping on the train towards Cologne, and so I'm really trying to bunker down and do some serious trip planning. Since last week, I've managed to book my onward travel from Cologne to Berlin and Munich, a plane ticket from Budapest to Crete (Greece), and my final flight home to Toronto from London. I'm normally not very organized when it comes to travel planning (I used to go very light on research and just rely on my guidebook and word of mouth from travellers who I would meet on the road), but since I'm working on a limited budget (and unlike my previous trips, mostly through different parts of Asia, Europe is expensive and requires more advanced bookings if I want to get decent deals on tickets), and have a pretty ambitious route that I want to tackle, I've spent a lot more time doing research....how the hell did people travel before research on the internet was possible???