Paris - Day 1.1

1.1: Horrible Start

Well, the day finally came, Suzanne (my cousin) and I were off for our weekend in Paris. The whole week leading up to the Friday I would have sudden bursts of, "I'm going to Paris!" and do a little dance, much to the amusement of those around me.

I had booked my flights way back in December, and unfortunately I didnt know where I would be at the end of April. Turns out I was in London, so my journey actually began with an 11hour train-bus-train ride back up to Scotland. Had I known I'd be in London, I would have taken the Eurostar or a flight from there instead of going all the way back up North only to fly back down South again.
















Upon arrival at the Charles De Gaulle Airport, we had to queue up to get a train into the city, but the lines were massive and we spent ages inching our way to the ticket machine.
















Cant understand what took so long because we managed to get our tickets with no problem at all. We were surprised at the size of the ticket the machine issued because its tiny! I felt so cheated, waiting for ages for a tiny insignificant ticket. It reminded me of the scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where the great big machine is making so much noise and you expect great big candy to come out of it, when all it produces is a stick of gum.




















After a 40min train ride to Denfert-Rochereau, dropped our bags off at Michelle's flat and got to the Metro station (their Underground/LRT) to go to the Eiffel Tower.

















At the station i was an active participant in a pick-pocket attempt that I helped prevent but was threatened after.

So I was at the bottom of the stairs leading into the Metro and two ladies were walking down. Suddenly her mobile phone went flying, as well as her purse. Her phone did the battery fly one way, casing fly another so she was preoccupied with that. I saw where her purse fell, and half a second later a scruffyish looking man in his 50's stepped on it. Obviously during that exact moment I just thought, "Oopsy, he's accidentally trodden on her purse." But then I realized he wasn't moving, he was just standing still on it. By then the lady had got her phone together and almost walked away when she said to the other woman with her that her purse was missing.

Automatically I stretched out my hand and pointed to the man's foot and said its there! Unfortunately he had it so well hidden, I had to point and say again, its there under his foot. The lady went over to him and was cursing and pissed cause it was by then so clear what he tried to do, got the purse and walked off.














It was then that I was aware that I was all alone. Just me and the pick-pocketer. My cousin had gone up to ground level to make a phone call. There was no one around us at all. Not good. So I quickly went back up the stairs to the entrance of the tube and he followed up behind me.

He then came close-ish speaking French which I obviously couldnt understand, did the finger-to-lips Shhhh gesture, followed by a I'll-slit-your-throat action. He repeated both gestures with a menacing stare, I nodded that I understood and he then walked off. If you can't get what he did it was basically saying, "Keep your mouth shut or I'll kill you."

Once I explained it all to Suzanne (she thought he was trying to tell me not to go that way, its not the way out... hahaha) and we got onto the right platform, our journey to the tower began.