Our first days in Paris were not smooth….First our flight landed at 6am (one hour early) and instead of it taking the 3-4 hours to get Lah (cat) through customs and the vet it only took 30min….. so there we were at the airport now at 7am with no ride and no keys to get into our serviced apt and of course nobody was available to talk to as it was 7am. We were all tired from our 14 hour flight that began at 10pm in Singapore the day before. Well what to do… I was to say the least…. a bit testy at this point ….but let’s be honest that is my normal attitude so nobody really noticed. We began looking around for somewhere to sit and get some food or something and if you can believe it there are only two snack bars in the entire terminal 2….yeah! We decided on the one upstairs at departures because it had a bench and we needed to let the cat out because she was pathetic. So we drug the 4 of us, 6 duffle bags, 3 backpacks, 2 computer cases and a cat upstairs. We sat around until Jeff was able to get someone on the phone at 9am…they told us that we could not get the key until 3pm so we should just wait at the airport……OMG! I was not amused. So we sat around for several more hours until Jeff got someone from his work to try to fix this….they got it moved up until noon… and said we can just get a taxi to take us….ummmm ok. So we sat around and played cards and were just pathetic….I just laid my head down on the table and wanted to die….thinking “Wow this is a sucking start to our move here.”
Ok, so at 11:30 we went down to get a taxi……that was a joy as we had so much junk and a cat most of the taxis said no…. but then a security guard took pity on us and argued with one of the taxi drivers and so we got a ride….Not so comfortable with all of the stuff but we were on our way finally. All we had was an address to go to and a name. So we are driving and this crazy ass taxi driver is going the wrong way down one way streets and telling us he is not sure where it is…..well I am guessing that is what he is saying because he does not speak English and I in no way speak French but Jeff is in the front with his stupid blackberry out using the GPS function trying to get us there….. We finally pull up in front of the address that was given to us and unload all our crap etc and Jeff goes into the office to be told that this is not where the apt is this is just the office for the key and that guy was a super duper jerk about it. He just handed Jeff the key and rattled off an address and turned away……OMG I thought Jeff was going to freak but he didn’t……turns out that the apt is “a short 10min walk away” and no they do not have transportation and no they will not walk Jeff over to see it and no they do not want us to even stay as we have a cat…… Jeff asked if there was anything to use to get our stuff to the apt and they brought out a construction dolly…… Ok that was as far as I could take it so I said “get me a taxi now”……. So as I stood on the street with my children and all of our clothes and a cat for the next 15 min I was brewing for a serious tantrum. Well a taxi got there and we piled our stuff in and drove for 20min to the apt….(10min walk my ass)…. We got there and I was like are you kidding me….this street looks like some place you do not go after dark…..we opened the door and it is a 5th floor walk up with peeling paint and spray paint tagged on the walls……oh hell no there is no way I am staying here with my kids….they have lost their minds. Well that is when the tantrum hit….I told Jeff to fix this now or I am out of here. So the apt was all redone and modern but really are you kidding me. I told Jeff that as soon as we had a key to our new apt (next day at 3pm) I would stay there and sleep on the floor before I was keeping our kids in that apt. He was not amused. Jeff called his work and they were very upset because we were supposed to be put in Citdines…. well we stayed one night and got the key to our apt and they rented us 3 beds a couch a tv (no cable so not sure what that was about) a fridge and a microwave. No cable no internet no nothing and it was still better. So now we have our furniture (thank god), we have installed a kitchen (yes there was no kitchen), and now we have Internet and Cable (140 stations and 2 of them are in English) Nice….still no phone or cell phones….wow what an exciting beginning.
Let the Frenchyness begin.