Bienvenue en France

"Bonjour monsieur"
"Bonjour"
"Sil vous plait Passeport"
*Blank stare and a flash in mind*
"There you go"

A smile exchanged. Looks @ the monitor, my photo and then me. After some verification he seems to be satisfied by the way i look.

"Its me"
"Oui"
"Bienvenue en France"
"Merci"

********************************************************************************

Thakur was done with his entry stamp and was having a smoke.
"ho gaya?"
"Hmmmmm. Except that the guy was still not convinced that i am me. The photo in the Passport is old enough"
"Chal baithte hain"

As the ferry left the shores of Dover and sailed over the english channel with the bus safely parked on board, we got ourselves a glass of rose wine with couple of burgers.

A couple more swigs and we were fine to carry for the rest of the night. Going from Dover to Calais meant we lose an hour on time. The rapid sway of the ferry transformed into slow sways as the channel calmed down a bit.

As we approached Calais, i noticed the change in things. It was hard to find boards in english and then there was the left hand drive. As the bus got off from the ferry, i slipped into deep sleep.

***********************************************************************************************************

"Utjaa saale"

The board read - Eurolines Coach station, Bagnolet. As we picked up our stuff and got off, we noticed that the place was far outside Paris and we had to get back to the city center.


***********************************************************************************************************

"Bonjour, 2 day tickets please"
"14 Euros"
"Crap, i forgot to exchange the currency. I have only GBP"
"Saale mujhe bhi yaad nahin aaya"
"Zere one ATM, outside"

The lady had been courteous enough to redirect us to an ATM outside. But then neither of us had a credit card.

"Bhai, ek kaam karte hain. We will give it a try"

200 euros out and we are on our way in the paris metro to Victor Hugo for our hotels were near to Arc de triumph.

************************************************************************

"Ab kahan jaayenge" exclaimed an unfamiliar voice in the background. Thakur's turning around towards the source prompted the guy to ask "Aap hindi samjthe ho?". A couple of minutes and all i could do was stare as Thakur had started chatting the 'mala - tula way' until i broke in "kai zala? Mala marathi yet nai".

Paris was not a bad place after all, what with the pretty negative feedback we had got from people on 'not so clean streets' and 'thugs'. As we reached 'Hotel d'Angleterre etoile', it was close to 10.30 AM. The lady at the reception was not a very hard nut in contrast to the one i had spoken with before leaving for Paris. The other one spoke very little english, substituted French in between and had asked if i was male or female on seeing my name in her email after which i had to give her a call to confirm her with my voice.

The pretty girl at the reception was more than eager to help especially when her eye would never get off thakur. The small room gave enough room to freshen and sleep at a very small price. The choice hadnt been bad after all. Lying down on the bed i could not help but wonder on the 3 days ahead in the french capital.