Day 4

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We woke again last night. At 3am this time. We had another wee chat. Kristy went back to sleep but unfortunately I couldn't. Room service did not leave us any towels yesterday. At 6.30am I decided to go down and ask for some. I found out the French words for towels (serviette) in our French phrase book and went and successfully requested some from reception. I enjoyed a leisurely shower in the rather temperamental shower (which leaked rather profusely on the bathroom floor!) By then Kristy was awake. She was somewhat perturbed to realise that I was going to wear my Air France white t-shirt and black pants for the day. Her perturbation arose from the fact that she would also be wearing her Air France t-shirt and black pants. Apparently it is simply not 'done' for a mother to be dressed the same as her 17 year old daughter. I just cracked up laughing. It wasn't as though either of us had any choice!

We enjoyed another delicious breakfast at around 8am and then decided to try out the internet cafe down the road. We were quite pleasantly surprised. It looked a bit grungy on the outside but it was ok inside. French keyboards are another story! They are quite different but after a few fits and starts we (mostly) got the hang of them and sent a few emails off home. I spotted some phones in the cafe also and managed to ask if I could make a reverse charge call. I phoned the insurance company to explain about the luggage issues. They said we could buy some emergency clothes and toiletries but that the excess was $100. Of course. I don't remember reading that in the fine print but I should know insurance companies better.

We wandered back to the hotel joking about how we would buy a dress and that one of us would wear it, commando, and take our few clothes to the laundromat while the other wore a towel and waited in the hotel room! When we got back to the hotel, we phoned the airport again. They said that our bags were with the delivery company and would be delivered today. This sounded good but we tried to be philosophical. We decided to head out for a few hours so we hit the metro and headed off to Charles de Gaulle Etoile which is the station right next to the Arc de Triomphe. What an astonishing ediface. It is described as a "monument to meglomania" as it was commissioned by Napoleon who, ironically, never got to see it. It is, like the other buildings and monuments we've seen, stunningly huge. It is situated in the centre of a 12 way uncontrolled intersection. The traffic is horrific. We just could not believe the seeming insanity of cars ducking and diving in and out, apparently heedless of road rules - if indeed there are any. We could see people under it but, initially we couldn't figure out how to get across to it. I checked in my guidebook (which, again, was all we had as our other information was in our missing bags). I read that, under no circumstances should one attempt to cross the incredibly busy intersection. We could understand that. I imagine it would be a fast way to die! The guidebook stated that there was an underpass so we walked around the perimeter roads until we located it. We walked through the underpass and found ourselves underneath the Arc. It's just amazing. We spent a while just walking round looking at it and the grave of the unknown soldier underneath. The names of generals are inscribed in the walls of the Arc along with the most detailed sculptured engravings. We took heaps of photos.

We decided to pay the 9 euro to go to the top as Kristy, being under 18 was free. It was 284 steps up but what a joy when we arrived (only a little puffed!) at the top. We could see the whole of Paris laid out at our feet. We spent about an hour checking out the views. There were display boards iidentifying all the various buildings we could see. The weather was perfect. It was gorgeously sunny and warm. Probably, again, a little too warm for a couple of kiwis recently departed from a NZ winter.
We took heaps of photos before heading down a few stairs to the souvenir shop. What an amazing job. Imagine the conversation...."Where do you work?"..... "Me? Oh I work at the top of the Arc de Triomphe". Heady stuff.

After making the journey back down the Arc we decided to get brave and call into a cafe/bar for a coke. I ordered two "coka" at the bar. We were then promptly shooed off to a seat with looks of surprise. Apparently it is simply not done to pay up at the bar! The waiter came from behind the counter and presented us with a tray containing our cokes and glasses leaving us wondering how one pays. A few minutes later a bill arrived discreetly on the table. It was for 8.40 euros. (About $20 for 2 cokes LOL) We read our trusty guidebook again and decided that we were supposed to round up for a tip so we hunted out 9 euro and put it on the table in front of us. A few minutes later a different waiter came along, casually swept up both bill and money with a "merci madame" and sailed off. Business... French style!

After finishing our cokes (which were deliciously cooling) we left the table and realised that ithere was a "tabac" (tobacconist) at the front of the bar. I stumbled through some incredibly bad French asking for postage stamps. The owner shook his head and pointed up the road saying "La Poste" (and a bunch of other stuff that I couldn't understand) We really wanted stamps for our post cards so we trundled up the road several blocks and, much to our delight, found a Post Office! We intended to buy 10 stamps but the man kindly explained (in English) that the stamps were changing on the 1st July and we couldn't use them after that. We settled on 5 stamps instead, figuring we could use the 5 before the 1st.

We were a bit hungry and tired by then so we went in search of some lunch. We came across a wonderful little place called Class Croute which served salads of all sorts and yummy desserts. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal (and caused the staff much amusement with our fractured French!) It's the little things that are tricky when you are in another country. eg do you take your tray to the counter when you are finished or leave it at the table? We did a lot of people watching to try and figure out the 'right' ways of doing things.

After lunch we walked until we found a metro. We were using a fairly crude map from the brochure stand at the hotel but it was generally ok for metro finding, specially as there is one every half kilometer or so. We needed two metro lines to get back to the hotel. The connecting station was Chatelet les Halles. While we walked to find our second metro Kristy spotted a dress shop. She found a couple of dresses that she wanted to try on. She had to wait for ages because a couple of moslem women were trying on everything in the shop! Finally the shop woman managed to convince them to let Kristy have a go because "maman" was waiting.

While I waited I wandered round the metro and looked at shops and the wares of street sellers. The fans looked particularly inviting on a hot day so I purchased a nice, blue one for 2 euro. Kristy ended up buying a really pretty dress. It was around 3 when we got back to the hotel. We were keen to see if our bags had turned up. A young guy at reception told us that the delivery company had phoned and that they were bringing our bags. We were a bit despondent to realise that we still didn't actually have them in our possession. The ancient elevator clunked its way up to our 4th floor room. We stepped in the door to see two large bags in the middle of the floor!! There had obviously been a communication mix up. The bags had arrived. Our joy and delight in that moment was unequalled. They had been thoroughly searched but everything was there. I don't think we would have cared if half the airport staff in both airports had gone through them - we were just delighted to have them back.

After a couple of hours spent enjoying our newly returned possessions we went for a short walk to McDonalds and had a fruit smoothie while Kristy surfed the internet (McDonalds has free WiFi access). While she browsed, I went across the road to Gare du Nord station and sussed out exactly where the Eurostar departs from for our trip to London in 2 days. I also bought a proper map of Paris for 2.90 euro which is a lot cheaper than the $26 I would have had to pay at home. I returned to McDonalds to get Kristy. We found a post box and posted our post cards, bought a French stick from a boulangerie (a real French stick!) and then found a pharmacie where I bought a tube of ointment for my very dry, cracking lips. The woman asked where we were from and then (to our secret amusement) proudly explained that she had friends in New Caledonia. I guess that is closer to NZ than France. We then walked our tired legs back to the hotel at around 8. This holiday business is exhausting!

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Photos

The grave of the unknown solder
under the Arc de Triomphe

In the Arc de Triomphe souvenir shop
Note the embarrassingly similar outfits!