PARIS TRIP: DAY 1: Paris

Paris, Wednesday, 14 June 06

6 pm
Ah Paris, here I am!

But I almost wasn’t going to. Chaos unbound.
I was under the impression that the flight was at 3:55 pm. I had planned to go the lab, have lunch and then take the S7 to the airport, at 1:31 pm or 2:01 pm—the journey takes a mere 15 minutes. Mine was an e-ticket, and I couldn’t find a copy at home. Since I don’t have a printer, I had to do that in the lab too. After I got out of my flat, I realized that I had forgotten the keys inside. I don’t do this very often, but I am terrified of doing exactly this, and for this reason, I keep my spare set of keys in the lab. Well so no harm done.
I reach the lab a few minutes before 1 pm; I don’t see anyone there. Dieter, my colleague, was also supposed to take the same flight to Paris with his girlfriend, although they get back on Monday. Dieter’s girlfriend would be taking the S7 from home and he was supposed to take the same train from near the institute, and I had said that I would join them too. So I guessed Dieter might be around or might have already left. I grab the keys and I print out the ticket, and I mark the onward journey with a highlighter, and I see it is at 2:05 pm (3:55pm is the scheduled arrival)—HOLY SHIT!!! And one is supposed to check-in at least one hour before departure… which is RIGHT NOW!

I run. I ask the reception to immediately book a taxi. The taxi doesn’t arrive even after 15 minutes, they call up again and apparently it is just by the traffic lights. I see another taxi coming towards the next institute with a passenger; I jump on that. And ask him to fly. We reach airport at around 1:40 pm. I rush to the counter, expecting to be told that the flight was overbooked and mine was taken as no-show. Or that I could go if I didn’t have any check-in luggage. I did have a suitcase that is slightly larger than the usual cabin baggage. I was expecting to plead, was thinking whether I’d book another flight for today, an expensive one of course, whether I’d take the train or cancel the trip altogether. But the guy at the check-in counter didn’t seem to bat an eyelid, asked for my passport and asked me whether I had check-in luggage.
I started to breathe normally again, my adrenalin levels subsided, my brain gradually relaxed. What a relief.

By the time I reached the departure gate, boarding had already started. There was an enormous queue. I got a sandwich and a bottle of water, as I was not only terribly hungry, but really thirsty too, and now that my adrenalin levels had returned to normal, I started to feel my hunger and thirst again. I found Dieter and Andrea, and we boarded. Their seats were a couple of rows ahead of mine. The flight was eventless, although I was surprised that they served a snack… hadn’t expected it in this budget airline. Interestingly enough, Dieter told me later that they had announced that the owner of Fly Niki, -- Niki Lauda himself was flying the plane. This guy apparently used to be a very famous Formula One champion.

My first host is Guillaume, a lawyer. He lives very close to the center, in the 6th arrondissement. We took the RER to the city. Dieter and Andrea got down at Gare Nord and from there they take the Metro to their hotel in the 18th. I carried on and got down at St. Michel de Notre Dame. Guillaume had sent me a map to get to his place, which is about five minutes from the station. He had left his keys at the reception of a Hotel that is just next door—very kind of him to do that. He had mentioned that he cannot escape before 7:30 pm. I collected the keys and am now in his flat. It is on the 4th floor across the courtyard. The wooden stairs are extremely creaky. I was a bit confused which was the fourth floor (because of the mezzanine floor of Vienna, that is a often a floor between the ground and first floors, and more over, I had confused my counting, and he doesn’t have a name plate on his door). After going up and down and up, I finally found it. It is a small but cute little place. You get inside into a tiny and narrow corridor. After you close the door, you see the living room on the right. On the left is the kitchen, and then his bedroom. Unfortunately, his bathroom/toilet is also in his bedroom, which means I’ll really have to take care not to inconvenience him, especially given the potentially creaky wooden floor.

I had originally planned to go to the Louvre now, since it is open until 9:45 on Wednesdays (and Fridays)—my plan is also to get a Museum Pass for four days allowing (multiple) entries to several museums, but I am not sure whether I will do that, because I haven’t properly decided on what are the museums I want to visit apart from the Louvre, Orsay, Rodin (Sunanda’s recommendation) and Picasso museums. If I get the 4-day pass, I intend to go to the Louvre for two hours every day for those four days. However, since it was already 6 pm after I had freshened up and all, I’ll probably skip the art for tonight and do some wandering around instead.

Guillaume had just called on my mobile (it is 6:50 pm), and said that he’ll be back in about 45 minutes. Cool. I’ll wait for him and it will be nice to meet him and may be even go out for a walk and dinner.

11:45 pm
Guillaume arrived at around 7:30 pm. We chatted a bit. He said he is terribly tired, and in fact looked so too. He said he would go for dinner and then go to bed around 10 pm. I went with him to a nearby restaurant and had some duck legs with salad and fried potatoes. Very good. He refused to allow me to invite him, though. We were sitting outside, and in fact outside the shade too. It had been threatening to drizzle or even rain, there were a few drops now and then, probably a hint of drizzle. We were wondering whether we should take the risk and actually order food. We did. And it seemed we were indeed lucky: 10 minutes after we got back, it started to rain.

We tried to make his wireless network connection work on my laptop, without success. Actually the connection works, but internet doesn’t—TCP/IP doesn’t work or something of that sort. There is something missing because of which the only place it works in is at the institute. He thinks some driver has not been installed while installing Windows XP. I had failed to connect to the internet from Baba’s modem in Kolkata as well. My virus/spyware protection updates doesn’t work too. I should take this to Fabien some day and ask him to check it out—he is the only one of my friends who is into computers.

I decided to take a walk, even though it was drizzling. After all, I had got my waterproof jacket. Guillaume suggested the Cathedral de Notre Dame, and I agreed this was a great idea. The cathedral is located at the end of one of the two islands of the Parisian Seine, and is very close to his place—in fact you might remember, my RER station was called St. Michel de Notre Dame. I walked around it, and then walked along the Seine on its left bank. This was a very pleasant experience, especially because it seemed to be a haunt of the youth, most of them in groups, many of them singing or playing musical instruments.

I had told Guillaume that I’d be back by 11 pm. That is because he has promised his neighbour that he wouldn’t flush the toilet after 11 pm. The other problem I had anticipated right from the beginning is that since the toilet is in his bedroom, I would have to disturb him if I needed to go to the loo after he’s gone to bed, like today.
I got back around 11:15 pm, and so since I had already missed the 11 pm deadline, I cannot flush the toilet tonight. Not a very appealing thought. Well…I went in at around midnight, and made too much noise with the door, creaking floor etc and of course Guillaume woke up. So resolution: if I am late, I go to the loo in a café/bar I was last in.