I was in Paris! I had so much excitement, but the question was… how do I get to my hotel? I got out of the airport with my luggage and immediately a taxi came up to me and asked me [in English] if I needed his services, to which I eagerly said yes. I asked him his fare and it was 2.2 Euro per kilometer. Keep in mind that kilometers are much shorter than the English mile. He plugged my hotel’s address into his gps and figured out how much it was going to cost me… over 100 euro! For those of you unfamiliar with the Euro conversion unit, 1 euro is about 1.3 dollars right now. Plus, there’s about a 3% surcharge for the conversion between the two currencies. 150 Euro is a little less than 200 dollars. I’d be burning nearly 150 bucks just to ride with this taxi to my hotel. No way! My hotel only cost around 60 bucks. So I had him drop me off at the Metro which he told me would get me where I needed to go in the city.
The Metro is a beast. A subway train system under the heart of Paris which can take you nearly anywhere in Paris for really cheap. A ticket to ride only costs about 1.2 Euro. Of course the ticket machine was in French and I’d never used it before so I had to call for assistance. The lady told me in broken English how to operate the ticket machine and there I was off to the Metro. I however had several problems. I for one don’t know the city, I was carrying around heavy luggage (should have packed less) and the subway is completely packed out with people. I like to think of the Metro as meat wagons. You’re pressed up against 5 or 6 people with no room for the American bubble? I like my bubble, and what’s more I like being able to move my arm. There’s also the concern for pickpockets and thieves because you’re up against everybody else, and everybody can tell I’m a tourist because of my luggage.
So I jumped on the subway… not knowing where I was going. Bad move. Fortune however shone on me. I heard right next to me people speaking English! I never heard such a sweet sound in my life. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a place where nobody speaks your language, now Paris is somewhat Americanized, but older people are likely not to know how to speak English and often the younger people don’t use it often enough to be proficient at it. Plus if you’re an American overseas you don’t want to be seen as somebody who has the expectation of requiring people to accommodate them, after all this is their country, and their language. I will never ever have the same attitude towards foreigners in my country. It’s hard going to a place, not knowing the language and being expected to try to communicate in it. I even had three years of French in high school (most of which I forgot) and I was totally unequipped for what awaited me in Paris. Back to the English speakers… there was an Australian couple and an American father and daughter speaking amongst themselves. I said to them, kind of loudly and with great delight… “Oh my gosh, English speakers, I don’t know where I’m going and I need to get to my hotel.” The American father and daughter were first time Paris visitors so they couldn’t help me but the Aussie couple could. They got me a metro map and explained to me how they worked, and set me in the right direction! WooHoo! I am convinced that couple was a gift from God! Otherwise I would have ridden that metro car aimlessly. I finally got to my hotel and I was thrilled!
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