Misadventures in Paris – Part I

You don’t have to hang out with Sherry and I very long to discover we love Paris.  We’re happy to regale you with story after story of the great times and adventures we’ve shared in the City of Light.  But, before you get the misimpression we only see Paris through rose-colored glasses I can tell you that we’ve had a few misadventures as well.

Last night was one of those misadventures.

It all started around 6:00 pm when I posting on FB that we were in the motel where Oscar Wilde died on the day of his death – November 30th.  Suddenly Sherry remembered we had tickets to a concert that night to hear Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at L'église de la Madeleine, which is one of the many beautiful churches in Paris.

No worries since the concert started at 8:30.  At 7:30 we catch the 95 bus near the apartment.  From there we’ll change to the 72 bus and finally the 24 bus. We settle in for the short ride, which takes us right in front of the Louvre and that’s where it starts to go a little sideways on us.

We got to enjoy the view of the Louvre much longer than intended because traffic was a mess.  We are finally off the bus and ready for the next leg when we realize it’s nearly 8:00 already.  So, we ditch the buses for the metro and that’s when our plan really took a turn for the worse.

Earlier that day we purchased full-day Metro tickets, which work on the buses as well.  However, I bent both tickets so now they had a crease and could not be read.  Merde!!! Back up to the buses, which normally don’t require you to show your ticket even though legally you’re supposed to.

We get to the bus stop and receive a pleasant surprise.  The 24 bus stops here and that means we can skip the 72 bus all together to save a little time.  And with that we feel like we’re back on track.

As we stand there waiting we see a bus approach.  It’s a 72 (of course it is).  Should we board it? Nope, we’ll wait for the 24.  Then comes a string of buses that’s almost comical. A 69, 81, 72, 69, 21, 81 and 21. Every bus that passes that is not a 24 raises our stress levels just a bit because at this point we are running out of time.

Time for a new plan.  At 8:20 we’re climbing into a taxi after finally giving up on the bus.  Of course now the taxi is stuck in heavy Saturday night traffic.  Still, he did a great job of navigating his way through town and we handed our tickets to the young man at the door at precisely 8:30.  Three minutes later, the chamber quartet walks onto the stage and the concert began.

However, this is not the end of the evening’s misadventures so stay tuned for part 2 to see how the night unfolds.

Au revoir!