Napoleon’s Tomb on a cold, yet sunny day in February 2002.
I’ve written about my first trip abroad before, but sadly not having a watch wasn’t the only thing I got wrong in Paris.  The other spectacular travel misstep was my wardrobe for the trip. You see my mother had read up on Paris, and was adamant that Parisians are savy dressers and wouldn’ t be caught dead in blue jeans. Instead, all the rage in Paris was sleek black clothing. And so no one in my family was aloud to bring blue jeans, or bright color clothes as we didn’t want to stand out as Americans, especially since France was not being terribly helpful after September 11, 2001.
And on one hand this was probably a good plan. While we were there, Paris had protests against the US and the start of the War on Terror. Signs for American movies were defaced with anti-American slogans. And while walking to the Eiffel Tower we noticed a beautiful memorial called The Wall for Peace that had messages in many languages. On our way back, someone was shooting up the English panels and spray painted “FU America” nearby. So it was a strange time to visit France.
But wearing all black did not help us blend in.  Not only was that assumption wrong on my mother’s part, but we saw NO ONE wearing all black. I saw every single teenager my age (as I was 16 at the time) wearing blue jeans. And the black beret my mother force my dad to wear…was ridiculous.
Now looking stupid wouldn’t be a terrible problem, but in February 2002, every monument and museum was on full alert for possible terrorist attacks. Men with rifles monitored the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Napoleon’s Tomb, etc. And each time they got suspicious of the strange people wearing all black. My dad got extra screening and extra security at every stop. The guards at the Eiffel Tower demanded to know why we were all in black. My dad kept pleading “My wife said Parisians wear all black, that is the style these days.” And looked at him like he was nuts.
Needless to say, don’t ever wear all black when traveling. And thankfully, my mother never gave us wardrobe direction on any trip again.
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
Leave a Reply