Like this:

Now that I have told the world (or whoever is reading this blog) how I got the nickname ‘Yabo’ I would like to continue on with Paris…It is raining here today. This is the first rain I have seen in Juan Les Pins and it looks as though it might come down all day. Seems like a good day to catch up on a blog…Marien and I arrived in Paris last Thursday evening around 10:30. Our bag arrived quickly and we were off to find the train station into the city (Orly airport is 35 minutes or so from the city center). After a long but successful talk with the information desk (I guess my French is still lacking..hah) we headed off to a bus stop that would take us to the train station and after one switch of trains we should arrive 3 blocks away from our accommodations….I bet you know where this is going….The bus arrived within minutes (step one–check) and after a 4 minute ride we were at the appropriate train station (step two–check). The attendant at the station gave us a map, sold us two tickets (6 euro–not bad I thought) and answered our questions in incredibly broken English (thank God for Marien’s knack with Latin based languages because I would have been there all night trying to figure the guy out). He told us there was a train at 11:30 that would say ROMI on the front and that would take us to our next stop.

It was 11:15 so we had some time to study the boards and further orientate ourselves with the metro system. At 11:23 a train that read EURI arrived (as was mentioned on the schedule) and stayed at the station for several minutes as though it was done for the evening. Our ROMI train was still on the board for 11:30 but it was 11:30 now and the EURI train was still in the station…now what…we had asked people that got off if this train would take us to the city and they said no (but they probably had no idea what we were saying…hah). A minute or so later the EURI train began to leave…I said to Marien…”I bet money that train says ROMI on it now”. “I hope not” she says…but sure enough as the end of the train went past, ROMI was scrolling across the top and the ROMI train went off the schedule board…which also happened to be the last train of the night from that station…Welcome to Paris, so close yet so far away…So back up to the ticket window we go, this time a little upset with the attendant. After explaining what had happened he said there was no way and seemed confused…whatever, how do we get to our hotel…he told us to take the bus back to the airport and from there we could catch a bus going to the city.

As the bus approached the train station we noticed it was the same driver who dropped us off the first time. As we got onboard he gave us a look like ’what the hell are you doing back’ and waved us on without taking a fee…pretty cool…At this time of the night we were the only ones on the bus and he asked where we were going (in French of course and thanks again for Mariens knack with languages). She explained what had happened the best she could and he told her he would take us straight to the bus stop as we were pushing the clock to make the last bus (really pushing the clock)…As we approached the terminal at the airport he pointed down to the bus stop below and we all watched as the last bus for the night headed off towards the city…At this point we just laughed and knew that our last resort was a taxi which we had been avoiding because of the high cost (about 70 US for two people late at night). The bus driver looked at us like ‘now what?’ and Marien told him to take us to the taxi stand. This was off of his route and it was incredibly nice of him to take us. On the way he asked us where we were going exactly and after we told him he offered to take us in his car as he was getting off work, lives in the city and was going that way. He offered to take us for 30 euro (almost half the cost of a taxi), and we both felt good energy coming from him so we decided to accept the offer. His name was Arnaud (like Arnold I guess) and we shared our stories (in incredibly broken English and French) as he kindly drove us to the doorstep of our hotel.

To me experiences like that make up the essence of travel. There is always a sense of unknown that keeps you on your toes. The energy that it brings can be exhilarating if you allow it to flow through you offering minimal resistance against it. When we missed the train I was frustrated…stuck in a foreign city late at night with what seemed like no place to go…but you take a deep breath, trust the journey, and doors of opportunity open in front of you.

My intuition told me to get on the train to begin with…but I didn’t…Marien told me, ‘if your intuition speaks to you again, let me know and we will follow it’…and we did and we had great experiences with the metro for the rest of the trip…Two lessons learned…Follow your intuition at the train station (and elsewhere of course) and if you are fortunate enough to travel with someone who has a knack with languages, then do it…Thanks Marien…I have attached some pictures from Paris…the link to the gallery should work…the rain has stopped here and the sun is out (guess it can’t rain all day on the Med) so I am going for a walk…thanks for reading and thanks for your comments…more on Paris soon.

Advertisement