The Inaccurate Tourist

1. My Arrival

The flight to Paris was in two segments, which very nearly didn't meet up. The first flight of the day was delayed nearly an hour, so when we reached the midpoint, one of the stewards had me right up by the front door, so I could be whooshed right into an airport cart, through some tiny corridors and to the airport shuttle bus, which was waiting especially to take me from the domestic terminal to the international terminal.

The plane ride to Paris was when I realized that I don't really understand how to speak French.

When I arrived in Paris, I went and crowded around the luggage carousel with the rest of the gang, when the police came by and asked us all to leave the area, so they could detonate an unattended handbag. Unfortunately, I followed the crowd out of the international baggage claim area, so I had to figure out how to get back in to get my luggage (the secret is to walk right back in through the out door).

Of course, my baggage was delayed because of the fast connection. This turned out to be excellent, because my baggage was extremely large and heavy, and they ended up delivering it to my residence 36 hours later. They also gave me an amount of cash that was more than fair for my inconvenience. But best of all, this totally eliminated my anxiety about what to wear to work the next day.

I ended up taking a taxi from the Charles de Gaulle airport to the area where I was staying in the south of Paris. I arrived at my apart'hotel at about two in the afternoon, and this is the view from my window. Paris looks quite a bit like what I expected -- many seven or eight story stone buildings pushing against the street at odd angles, with little shops all along the ground street.

I intended to test the route to my new office building in Marcoussis (a suburb about thirty kilometres out of Paris) and to meet the co-workers, so I set out pretty much immediately. The first trip took me two and a half hours, and I gave up and went home before I got there.

The Paris metro is amazing, and it will deserve a longer treatment next week, when I describe how to get to Marcoussis and what I did when I got there.

I lost my first Saturday in Paris when I pressed my snooze button, and ended up waking up at 5:00 pm. I've been having a little trouble sleeping, but jet lag had been lurking at the door and gave me a good smack for the entire weekend. Fortunately, I had an offer from a co-worker to go see a movie, so I managed to get out of the apartment that day.

It turned out that the cinema had been closed, so we never did see the movie, but he had planned a welcoming dinner for me that night. It was an amazing Italian meal (he is also an expatriate), and a very friendly and generous surprise. I am going to have to go into more detail about this single meal later, because it really illuminates the difference between North American and European attitudes toward food.

Of course, the second day of the weekend, I went to go see the Eiffel Tower. I didn't go up, because I'll probably have plenty of opportunity when I have visitors, but I took a couple of pictures. I walked around the Eiffel Tower, and then for a few hours around the area and the Champs-Elysées, which has many historical buildings, and beautiful bridges. At the risk of sounding like a table of contents for my first travel log entry, I'm going to write more about them later, when I have some better pictures.

You may be aware that the new currency for Europe came into effect this new year. It was very interesting, because I would fumble around with my change and take a long time figuring out what to pay, but nobody would assume that I was a tourist. The entire country is learning the new exchange rates at the same time as I am. In fact, there were several people in the office who had never seen a euro coin or bill yet.

For your information, one euro is about 1.45 Canadian dollars, about 90 American cents, and exactly 6.55957 French francs.

I've already started on the travel log entry for next Friday. I'll try to keep them coming out regularly so you can follow my great and grand adventures in France. Later, everyone!

Posted by The Inaccurate Tourist at January 11, 2002 12:00 PM