First time Traveller.
How you felt when you landed on the foreign land for first time?
I just shouted- I love Paris, or as Francophone would say Je t'aime Pairs. There is a special feeling, landing on a foreign land. Off course I saw people, baggage, some announcements in the background, Police, security, beautiful ladies with perfect bodies getting ready to fly etc. But there was some difference. The melodious french in background was harmonious and giving feeling that I have been victorious is some perpetual war.
As any traveller we (me and my colleague, Sud) did a lot of Internet research and posted in our minds on all the possible and cheapest way to reach Gare De Lyon from Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Possible options for anyone going to Paris:
1. Cheapest: RER and Metro: it cost us around 6 Euro 70 Cents (Latest around 10 Euros)- You can buy tickets at Airport itself
2. Shuttle service: Reliable and cheap for single travellers. Starts from 15 Euros
check some of them here:
www.airfrance.com (go to shuttle service)
3. Air France Bus Service: Again a cheap service from 15 Euros.
4. Private Taxis: You can find them at Airport but they are expensive.
So, we decided to take the RER and Metro Combination to reach Gare de Lyon. But we missed one thing important, rather we believed that my 2-3 internet classes of French is enough to communicate us to any French person. And we encountered our reality check when We could not purchase our Metro ticket.
It was hilarious as we tried all possible combinations of accent and sounds to entertain the lady sitting on other side of window.
We were like eerrrrr, Garee du lyonnn at Di-john, Gar doo lyun at Dii jon and our Indian accent with some Indian Phonetics made our job even more difficult
So finally we decided to show her on Map and then only she could give us the ticket.
Tip 1. Be ready for this unexpected. Not only learn to write but also learn to speak few French words.
Tip 2: Keep change ready, it may be needed at the ticket window. They accept 1, 2 ,5 ,10 cents coins.
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| Retarded Sud |
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| Retarded myself |
The Paris Metro is widely regarded as one of the most exhaustive and dense in City as people say that in every 1 KM, on would find a Metro Station. They are old and you can explore a lot of graffiti around. It shows the freedom people have. They paint their thoughts and dreams that make this city even more beautiful.
Having said that, our miseries didn't ended. We bought 2 tickets for Dijon and as we were trying to call our student body (they were suppose to pick us from Dijon Gare to our Student Residence) to come to Dijon Gare at certain time, but by the time we could make call, we missed our Train. We didn't had change for the idiot Phone and by the time Sud got some change, we missed our train. We could cancel the ticket but had to wait again for some time to catch the next train and also call the Student body again to reschedule the time.
But the day ended well when finally we reached our new home in Dijon. We got small rooms in University residential halls. The cheapest were for around 200 Euros and we took them. No wonder in that amount you can rent an apartment in New Delhi.
But we were tired so much that we slept without even eating anything that night.
I waned to sleep despite Jet lag because I had entered into my dream world for next 100 days. I wanted to feel wonderful and no state than sleep can give you that feeling. It was so easy to sleep that night. It was sleep of deep happiness. Je t'aime France.
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