Day 1

      Voilà. My first day In France has been quite the adventure. My flight from Detroit to Paris was relatively uneventful. The meal they served for dinner was quite good. Accompanied by a mini bottle of red wine and a few sleeping pills, it lulled me into a gentle sleep. I woke up about an hour and a half before landing...just enough time to let my eyes adjust to the light again and enjoy a decent breakfast. Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport has never made the “best airport” list, and now I understand why. I probably walked at least two miles total from the gate at which my DTW to CDG plane docked to where my CDG to BOD was to take off. Also, the French don’t believe in air-conditioning (which I knew) but never was the fact made so apparent that a little airflow never hurt anyone as when I was dripping in sweat while dragging my carry-on suitcase and backpack while wearing a leather jacket! I finally made it through security after having a lovely Indian woman search my bags and ask me, upon finding a little incense burner featuring the god Ganesh buried in my case, if I was part Indian. I bashfully replied “No, I just like my room to smell like I am.”

        The flight to Bordeaux was quite bumpy. I’m used to a little turbulence, but this seemed like the pilot was purposefully trying to make the flight attendants tumble down the aisle. I arrived in Bordeaux thinking to myself how well I was doing with the whole “getting there” part of my trip….and then it started to fall apart. Standing at the luggage conveyor belt until everyone except myself had picked up their bags and continued on their merry way, I started to feel a little worried. My GINORMOUS suitcase had some how gotten lost in transit! So after I filled out a bunch of paperwork in the AirFrance office and dealt with the fact that I don’t have a portable phone yet, so no, AirFrance cannot contact me directly…I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to see my suitcase for a few days.

        So me, myself, my backpack, my carryon suitcase, and the cute little toiletries bag that AirFrance gave me as a consolation prize for being so lucky as to have lost my luggage, boarded a shuttle bus to the Bordeaux Train Station. Once at the Train Station, I got a map of the city and directions on how to get to the hotel I had booked for my two night stint in Bordeaux. Now keep in mind that I am usually an exceptional navigatrice. Really, I am, but heaven help me, Bordeaux is insane! (well at least the area surrounding the train station is) It seems like the entire city is under construction, so pedestrian walkways are nearly non-existent. I went backwards and forwards for probably a good half hour before I pointed myself in the right direction and headed towards my hotel. Arriving at the Teneo Suites around 17h00 I wasn’t even surprised to find that the reception desk was closed (it opened back up at 18h00). The automated 24hr check-in machine didn’t have any record of my having a reservation, so it wouldn’t issue me a key for a room…so I sat in the lobby until the reception desk opened. They also had no record of my reservation (damn expedia.com to hell) but gave me a room key with no further questions. Unfortunately, the key they gave me was to a room which had not been cleaned since its previous tenets had vacated it. With a giant sigh signifying that I was starting to loose faith in the world…I tramped back down to reception and got a key to a different room….I also bought a wi-fi access card so I could go on Skype and let my parents know that I was alive and so that I could post this blog entry.

         I hadn’t eaten since the Flight from Paris so I thought I should go for a walk and try to find a restaurant. However, unless I wanted to spend upwards of 14 euro for some dinner, I was destined to starve. I finally saw one place called “El Bodegon: Rock Café” which looked to be moderately priced for “Formule.” (a fixed price several course French meal plan). I sat out on the terrace and looked at the lovely Place de la Victoire. Obelisk, arch, cobblestones…what more could you ask for? Well, food would’ve been nice. Unfortuantely after I ordered some kind of Blonde Ale the bar had on special, I discovered that they didn’t serve food after 15h00. So, my first meal in France was simply a liquid meal.

 

        I decided that I could just pick up a baguette or croissant on the walk back to the hotel. So I started back down La Cours de la Marne towards my hotel when I accidentally smiled at the guy walking next to me…a real “mec” if you know what I mean. Now, in America we smile at anyone and everyone. It’s just polite. But in France, a girl smiling at a boy means something much more suggestive. So he starts talking to me as we’re walking. He was trying to butter me up while I kept reminding him that he knows nothing about me and that I’m not in the mood to party with champagne and dancing tonight. First off, I am actually pretty tired but also because I have enough common sense to not let a random guy off the street sweet talk his way into my hotel room…lol. Here we go…Natalie has hit the pavement with a running start.

     Hopefully tomorrow will prove to be less eventful. I will be exploring the city center, probably walk along the river a bit, and hopefully get my suitcase back! If nothing else, I've gotten to speak quite a lot of french on my first day! I am reasonable satisfied with how well I've been able to communicate even on an informal level with the people around me....I was most definitely worried that I would come to France and not understand a single word that anyone said to me. It's all gonna be ok though. :)