Travelers' Intercom

Before traveling anywhere, the closing times of shops and banks there and the days on which they will be open or closed should be learned.

I try to go to Paris often. In France, they have a 35-hour workweek that must be adhered to, so you will not find gas stations open every day. Mondays are often a regular closing day, but it may not be the only day an establishment is closed, and that day may vary from week to week.

Most schools in France have a four-day week, with Wednesday being a half-day or taken off completely. Some shops may be closed on Wednesday so that parents can...

My wife, Vera, and I were in France, Sept. 27-Oct. 13, 2010. We had a week in Paris, a leisurely drive south to tour medieval towns and a few days with friends in Nimes. We had intended to take the high-speed TGV train back to Paris, but our return date coincided with the second day of what became a crippling nationwide strike over pension reform.

Because we were traveling with our netbook computer, we were able to access the SNCF website and learned that our train was canceled. We learned this in time to obtain a refund and change the return location of our rental car to Paris....

In Dan Gifford’s article on South Africa (Oct. ’03, pg. 29), I was interested to read about the radios used by tour guides on safaris. We were shocked when we learned, ourselves, that this was an accepted routine on all safaris.

We took an excellent trip in Kenya offered by Micato Safaris (New York, NY; phone 800/642-2861 or visit www.micato.com) in April 2000. Throughout the week, Abercrombie & Kent’s vehicles were alongside ours, “chasing” to get to the animals spotted by their scouts as well as by ours. What a joke to see six to eight vehicles surrounding the “wildlife” with...