StoryTime: How I got to know Paris in 8 hours with 5 euros.
"I'm afraid you're going to lose your flight, sir", said the AirFrance assistant on the phone while I tried to go as fast as possible trough one of the Paris' highways on a bus. I was really scared since never before had I lost a flight in such conditions: being in a big city I had never been before, without a place to stay and knowing not a single person in the entire place.
I started panicking right away (even though people usually tell me I stay calmed and alert in stressful situations). My flight was due 30 minutes from that moment, but with the traffic jams, a slight accident that had completely blocked one of the highways and even more bus stops to come, I knew it was impossible to take that 12 hours flight back to my homeland in South America.
I decided to let the clock turn and by the time I had arrived to the AirFrance's counter at the Charles-De-Gaulle airport, my flight had already started boarding 3 minutes ago. I was a little bit frustrated but I knew AirFrance had to give me a solution since they had caused everything: they moved my original flight 2 hours earlier and I got informed only when taking my first flight from Clermont-Ferrand to Paris. AirFrance is the best at doing shitty connections.
After having a half an hour chat with the assistant at the terminal, she gave me everything I needed: a hotel, tickets for three foods (lunch, dinner & breakfast at the hotel), a new flight for my destination the next day at the same time (12:00pm) and transportation to the hotel.
I was now much more calmed but I wanted to go fast to the hotel, I was tired already since I had a terrible 19KG bag which wouldn't roll, so I was forced to drag it all the time as if it was a garbage bag. I followed the assistant's instructions and I went up a floor to wait for a shuttle that, supposedly, would come by every 10 minutes. It was about 1pm when I went up that floor. I waited a lot and no shuttle was coming by. After an odyssey of almost losing my backpack (I left it on one of the dozens of buses I took searching for the hotel) and being stranded at the airport for about 4 hours, I finally got to know two other people that also waited the shuttle that never came. We decided to make a complaint with an information point at the airport and after a call to the hotel, they finally send the f***king shuttle. I'm not detailing this part of the experience since it isn't interesting, but it was very exhausting.
By the time I was laying down at my hotel room it was already 6:30 pm. I was very tired but I knew I wasn't going to stay there all the evening. It was a beautiful and luxurious hotel, not the kind of thing I'm used to:
After resting for awhile, I decided to take a quick shower and my goal for that evening was set: see with my own eyes the Eiffel Tower.
One would like to think that being at the Paris' airport is like being at Paris, but one would be very, very wrong. It takes about 70 minutes of train trip to arrive to the coeur of Paris. I had no idea how to get there. I was in a hotel pretty close to the Charles-De-Gaulle airport. Think of it like this: the Paris' airport is a city 70 minutes away in train from what we all know as Paris.
I used the google-is-my-friend strategy and I searched for the nearest bus stop to get back to the airport because I knew that there I could take a subway to Paris downtown. As I approached the bus stop, a guy about 20 y.o walked by, looked at the bus' schedule at the bus stop and told me: "Tu vas où?" something like "Where are you going?".
I'm not the kind of person that trusts other people, but as I found myself alone and in-need of help, I just told him I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and I was going to the airport to take the subway. The guy laughed telling me there is no subway at the airport, but just after he told me there was a kind of train/subway, something called 'RER' that would take me downtown. So I waited with him for the bus and on our way to the airport we talked a bit about the trains I would have to take and the stations I had to go through. This picture is from this guy's phone, showing me the stations I had to go through:
When we arrived at the airport to the RER's validators, the guy started jumping at the validator's doors because he wasn't gonna pay. He told me something like: "Come on, you can get in, there's no problem, there's never people checking". The guy was getting in, holding the validator's door and waiting for me. I had never go through a validator without paying since I find it very uncomfortable and not very nice, but since this guy had really helped me and I was short in money I told myself, "Fuck it, once in a lifetime isn't that bad". Later I would learn I will actually have to do it twice. This the only picture I found of the train's validator at Charles-De-Gaulle:
The train/subway trip was a bit long, fortunately we had taken seats at the train. We spend the time talking with the guy, he was the person who delivered food to the airplanes. I took his number because he had been really kind and then he got off the train after some stations. There was still half the trip for me.
By the time I arrived at one of the stations in which I had to make a connection for another train to take me to the Eiffel tower, I decided I would go up to the surface right there and walk all my way to the Eiffel Tower. I looked at google maps and it was a 2 hour walking trip. So I went up at the Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame station and I got some first impressions of Paris:
From the first moment I knew I loved the city. I had enough motivation for an extra 2 hours walk along the Seine river. Some the most rare things I saw were these kind of little shops along the river with art, books and souvenirs. Everything was really tidy and organized. There were also a lot of bike rental stations and restaurants along the river. It was surprising to see how hundreds of people enjoyed the summer with a lot of joy and smoothness. It was a special feeling I'd never had before.
These are some of the photos I took while walking:
After one hour and a half of walking, I was pretty close to the Eiffel Tower (I was being guided, of course, by google) but I was thirsty and hungry. I hadn't taken a big lunch and it was very hot (about 35 celsius). As I didn't want to pay for a expensive lunch and I really just needed water and something salty I decided to go to a nearby Carrefour. I bought some chips and two bottles of water for 3 euros.
Having this excellent "dinner" I went to the Eiffel Tower and finally saw what I was searching for. Its an imposing structure, beautiful and not at all as shown in all of the pictures or videos I have seen in my life. It's simply indescribable:
Having spent some time in here, I sat down in one of the benches and surprisingly met another guy who came from my country. We spoke for a little while, he told me he had been living in Paris for some years now and after some chitchat he decided to guide me to some of the other monuments in Paris. Downtown Paris is actually where all the monuments and popular cultural places are, so you don't need a lot of time to know them all. I spent some hours walking by and taking some photos:
This guy guided me!
The world's most popular street (where all the big shops are):
Finally, I arrived at my starting point: the same RER station at about 11pm. I tried to search for an information point to buy tickets, but they were all closed. I didn't want not to pay for my ticket again, I asked some police officers but they didn't help me much: they just told me were they usually sell tickets, but again, it was closed. After some minutes I started to get on my nerves. So I just made up my mind: I will jump the validator and just take the f***ing train. I did it. I'm sorry for it, I wouldn't like to steal anything from this beautiful city never again, but I had no other option. The next time I'm there, I'll try and do things in a more ordered manner. This was just a one night thing.
After an hour of train travel and some walking I returned to my hotel, took another shower and went to sleep right away. I was tired, very very tired. But the experience was worth it. Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely!
I hope to know you even better very soon Paris!!
Nice post, can I translate it into Afrikaans? Similar to Dutch and Flemish?
Wow, what an adventure? Nice photos and you are fortunate you meet good and kind people. My first impression of Paris, 30 years ago was not good. I lost 1 of my luggage (stolen) at the Opera station and the Policeman was not helpful. He kept saying I don't know English, only French. Took the next flight out. But that's my bad luck.