A Grand Day Out

My flight to Paris got in about five minutes early, but it was still about two hours of waiting for the shuttle, checking into my hotel, taking the shuttle back to the airport again, buying a train ticket, waiting for the train, etc., before I was ready to embark on my big day in Paris.  It was going to be a grand adventure, and in the end, it was - just not the adventure I had envisioned.

Shuttle to and from hotel? Check
Train ticket? Check
Ride to Gare de Nord? Check

So far, so good - but that's where it kind of fell apart.  First, no one told me that you have to have your ticket to put in the machine to get out of the station. So I had to step aside and dig through my purse to find it. And apparently, like Madrid, where you get off of an arriving train is nowhere near the actual station, so when I finally found my way out, I didn't know what side I was on.  I tried matching the tour bus map to Google maps, but it turns out that the tour bus map doesn't have street names, only pictures of the places that the tour goes, with the general direction marked.  Some other people were looking for the station, too, so I set out walking in the same direction they did, but lost them at some point.  I got very lost for a bit in a decidedly Muslim area of town.  Interesting window shopping, but I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures.  There was litter everywhere, and it smelled like pee, and I just wanted to find the bus. When I say there was litter everywhere and it smelled like pee, I don't just mean that neighborhood, either.  It was the same everywhere I was.

I ended up seeing the tour bus go by and tried to follow it to a stop, but the driver wouldn't let me on without being at an official stop, nor would he even let me ask where one was.  Eventually, after maybe a 45 minute huge, circular walk, I ended up in front of Gare de Nord, but was still unable to find the bus place.  I stopped into McDonald's for a drink and to use the bathroom (though I might have skipped the drink if I knew you didn't need a code to get into the bathroom), then tried to call the bus place.  The call wouldn't go through, but since the error message was in French, I didn't have a clue what I had done wrong.

Gare de Nord

 I took one more stab at finding it, but eventually decided to give it up.  I didn't want to get too far from Gare de Nord and not be able to find my way back to go back to the airport.  So I went in, bought myself a sandwich and some chips for dinner, and headed back. I saw Gare de Nord, and I saw some pretty buildings near there.  I walked five miles, and I learned how to take the RER B from the airport. I learned that Paris is dirty and smells like pee.  I'm a little disappointed in myself for not being able to pull this off. On the plus side, I didn't buy a ticket online for the tour bus, either for the day I couldn't get into town at all, or for today, so that's $30 saved.  If I ever come back, I'll do it with more time and a real plan - and definitely a real map.

Random pretty building in Paris.