Paris – Lover’s Paradise

I think that a vacation to Paris and Switzerland are almost on everyone’s wish list. Hence we decided to take up Aakaash’s very small list and head to France and Switzerland. Well the preparations were done, intensive study and plans were made, bookings confirmed and we were set on a jet plane for a vacation of a lifetime, one which we will never ever forget nevertheless not for the right reasons.

So after a tiring 6 hours plus flight we landed in Paris and for the first time we decided to take a metro to our hotel, pulled our luggage and walked a small distance (small according to Aakaash) to the hotel reception only to find that our room was not ready since we reached at 09.30am and the room would have been available only by 2pm. So we decided – what the hell, let’s dump the luggage in the cloak room and see the tallest building in Paris and the most visited monument - “Eiffel Tower”.

 

Upon seeing the Eiffel Tower my smile knew no bound, I was thrilled, excited and pumped up since I was seeing the Eiffel Tower which has been a very prominent background for most of the cliché Hollywood romantic movies and there I was seeing it with my own eyes.

We stood in the line and were lucky to break into a shorter line and get the entry sooner and faster; not knowing that the luck that we were smiling on was soon running out for us. After seeing the beautiful view from the top, we headed to Notre damn and walked around a little, had lunch in Latin quarters and decided to call it a day so that we could be fresh for the next morning’s sight seeing. On our way back I did gorge on the famous chocolate crepe and headed back to our hotel via the metro. 

When we reached our hotel at around 6.30pm, we were told that there were no rooms available and they were moving us to another hotel. Although the location of the hotel was still in our favor, I did act a lil dramatic, got a lil upset and got us complimentary breakfast for the 3 days that we were spending in Paris before leaving for Switzerland. Just when we were ready to leave, we told the hotel staff that we needed to buy formula milk for Aananya before we moved to the new hotel. This is the moment I can never forget in my life when all hell broke loose and the bad luck attached itself to us.

Aakaash couldn’t find his wallet. Now these are the events of the day what you didn’t read…..

1. Since we hadn’t got the room, instead of leaving all the cash in the common luggage room, we had no choice but to carry it. It was for the 1^st time ever that we didn’t check into our room and left our luggage in the cloak room.
2. Aakaash did ask me to keep some money but I thought it was safer with him since my wallet is always in the diaper bag which we keep opening from time to time.
3. When I was buying tickets for Eiffel Tower, Aakaash kept my credit card in his wallet which was the only credit card we had since all his credit cards had been revoked due to his NRI status.
4. So we had no credit cards and $2000 and Euro 500 were all gone along with his international debit card.
5. Although the 3 days stay was paid for but still we couldn’t afford to stay in the hotel because we had no money to eat food hence we had to ask them to cancel our booking.
6. Before our luck ran out we had purchased a 3 day travel pass, so Aakaash just headed straight back to where we had come from, the place I had my chocolate crepe and he last saw his wallet which was stolen probably in the metro from his front jacket pocket which was zipped up.
7. Aakaash was gone for 2 hours and my phone which has always been in a perfect condition decided to choose this day to get switched off again and again cutting my calls and making it impossible for me to talk to anyone. So I was cut off from the world, in a hotel lobby with 2 hungry kids and no money.

I didn’t care that people were looking at me but somehow I just couldn’t stop my tears from rolling and as Aan talks about it till today “Mamma cried like a baby”. Well that was the second time in my life I was crying openly in front of people, the first was my wedding day!

Time was ticking and Aakaash was gone, I settled in one corner of the hotel lobby and as night approached Aan and Aananya got hungry. Unfortunately the corner which I got had a vending machine and somehow to antagonize the situation there were kids who would go “ching ching” after every 10 mins and take out some goodies or candy. Although Aan was kind of aware that we had lost our money, so he pointed towards the smallest candy and said “Mamma can I have that” which made me all the more burst into tears since I didn’t even have 1 Euro to get him that; knowing that he hadn’t eaten anything since morning; for when we ordered lunch he has fallen asleep on the chair.

Finally after filing a complaint at police station and 3 torture-some hours Aakaash came back with his friend Deepak Soni who took us to his house. Deepak had worked with Aakaash in Ericsson India and for us, at that time and situation, was no less than an angel in disguise. Deepak and Kavita were staying in Paris with their 2 sons in a comfortable 2 bed room apartment. They had to move their kids to their room and gave us the kid’s room and Deepak himself slept on the couch. During such adverse times when you see such humble gestures, it really touches your heart and we are so very grateful for the gratification bestowed towards us by them. Deepak also assured us not to worry about money since he thought he could withdraw Euro 500 per day so that means it gave us Euro 1500 for 3 days that we stayed in Paris and after that we were leaving for Switzerland where another friend’s of ours had assured us that we wouldn’t have to worry on the monetary aspect at all. Hence we became a bit relaxed and took a breather for the night.

The view from Deepak’s apartment was amazing. When we went to sleep with our windows open, Aakaash who loves to sleep in pitch dark was interrupted with bright light from the full moon and Eiffel tower which looked so close by as if we could jump and touch it. Those 3 nights in Paris, looking at the beautifully lit Eiffel Tower and the full moon by its side really brought some calm and tranquility for the trauma we had undergone on our arrival.

So the next morning we had Euro 500 in our pocket, we were extra careful and headed straight to Louvre Museum to see the most famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa smile. Later we had our lunch out, wandered a little and had the feel of Paris! When we got home Aakaash and Deepak went to withdraw money since it was the 2^nd day. When they came back, Aakaash had a worried look on his face and I could tell something was not right.

Oh! Didn’t I tell you that bad luck had attached itself to us and was not willing to leave us for a while. So we got to know that Deepak could withdraw only Euro 500 from the ATM once in a week and to withdraw more money he needed to go to the bank which was closed for 3 days. So there we go… back to square one.. insufficient funds and we had to buy tickets for our train from Geneva to Lausanne. So we took out all the coins and money that was left over from the day and started calculating and saw we had just about enough money to take a cab to the airport and then buy tickets from Geneva to Lausanne where our friends Abha and Deepak were. 

So the 3^rd day in Paris was kinda closed hence no sight seeing, few stores open but we couldn’t afford to even buy a Euro 10 toy for kids since we were scared that we might fall back in buying tickets by just that much. Since our 3 days tickets was still valid so we roamed around and then came back to Deepak’s house. The kids did have loads of fun since they had 2 new friends -Aroush and Deepansh to play with all the time and spent the evening thrilled playing in a park near the Eiffel Tower. A special thanks to Deepak and Kavita who made us feel at home and truely helped us at the time of our need. Finally we got ready with crossed fingers to start our journey to Switzerland the next day.