One thing I love to do in a different city is to ride the public bus.  I’ll talk about my obsession with the hop-on-hop-off buses later.  For now, I am going to tell you how much I love public buses.

Living in Houston, our buses primarily take you to the suburbs and downtown.  We don’t have a lot of bus routes from where people live within the city.  But when I go to other cities, the buses tell you everything you want to know.

I have seen very rich people, very poor people, mothers, business men, gypsies, babies, everyone you can imagine on a bus.  Where are all these people going.

In Paris, you can get on Bus 42 or Bus 69 and they will take you pretty much where you want to go.  You can just ride along and see all the major attractions.    (Here is the route for Bus 69)

Generally when we need to go far, we think of taking the subway first (faster), then the bus, then walk, then a cab.

One time, we were sitting on bus 42 and this guy sits down.  On first glance, I thought he was homeless.  Then I changed my opinion to eccentric.  He had on a deep red three piece suit, very flamboyant hat, and a very large decorative purse.  Then all of a sudden I realized, this guy isn’t homeless.  This guy is wearing top end clothing.  He is just seriously eccentric.  It was amazing to see this.  I wish I could find a photo of him (cue the hubs to start looking for one).

Anyway, if you find yourself in a city, check out it’s bus route for a free (or cheap) thing to do.  It is people watching at its finest.