Euro Trip 2008 - Day 6 - Rainy Paris

DAY 6: 1st FEBRUARY 2008

For 13 Euros we would be able to tour the famous Palace of Versailles. According to the tour guide, in her own words, “It’s a very beautiful palace, the most famous palace in Paris, maybe even the world, beautiful palace and beautiful fountains; even though the fountains aren’t working now…it’s a must.” The comment about the fountains not working cracked me up, but I passed the opportunity. I think I’ve visited enough palaces to last me for a while. Besides some of us haven't really explored the town itself so we might as well use the half-day we were getting to do just that.




Checking out from the hotel.


In front of the hotel Sevran.


Since we passed off the trip, we had the morning free. So first after returning our keys to the hotel, we went to Carrefour to buy some stuff for the following trip. I didn’t buy anything; the idea of lugging around groceries around Paris (rainy Paris) didn’t strike me fancy that time around so I just tagged along to see what Carrefour Paris was like. Turns out, it’s no different than any other Carrefour.



Paris's Carrefour.


Sevran-Beaudottes station near the hotel, before taking the metro to the city.


Paris this way!


While waiting for the metro.


Haha. Then we took the underground heading back to central Paris. There, the group split into two. Majority of us were girls, with only four guys – me, Abu, Zol and Chong. Al had gone with Ifah, Ain and Miguel earlier because they hadn't gone to the Eiffel Tower up close yet. For the rest of us, it was then decided that each group had two guys. I was in the middle, didn’t know which group to join when I saw that Zol and Chong had already been with a group, while Abu was already with another. To keep the number of guys for each group balanced, I went with Abu.



I kept telling Abu, he had the whole pengembara jalanan image down pat. Heheheh.


However, just a couple of minutes later Abu and I diverged from the girls and set off on our own, with the arc near the Louvre as a promised meeting point by 1.40pm. The girls wanted to explore all the shops of the high street, shopping and window shopping, while Abu and I had bought whatever we wanted to buy from Paris already. So without a map, without a sense of direction whatsoever we walked along the streets, did some browsing and window-shopping of our own. And picture-snapping of course, mostly with Abu’s camera because my camera had some ‘condensation-ized’ spots on the lens.



Signboards are of little help for the two buta-jalans.


So we went around the busy city aimlessly, enjoying the rainy sights. At first we decided to get something to eat for lunch, and the first thing we saw was KFC so we decided that at least we'd go in to seek cover. KFC was packed, it was lunch time after all, so we called off the plan. Subsequently we went around other cafes, scanning the menus and blinking in confusion as the waiters promoting their special-of-the-days in French. Even if they spoke in English we wouldn't go in: the foods looked a bit...off...and way expensive! McDs were nowhere in sight. Finally we decided to skip lunch as it was time to actually get a bearing of where we were at, and here was when things got a bit funny.



Busy, rainy day. Only the two of us were a bit static, taking pictures. The Parisians were hustling and bustling around us.




The first person we approached was a African-Parisian shopkeeper. I did the honors and remembering how Amy said it, I asked him in French whether he could speak English. The funny thing is that I thought I must have somehow accidentally included Amy’s intonation as well, which made me laugh inwardly. Thankfully the guy thought nothing was wrong and directed us to a certain path. We followed the instruction, and it was only after a while we lost our bearing again. That was when we actually crossed the River Seine (we realized that it was actually unnecessary to cross the river). The second person we asked was a fellow tourist, who upon hearing our question had instantly taken out his well-worn map to guide us. Definitely not the best choice.

Sometime along the way we met a French policewoman who spoke to us in rapid French, leaving us blinking in confusion.
Us: Can you show us the way to the Louvre?
Policewoman: LUV-GHEH? (She didn't understand English)
Us: LOUVRE (LOOV)
Policewoman: LUV-GHEH! (proceeds by pointing us the way towards the Louvre, which was obscured by many buildings).
Us: Umm...thanks. (didn't understand a thing, only got the Luv-gheh part much later after the tour).





Budget nak pergi tengok gak the Notre-Dame Cathedral, but tak sempat. So ambil picture dari jauh pun jadilah.


The next person we went to ask for bearing was yet another tourist, who took out the Metro map and told us which metro to take. The thing was, we didn’t want to take the metro. We wanted to brave the rainy Paris :P. Then finally, we decided that the best person would be a young guy and an authority…and went to a young-looking museum guard. Thankfully, he spoke in enviably fluent English and redirected us back to the right way to the Louvre. By then it was almost 1pm.





The River Seine.


Basah kuyup!


Malu bertanya sesat jalan, tapi kami bertanya jadi akhirnya kami kembali ke pangkal jalan...straight ahead was Louvre. Bapak susah nak cari but dekat je sebenarnya.


By the time we arrived at our promised meeting point we were both partially drenched. My jeans, shoes and hat were soaked to the bone. Luckily the jacket blocked my body from getting soaked too. We waited for the others, accompanied by a drunken guy who could be a craze too. He kept on muttering gibberish at us but didn't seem to have any bad intention so we pretty much ignored him. So we waited, shaking like mad, for the others to arrive there.

Then the girls told us via SMS that they had taken the Metro to get to the bus so we went off to look for the bus on our own, retracing our steps from our first day in Paris – the bus would be parked at the same spot. The rain didn't seem to be letting up and towards the Concorde where the bus would be arriving was an open area, with no way for us to seek refuge from the rain. By this time we didn't really bother with pictures anymore - we were seemingly running late, or so we thought.

The bus wasn’t there so we went to take cover from the rain, while waiting for the others. Soon enough, everyone showed up and the bus came. I felt so icky being drenched; I ended up buying a pair of Al’s new socks that he bought at Carrefour earlier today to keep my feet warm. The last thing I wanted was to be at the receiving end of the ‘bau-stong (smelly socks)’ gag, which was a running gag among us throughout the trip. Luckily I got to seat beside the bus's heater, so after a while my clothes were no longer drenched.

While I was resting, a guy sitting behind me leaned forward.
K: Psst, Adzrul....kalau ada bau stokin busuk....
Me: (In my mind, uh-oh...my socks ke??)
K: ... itu bukan kasut saya ok.
B (K's girlfriend): Ah, takde! Memang kasut dia yang busuk, Adzrul!
Me: (Lega...not my socks yg berbau, ha ha ha!)





Definitely not a Parisian experience I had expected… but it wasn’t bad now that I think of it. When Bavani told me later that day that she had lost her camera, with all the pics taken for the past seven days, I realized that I have been lucky. Besides, it’s a unique experience in its own right, which I’m sure I’d remember for a long, long time. Perhaps in the future I'll be able to visit Paris again.


Ada umur ada rezeki.


Thus the Paris parts of the trip was concluded, and our next stop was Brussels, Belgium. We arrived there that same day, during the night. I'd have Brussels included in this entry but the entry is already long enough and the pictures are abundant.