Jour à Paris

I had been in London for over 2 weeks and barely left the Camden and Covent Garden areas. Until this past Tuesday! Where I went to Paris for the day for a pitch meeting. I took the eurostar for the first time from St. Pancras to Gare du Nord. We arrived to a gorgeous Parisian day. If only we could find a café, have a glass of wine and a croissant. But alas, we had to get to our hotel to practice.

We all arrived in Paris with no euros. I had about £10 and $10. No euros. We had to make sure we found a taxi that took credit cards. Luckily we had someone in our group from Montreal who speaks French.

We made it to the gorgeous hotel where we had the run around. We didn’t know whether we were eating lunch or practicing in meeting room. Nonetheless I kept asking “Parlez-vous anglais?” a lot to get clarification. It's nice to see something from high school French stuck.

We had two taxis picking us up at the hotel to go the client. Obviously only one showed up. I had the presentation and got in the cab that was there. Fifteen minutes later, we all made it to the client, where we pulled off a pretty good presentation.

It was now late in the afternoon (still amazing outside) and we had to head back to Gare du Nord. A minivan was supposed to come and pick us up. Of course I had to call them numerous times since they were late. We got a little French sun, but we were stressing about getting back to the station for our train. The taxi showed up and we made our way to the station via the Arc de Triomphe and some Parisian side streets. I fork over €70 (about $100) for the cab ride. I didn’t realize I was going to the French countryside.

We get to Gare du Nord and apparently there was a suspicious package. Of course, all trains were delayed. It was hard to tell with the language barrier and their thick accents, but it sounds like this happens often. We decide to get a drink. Well the track number wasn’t showing up and no one seemed to be boarding our train, so we got food. We made some friends who were also watching out for the departure of the train.

All of a sudden someone tells us we have to get on the train. Oh jeez. I grab the 2^nd half of my sandwich and take one last sip of my wine and run to the train. Of course we had to go through customs. The Brits got through with no problem. I get through with no problem. Unfortunately our other two American colleagues got questioned—a lot. The big sister in me had to wait for them. We were a little nervous. Are they going to make it?? However the worst that could happen is they—slash me—get stuck in Paris for the night. There are worst things.

Luckily we all make it and run to the very beginning of the train—WAY down the platform. We get to our seats, drop off our belongings, and immediately make our way to the drinks car.

Our day of transportation was apparently typical of Paris, but man it was stressful. It helped that I was half asleep.