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
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