Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Spring In My Step: Step IV

Friday, 5 May 2017

I exited the terminal building after midnight and sat on a bench. After a while, I moved to join a couple in a restaurant sidewalk. I don’t think I managed to even doze off. Maybe I did for a very short while before I was woken up by a woman who was playing with her smart phone. Shame, if only owning a smart phone makes one smart.

It got progressively colder by the minute and I was soon shivering. I stomped my feet, wrapped myself up in another layer of scarf, dug my hands into my jacket pocket but it still remained cold.

The building finally opened at 04:00 and we rushed inside. I went to use the bathroom to freshen myself up and perform ablutions. I went to have my ticket and passport checked after performing morning prayers before going through security check.

We emerged into the cold Pisa morning to find a very heavy fog but went to board the plane anyway. As luck would have it, I was again assigned to the very last row, row 33 but by the aisle this time. We waited for take-off and when the door closed, I went to use the bathroom and then changed seats to the row in front (all three seats were empty). I must have dozed off for when I got up, the plane was on the runway. I thought we had landed (checked my watch and it showed it had been two hours since we boarded the plane and our flight time was supposed to take less than two hours) but no, we were only just taking off! We were delayed by the thick fog or mist or whatever you call it. Well, at least this delay meant I could catch some kip so I dozed back off to sleep and only woke up as we were about to make our descent.



This was how thick the fog was


We landed at Paris Beauvais Airport after 10:00 and I was attended to by a gruff immigration officer who asked me questions in French. I went eh and probably spoke Italian back to him. He checked with his colleague who confirmed that Malaysians do not need Schengen visa to enter France. Duh, I almost blurted out, aren’t you supposed to know all these? Of the ASEAN countries, only Malaysians, Bruneians and Singaporeans don’t need Schengen visa.

I wasn’t in a hurry and wanted to charge my devices for a bit and also get online so I left the terminal after an hour and walked to the bus stand. However, the few of us who were there were told to wait in the terminal as the next bus would depart in an hour’s time. So I went back to the terminal building and continued charging my devices. I had bought the bus ticket online just before departing for Europe and it gave a small saving compared to buying it from the ticket office (Malaysia is not stated in the list of countries, I had to scroll down until I found it spelt in Arabic. Not sure how Malaysians who can’t read Arabic would be able to buy the bus ticket online). I returned to the bus stand 50 minutes later and we finally boarded the bus at 12:45.

The bus arrived at Porte Maillot after 14:00 and after buying a bottle of water from a supermarket in Palais descongrès de Paris, I headed for the métro station but it was closed. So I studied the map I picked up on the bus and decided to walk to the next station. It took about six minutes to walk to Argentine and knowing how inaccessible and not-travel friendly most of the metro stations are, I decided to walk on. So I walked along Avenue de la Grande Armée to Arc de Triomphe to Avenue des Champs-Élysées until I reached Place de la Concorde. It was a lovely spring day and it was pleasant to walk in that weather. I then turned left to Rue de Rivoli before crossing over to Rue Cambon. All in all, it was a 4-km or a 2.5-mile-walk and took me about 50 minutes. No sweat.

Today was shopping day and I had already set my target on Fauré Le Page Daily Battle and Delage Lulu totes. Rue Cambon is more famous for Chanel flagship store but I have enough Chanel bags and am weaning myself of LV and Chanel. Besides, the Chanel boutique looked to be under renovation. After Fauré Le Page, I went to Rue du Mont Thabor to find Delage but had to return to Fauré Le Page when I couldn’t locate it. The lady who attended to me help to call Delage and told me it was a showroom and I would have to take the elevator to level 3. I spent some time at Delage and finally found a Lulu bag that I wanted. The credit card machine was down though so I had to pay via PayPal. I did state my reservation about using PayPal (the exchange rates are just horrible) and the kind bloke said he would give me a 5% discount to make up for the exchange rate charge (and I still got to claim tax refund too!). After concluding my transaction, I asked him for a favour: to use the bathroom (sure, no problem) and if I could use some space in the reception to perform prayers. He suggested for me to use the showroom instead and after asking twice if he didn’t mind, I thanked him profusely. Wow, I had been expecting a hostile reception from some locals (Islamphobia and indeed this was why I didn’t care to rush to the city centre as I wanted to minimise the time spent downtown) but this kind bloke was so understanding and helpful.

I had to return to Fauré Le Page, yes, again as they had given me the wrong tax refund form (it was issued to a Filipino girl and I only realised it when I was talking to the kind bloke at Delage). While waiting for the right tax refund form printed out, I unpacked my LeSportsac shopping tote and put in the two new totes I just bought (one into another and then both into the LeSportsac). I then folded the paperbags and shoved them into my suitcase. I think the sales assistants were all gaping at me but I was going to bring along those totes in their paperbags. It just wasn’t practical and I would bump into everyone.

I left the store and studied the metro map and decided that instead of taking the metro from Concorde station, I would walk to Madeleine and take line 14 to Bercy. This meant I wouldn’t have to change lines (especially with my bags which have since multiplied...). So I walked up Rue Cambon to Boulevard des Capucines and asked for directions to the station. I was purchasing the ticket and riding the train within minutes.

It was barely 19:00 when I reached Bercy. I exited the station and there were already signs directing the way to Ouibus. I went to check out the bus station before going out to explore the neighbourhood. i returned back to the bus station after purchasing a fish burger from an Algerian (?) restaurant. I sat down and had my early dinner while charging my devices and logging on to social media.

My bus was leaving at 21:00 and I went to queue at 20:30. I was surprised to see a lot of people queuing up to board the bus; turned out the bus would stop en route in Lille and some of them would disembark there. We left just after 21:00 and I dozed off until we reached Lille. The bus stopped for about half an hour in Lille and I took the opportunity to go to the washroom and perform ablutions.


To be continued