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Comment by pas | Hacker News Reader

it was still bad 2 weeks ago.

not to mention that we managed to buy a return ticket for CDG "for nothing". because on Sunday morning that part of RER B was not running due to some scheduled work, and the replacement bus ran once every hour, which we missed by a few minutes (because we spent time buying and eating fresh croissants, yes, whahah! but were also completely unaware that we really should go to catch that bus ...), so we had to get a taxi.

oh, and we managed to get trapped at the Versailles station, because we had no idea that the ticket we bought for Zone1-4 was "dans" Paris. whatever that means. of course we got a very stereotypical pointing out by the otherwise kind station attendant :D

oh and the BigMacs in Paris are the best so far I had in Europe... how? and why? and what's the secret!?

oh, and no bed bugs. (so far. fingers crossed.)

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> not to mention that we managed to buy a return ticket for CDG "for nothing". because on Sunday morning that part of RER B was not running due to some scheduled work, and the replacement bus ran once every hour, which we missed by a few minutes (because we spent time buying and eating fresh croissants, yes, whahah! but were also completely unaware that we really should go to catch that bus ...), so we had to get a taxi.

The road to CDG is currently a shitshow. I took it two or three weeks ago and what normally takes 45 minutes took almost 2 hours. Good thing I always plan to spend quality time at the airport.

There are plenty of road (and not road) works in the northern part of Paris for the Olympic Games and you never know what you get (and as the mayor of Paris said, we will be late anyway)

> oh, and we managed to get trapped at the Versailles station, because we had no idea that the ticket we bought for Zone1-4 was "dans" Paris.

Weird, because any of the 5 train stations in Versailles should be in zone 4 and you shouldn't had any issue to leave the station... Though honestly, I feel like there's a bunch of things that aren't clear with the RATP system, especially for people who aren't local.

The Big Macs are probably because of some regulation that France established for fast food, and it was in particular targeting McDonalds. They have to use traceable meat and they can't serve sandwiches if they are not very fresh (no standby allowed like before). I can't find the legislation or any article explaining this because it is quite old (probably 20 years +) but I believe it is something like that.

So, it ensures high quality sourcing as well as fresh cooking, it makes sense that it's better. But it is also way more expensive than neighboring countries in my experience.

I'm comparing it to fresh sandwiches from Barcelona, Budapest and Zürich.

The last one is important, because there's a huge protectionist tariff on beef in Switzerland, so McDonalds is either buying super cheap import meat or using local. (And my guess is that they are not importing, it's simply noticeably worse.)

McDonald in Switzerland is more expensive and often worse than comparable stuff in France, living here near border (Geneva) so had plenty of experience. Many better and healthier options are simply not there in CH menu.

You really see they squeeze every bit of quality to have the cheapest menus possible (I guess due to high CH wages), but at the end they cost the same as normal restaurant with lunch menu offer, so only desperate or not-so-smart people go there when there is competition (after 10pm situation is different unfortunately).

yep, it was after 10 :)

> oh, and we managed to get trapped at the Versailles station, because we had no idea that the ticket we bought for Zone1-4 was "dans" Paris. whatever that means. of course we got a very stereotypical pointing out by the otherwise kind station attendant :D

This is almost a tradition Versailles (or at least used to be - there were changes in the zoning and since I hardly take the train anymore I do not know what the zones are now).

The traditional way is to look surprised and desperate and to go to the attendant with a sad face and they wave you through.

> oh, and no bed bugs. (so far. fingers crossed.)

Rhôôôô (← the typical annoyed French grunt). This was some kind of non-event and everyone played along (even our government). No worries, there are much more dangerous things in Paris to be afraid of.

>and the replacement bus ran once every hour, which we missed by a few minutes (because we spent time buying and eating fresh croissants, yes, whahah! but were also completely unaware that we really should go to catch that bus ...), so we had to get a taxi.

YTA here bud, if you had spent less time on the pastries you wouldn't of missed the bus!

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