One crazy night in Paris..........Stewart and I have a history of crazy vacation experiences. We laugh, but really you just have to laugh to NOT cry! Why did we think Paris could be any different??
The last time I updated, we had just arrived in Paris. We enjoyed a company dinner that night with the other agents and their guests and afterward decided we couldn't waste any time.....we HAD to get to the Eiffel Tower. So here we went. We would be true Parisians and walk. I mean you could see it in the distance, it couldn't be THAT far, right?? We finally got there just as they were finishing the last trips to the top. No worries - we sat in a beautiful park under the full moon and the lights of this world famous romantic landmark. I even had the most yummy crepe to snack on (you know there's always a food element in any story!) So, it was late - we needed to get back. No big deal EXCEPT sometime while we sat in that lovely park the fact that we'd been awake for 36 hours and on a plane for 12 of that kicked in. It also became evident that the lovely pedicure I had gotten earlier in the week maybe, just maybe, was too aggressive since my heels had now split open in EXTREMEly ugly sores. There were cabs, but we thought we'd save those Euros and take the metro (subway). HAHA - we walked 6 blocks to the very scary metro station only to see that the ticket machine wouldn't take our credit card and we hadn't had a chance to get and Euros yet. By this time, we are stranded on the streets of Paris at 1:00 AM, I'm hobbling like a 90 year old with NO transportation options. Through much grumbling, we made it back to the hotel on foot - VERY sore feet!!!
We learned our lesson - oui? HAHA - non!!! Monday was filled with a city tour of all the famous landmarks, lots of walking (still with insanely sore feet and evidently the wrong shoes!!) but still all good! We decided we would go to a real French bistro and sit out on the street and have dinner like a real Parisian would do. Here we go on the next vacation saga.......we scored a prime outside table only to be told that they stop serving out there at 5:00 - it was 4:58. We were welcome to go inside and eat. Alrighty then........it seemed a little fancy, but we've done fancy before. The menu was ALL in French, but we managed to figure out it was 6 courses with choice of rabbit, duck, goose liver pate, and many other "delicacies". In classic, "I'm from Alabama" fashion, we found a side door and snuck out before the waiter even took our drink orders!!!!
Still, this was NOT going to ruin the night. We decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower because it was early enough for us to go to the top, make some awesome pictures and truly experience this once in a lifetime event!We took the metro (we thought we knew what we were doing by now), got there, stood in line for a total of 2 hours, but finally got to the top!!! It was awesome, manufique, etc. So, here we were AGAIN needing to get home. Walking was NOT an option, I was virtually crawling and I would have thought nothing of lowering my pride at that point for a wheel chair!! No big deal, we were metro experts now, right?? We had tickets, figured out which line, got on, whew......EXCEPT when it came time to switch lines, they closed our connecting line right in front of us!! WHAT?!? We were no where near the hotel! Then all French speaking workers discussed this heatedly among themselves while we stood and stared and told us we could catch a bus at the top of the metro stop and take it to another stop fairly close to our hotel.
OK - we can handle that. (BTW - it's now midnight again, and I am constantly looking at my feet to make sure they are still there because they are now hurting so bad they were virtually numb) The bus pulls up on the OTHER side of the very busy Champs-Elysees (just at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe - the crazy traffic roundabout with no lanes, and about 100 cars in it at once. If you've seen National Lampoon's European vacation, you know what I speak of. Let's just say Stewart and I are changing our last name to Griswald!)
So now, we're on a very crowded, somewhat scary public bus in Paris at 1:00 AM. It goes no where near our hotel, but we just kept riding thinking surely it would loop around at some point. Meanwhile, very strange and smelly Europeans got on and off while we tried to hold on for our lives and hold on to our stuff because BTW Paris is also world famous for its pickpockets!! Our company president had his wallet stolen just that day!!! Our very smelly companions stood too close, and several actually broke out in a fight on the back of the bus! If you had wanted to learn curse words in any language, this was the place!! And then the bus stopped, and EVERYONE got off, and it was evident that this was the last stop. We had NO idea where we were!! Stewart tried to explain to the driver but he just foamed at the mouth in French as he waved us off the bus.
OK - cute story over. Here we were at 1:45 AM, in a very dark, shady part of town with no traffic in sight, no way to communicate - STRANDED. And then I noticed that while all the other bus passengers had went on their way, there was one gentleman lurking about 15 feet behind us. I tried to not panic, until we crossed the street and he followed getting closer to us all the time. My mind was spinning, Stewart just kept telling me to shut up and keep walking. I was trying to decide if I should run (IF my feet would let me) or just start screaming hoping the crazy lady act would scare him off. And then, he was gone. Just like that......and then, just like that, one solitary car came down the road, and it was a taxi!!!!! He laughed at the "silly Americans" and got us back to the hotel.
When we got to the hotel, we started digesting what had happened. First off, where we ended up was so far out of town, it was not even on the city map they had given us. Secondly, that cab ride from all the way out there was only 17 Euros.....it would have been worth WAY more than that to have taken that cab 2.5 hours earlier from the base of the tower! But, I found out why that strange man disappeared and the taxi appeared "just like that". Stewart prayed :) While I was contemplating running or turning into a mad woman, he turned around and asked the Lord to let that man walk away. And he did - just like that! And then he asked for the Lord to protect us and get us home, and HE did - just like that!!
What a mighty God we serve! Even across the globe, in a strange place HE is there.
Last chapter to this night - In my panic and excitement in the taxi, I left my camera in the backseat with all those lovely pictures of that day and night. I hoped the taxi driver would find it and bring it back to the hotel, but no such luck! Even still, a camera is nothing when you measure it with what could have been!!!
