Paris #3

Video links:
vimeo.com/237630073
vimeo.com/237625123


Third time lucky has never meant as much as it probably did for this third visit to Paris; you could argue the ‘luck’, but definitely the most eventful and best trips of this year for me.

June 1

The journey from Rotterdam to Paris; 4 hour train, searching for the correct one of five IBIS around Gare du Nord station, sleepless night, was all actually incredible given the best phone conversations in a long time.

June 2

My first visit to an Ice Cream factory in a little ghost town called St Dizer in France. Thoroughly enjoyed the day. So much to learn. It was all going smooth, until the train at 3pm I boarded to take me back to Paris. Instead of reaching Paris by 7pm and having sufficient time to check in to the Hilton Orly hotel where I’d booked accommodation for the next 2 nights, and picking Geet from the Orly airport where she was to land at 10pm, my journey instead stretched all the way to 2am!

By this time, Geet found her way, checked in and passed out in the hotel, while I was ensuring my arduous journey remained as excited as possible by staying occupied with a complex excel file on my laptop and continued conversations on phone.

The delay was caused by a train breakdown on the SD-Paris line, which stalled all trains on that line from 3pm to 10pm. It was a good experience though, as I got to witness the SNCF task force in action, supplying food for all the people, giving out blankets when it started to get cold, and even checking if we need taxis once we reach Paris.

I was also chatting with one fellow passenger who couldn’t speak any English, and we were exchanging notes through Google translate. He helped translate what some of the SNCF personnel were saying in French, and told me to get on a particular train by 10pm that was supposed to start to Paris.

I was sitting in one cabin that was entirely for me, and thankfully one SNCF personnel came up to me to say that it isn’t this, but the train on the next platform that would head to Paris. So I immediately rushed there, only to witness this train doing an engine start-stop for a whole hour before it began to move.

Finally we started on our way at 11pm, and within 15mins, the train stopped again. All the passengers began to groan thinking their ordeal is only going to continue, but thankfully, the stop wasn’t for too long, and the train resumed again.

Fighting the urge to sleep, given the previous night was also sleepless, I somehow made it to Paris by 2am and boarded a taxi with the 40Euro vouchers that were handed out at the station to take me to Orly Hilton.

Once I got to the Hotel, I spent about 15 minutes outside the door, first trying to knock, then call Geet, who just wouldn’t respond, then go down to pick an alternate key that wouldn’t work. By this time it was getting really hard to continue treating the entire experience as an adventure more than an ordeal. Finally, with some really loud bangs on the door that was sure to wake up the people in the neighbouring rooms, Geet finally opens and door and allows me the evasive horizontal bed I was craving for.

June 3

Had to wake up early to make it for our first ever Tennis Grand Slam, the Roland Garros, but given the fatigue, only made it to the stadium by 10am, after the first game was halfway through.

Starting off with some tips to ensure a better experience than what we went through:

1.Track and book tickets in wave 1 itself. Wave 2 gets expensive and limited on Round 4 and upward availability

2.Round 4 matches that fall on first Sunday of the 2 week tournament offer the best price/value/holiday tickets for the big star matches

3.Choose Philip Chartier over Suzanne Lenglen court. Higher probability of big star matches here

4.Draft beer is the only alcohol available at the Bar Lounge and makes the best place to dine and refresh during the day here

5.Be prepared for rain. Always a probability of this happening during the match days

 

Now coming to the day spent there. The seats were honestly perfect. A little lower and closer to the grounds may have been better, but these were nearly exactly the view you get on the TV and made it awesome.

One peculiar thing about the spectators here are the slogans they have. One is a form of "alle" and the other a type of trumpet noise. Both these keep popping up in different parts of the court and keep the mood festive all through.

While a lot of people visit the store here to purchase souvenirs in spite of their hefty cost, that translates even food and everything you purchase at the grounds, we decided not to as our souvenir was the photo we managed to take with Leander Paes. If it wasn't for Geet, that may have never happened. She even met Sania later on. She was just saying she wished she saw Sania too, and there pops Sania in front of her. Some luck she's got. And I ended up spilling whipped all over my shorts and shoes while entering the stadium. Seemed like all the luck has just completed tilted to her side.

Luck favoured during the match as well, where the rains literally waited for the Wawrinka match to conclude and then came pouring down. So we got to see the entire match before leaving, and it was really entertaining because the opponent was Fabio Fegnini who looked more like a Kung Fu fighter with dragon painting on the back of his shirt and skull logo on bandana and shirt front.

He was just pure talent and attitude and nearly nabbed the first set. But just couldn't keep it up and lost quite simply in three sets to Wawrinka.

Overall the entire experience was really phenomenal. Just like Leander said when we met him, "enjoy the French".

June 4

Another early start to catch the bus to Le Mans to meet the very pregnant Sony and Fred. Now this was the highlight of the trip, the part where it finally felt like a holiday, not just for this trip, but probably for all the ones I’ve been on this year, because for the first time, I actually got to ‘relax’.

The Flixbus journey was 4 hours long, but thankfully not very painful as we managed to sleep through most of it. Fred picked us up from the very uninhabited Le Mans bus stop to take us to his cute little place with a lovely attic and even prettier backyard.

However, the best part of his house was the fact that his family was visiting, and we got a chance to interact with all of them, and literally live the life of a French family for a whole day.

So we started with lunch once we met them, and realized how important dining is to them. They start with aperitif, which is a choice of wine paired with cheese, bread and olives. Then they move to starters; more bread and cheese. Then the main course, which was sea food pasta that Sony very quickly whipped up which was topped with Rocket leaves that Sony’s MIL picked from her own garden in Brittany. Then there was the digestive, which was salad, and finally the dessert, mango cheese cake MIL had prepared, which was simply gorgeous.

After the hale and hearty lunch, we both just passed out, and this was my best midday nap in a very long time. Woke up to realize we were late in preparing dinner for the family, as we’d planned Indian for them. So all of us got to working super fast in the kitchen, and whipped up Chicken, Spinach, Cholle, Fried Rice and Raitha in record time that the entire family actually seemed to enjoy.

They did keep themselves quite occupied though while we were cooking, by breaking into a song every now and then. Marie’s boyfriend was a really good singer and guitarist, and he would start off something that the rest of the family would immediately pick up. It was really interesting to witness all of this.

Then at night, I was lying down reading Tintin. The quaint little room with one window that opened up to the garden below and a starlight sky with the moon taking absolute center stage, offered the perfect setting to drift away with my favourite childhood comic. And yes, this was the moment ‘relax’ peaked.

 

June 5

Quick breakfast followed a visit to a garage sale nearby where I managed to pick 2 fighting Kung Fu panda toys. Bid adieu to Fred’s family, did some shopping (processed flavoured cheese and canned ducks, the usual favourte from France we used to get in the past as well) and soon on the long journey back from Le Mans to Paris to Amsterdam to Rotterdam.

Thankfully no adventure on the way back. Guess it was all completed on the onward journey, and came back feeling quite accomplished. Work, Match, Family.