Paris Layover

On the way back to the States, we had about a 10 hour layover in Paris, so we had three choices:

1. Stay in the terminal and sleep there. Catch the flight in the morning.
2. Go get a hotel room for the night.
3. Wander the streets of Paris until it was time to go home.

Guess which one we chose?

So we take the train into Paris...it was a SLOW ride, but we finally made it. We exited the train station and headed toward the Eiffel Tower...our first stop. It was VERY touristy. People were hanging out in the plaza there and vendors wandered around selling overpriced souvenirs.

So we made it to the tower just fine, but none of the pictures we took there came out very well at all. This picture was taken a little distance away and you can kinda-sorta see the tower in the background, I hope. Right about now, I'm realizing that the shorts and t-shirt I was wearing wasn't really gonna do it for me. While not being freezing, it was cold enough to make me ask Yener for his jacket.

Before he gave his jacket up to me, though, I took this picture of him. As you can see, he's more sensibly dressed. We're carrying our carry-on luggage with us; Yener's included his laptop and related electronics, so it wasn't light. Would have been nice to have a locker available. This picture is the same basic pose he had during his last trip to Paris. Let me tell you something: The French are serious about their language. If you don't speak French fluently, it really does help to have someone with you who can translate! Fortunately, Yener's tri-lingual...Turkish/English/French. It made ordering the chocolate crepes from the street vendor a lot easier. Man...those were good!

So about 11:30pm or so, we stumble across this cafe on the Champs-Elysee that is still open. According to the sign, it'll be open until 2am. We stayed here as long as we could and we ordered pizza. Yener got some kind of vegetarian pie and I got a Sicilian pie which included anchovies. No...it wasn't nasty...I actually liked it. I had the most expensive cup of cappuccino ever here...but it was AMAZING. The hamburgers at this place cost about 14 U.S. dollars. Can you believe that? Back home, there is a place that sells a 1.3 lb hamburger for $9! Right about now, I'm really missing home, but I'm glad I have good company with me!

After our break, we went down the street and found a McDonald's that was still open. Yes, they actually do call it a Royale rather than a 1/4 Pounder. Something else about France you should know: You have to pay to use the toilets there, so keep some change with you!

I grabbed some coffee and we hung around until about 2am, when the restaurant was closing. We walked down the street to see the Louvre at night (no pictures taken there came out) and then we wandered through the streets of Paris back to the train station to catch our train at 4:30am back to the airport.

Let me tell you something about Paris at 2am-4am: It's kinda scary. It's also pretty dirty. The streets were very littered and the prostitutes were out trying to drum up business. Drunkards were trying to get us to give them money or they simply followed us. I'm not sure if they were following us for nefarious reasons, but it was still worrisome. Homeless were sleeping in the streets and we walked quietly so as not to disturb them.

At the train station, we waited outside with some other folks for the station gates to open up. Some guy came over from what looked like a bar across the street and asked if we had a cigarette. When he was told by Yener that we didn't smoke, he asked to drink my water. I'm familiar with this trick...it's usually supposed to distract you long enough to let a thief or thug grab something or hit you. We both kept our eyes firmly on him and watched his every move. Yener told the guy, "It's his water. It's not for you." (I pretended not to speak French...which wasn't much of a stretch.) His reply was something like, "Water was created for everyone!" and then he wandered away. Yener turns to me and said, "What a socialist thing to say! I'm glad we were together or that might have turned out badly." I just giggled. I was too tired to do much else.

As it turns out, there was a bus that arrived earlier, so we took that back to the airport. We jogged over to where it was waiting and paid our fare to to get on. It was nice sitting on the warm bus and it sure did feel more secure!

We got on our plane back home where we ended up missing our flight from Cincinnati to Detroit because Air France waited almost an hour for two passengers to show up and get on the plane. Yener was LIVID! Fortunately, Delta managed to get us on the next flight to Detroit which was only an hour later, so it all worked out. It gave us a chance to go to the bathroom and grab some food. Fortunately, we had a car at the airport, so we didn't have to inconvenience anyone. I almost kissed the ground I was so glad to be home.

Nobody was happier to see us than the cats.

Back to the Itinerary