This summer, I had the lucky experience of going to France for a little over a week. It was a quickly planned trip - I only decided one week prior to travel with a friend. Fortunately, I had enough frequent flyer miles to get a flight from LAX to CGD (Charles De Gaulle) on the days and times that I wanted, a very hard feat to accomplish in the summer! My friend and I decided that we wanted to go to Cannes and Nice for three days before returning to Paris to go to the French Open Tennis Tournament Men’s Final. We got hotel rooms booked, copied the train schedules from all of our destinations and we were all set to go! I can’t deny that once I got on the plane, I was very nervous traveling by myself to Paris, not knowing any French or how to get in touch with my friend once I got to Gare De Lyon, the train station that would take us to Cannes.

Once I got to Paris, I went to get some Euros at the airport, using my bank card, which didn’t seem to be any problem at all. I found a nice gentleman that spoke English, who told me how to get to the Metro and then to the train station. Once I got to the train station, however, my luck with the bank card changed. As I was trying to use my card to buy a train ticket to Cannes, it was denied repeatedly. Luckily, I had gotten money out at the airport so I had the means to purchase a ticket with my cash. This stressful bank card situation was not fixed until I could get on my email account two days later in Nice. I had received a message from my bank saying there were questionable purchases occurring on my account and that they had put the account on hold, a very nice service, but also very hard to deal with in a foreign country. With the last of my cash, I had to buy a calling card and call the bank in the United States to let them know that I was in France and that it would be very helpful if my account was opened.

All in all, France was fabulous, I found my friend with no trouble, but just remember to take care of all the eyes that are watching your accounts before you get on the plane. It will save you a lot of worry and a lot of time!!

-Kate Simpson, West Coast Regional Manager