Almost trapped in Paris

Sorry to be MIA for 2 weeks and a few days. Just back from Croatia about 7 hours ago and I'm still busy trying to clear my Inbox. Don't look forward to my office inbox when I start work on Wed. Luckily tomorrow is Labour Day and a public holiday!

We had an 8-hour transit in Paris and CDG is such a drabby unexciting airport we decided to take the RER train to Paris for a little sightseeing and dinner. It took us only 30 minutes to get to Paris. Lots of time for us to get back in time for our flight back to SG. Boarding time was 10:20pm.

One can never tire of the magnificent Notre Dame!



We climbed up the steps of the suffocatingly warm Metro and breathed in the crisp cool air of Paris. Crowds and crowds of people here there and everywhere, taking pictures, having fun all around the Notre Dame.

We had the MOST WONDERFUL Berthillon Ice Cream at Rue St. Louis (near Notre Dame). It's nothing like the ice cream in Croatia which is too creamy and not as tasty and even Italy's gelato doesn't quite match up. This french one is PURE taste and pure heaven almost. The chocolate is dark dark dark! The lime really tastes like the fruit. For €4, we wished that the scoops weren't quite so small.



The weather wasn't so great. It rained a bit. While we were having dinner in a little Indochine restaurant, it pitter-pattered outside! And it was a hailstorm!! A light one with little round specks of ice falling from the sky!! Boy were we glad to be in a warm restaurant.



We left Paris for the airport at 8:30pm giving lots of allowance for our boarding time of 10:20pm.

BUT as Murphy's Law would have it, the RER train we were in STOPPED at some godforsaken station god knows where!! And the announcements were in FRENCH! SIGH.... It didn't move on and many passengers got off !!! We were very puzzled and asked around. The other passengers said they didn't explain what was wrong, just that the delay was caused by the rain and they didn't know when it would be fixed. ARRRGGHHHH!!!! *&#$(*&@#$(*%

After waiting in the train for about 30 mins, we were getting really anxious and the nightmare of us missing our plane became more and more real!! Finally decided to heck it - we hopped off the train, ran off in the rain, and into a little deserted pub (it was the only shop on that dark street). The pub owner and his wife were the only people there... I was glad to see a little doggie too (I have a theory that dog owners are basically nice people). But the whole scene was like those horror movies where at some point, we get kidnapped or killed in a little deserted house....

Anyway, he called us a cab and in smatterings of French, he asked us for 50 euro cents back in exchange of the phone call !! geez.... ok.... LOL... Oh well, it's not like we had a choice. In the midst of the phone call, the train MOVED OFF!!! They reassured us that it would move off a bit and reverse. But we wondered... sigh...

The cab came after 5 mins and suddenly another guy appeared at the little pub!! It really started to feel like those Alfred Hitchcock movies where one person after another appears from the rain, late in the night, looking for refuge....

Anyway, in REAL LIFE, he did share the cab with us to the airport. LOL... He's a French guy, also on his way to Singapore on business and on the same flight as us! Must buy 4-D!! So many coincidences!!!!

When we got to the airport, the cab meter showed €32.60, but the cab driver wanted double the amount, JUST because the guy wasn't supposed to be in the cab in the first place when the cab was booked!! Geez... !!!! In the end, he accepted €45. We paid 20 and the guy paid 25 but we think he can claim from his company anyway...

And he (being French) said that it is the culture there... oh well.... We were lucky that he was there to parlez vous with the driver. For us, we felt that it was a complete rip off !! He used the same amount of petrol for one trip. It can't be that much more for the weight of an additional passenger.

We were relieved to get to the airport with 15mins to spare, and promptly got lost in the very disorganised Charles de Gaulle airport again!! The signage SUCKS big time and from one place to the next was a huge hike! Some counters were unmanned but they don't tell you until you get there. We were sooo tired by the time we got to the boarding gate.

More irritating stuff happened at the gate but it's boring compared to earlier part of the day..... Basically, boarding time became 10:30pm and what was printed on the boarding pass as the gate (C91) became the gate for business class and cattle class was changed to C90. But of course they don't tell anyone until the VERY LAST MINUTE! So everyone who gathered at C91 (I say gathered because there is no order whatsoever) had to amble to C90 and sort of form a queue (I say 'sort of' because there is NO SPACE to queue and no directions)! It's all very hap-hazard and mismanaged!

I suppose on hindsight, we can say that it was exciting and that it's good to experience things like that during a holiday. They make the holiday more memorable... but sometimes I'm glad to be back in Singapore! ... Mag said, with anal retentive people cleaning the streets and repairing trains and lines... Hahaha...

More on Croatia itself later! Thousands of pictures to sieve through!

Best Ice Cream of our trip:


Click here to check out Mag's Croatia posts