Paris - Arrivè deux

After walking for quite some distance and dragging that good ‘ole Billabong bag behind me I decided to jump a cab and get to my destination sometime sooner rather than later. After 15 seconds we were back onto rue Faubourg and I was thinking, ‘hey, didn’t I just come from there’ – then I saw the Seine, ‘wow’, another headspin for me. After looking at maps in French class for I don’t know how long now I was actually driving next to it, and then we took a left hander
across Ile de la cite (amazement yet again), and now we were driving right across it. Now we were onto the Boulevard Saint-Michel !!!! ......and finally cruising up a relatively moderate incline we made it to what would eventually be my place of residence for the next few days. How funny, five mins in a cab had brought all those apparently useless lessons of studying the Parisian UBD well and truly into focus, I was 'living the dream' ! (....I thank Ben Dalton for the useless line...and if you knew him, then you'd know how funny it would be to relate that line to him).

So, # 17 rue Malebranche was to be ‘my base’. From the instructions that I’d read it was quite easy. Buzz at the door, keys to unlock, up to level six and then walk up one flight of stairs. Use the ‘other keys’ for the apartment door and you’re in. I jumped out of the cab and had a quick look around the area, the ‘Latin Quarter’, which is apparently one of the older areas of Paris. I was already loving the charming, older style feel that this area had. With a bag full of optimism I made my way to the ridiculously small lift and exited on the sixth floor. This is where the fun commenced !

My apartment was a level up from the lifts last stop and of course, by arriving in the late evening I encountered a floor where the lights were out !! Bloody hell. The instructions that I’d received from the Melbourne based, ‘French Experience’, was to go up one flight of stairs and turn left. Ok, that I could manage, but they failed to tell me that there were two apartments , one on either side of the hall, which one was I to be in !!?? Fumbling around in the dark I found my keys and listened for noise in either apartment, assuming that the occupied one was NOT to be mine……ok, both quiet, lets just hope that people aren’t sleeping in there, I’d hate to have an irate Frenchman smashing my head in with a stale baguette for being ‘honestly’ mistaken. I decided to go for the ‘left, left’ option and feeling my way down the door notice that there were three locks !!? WTF !? I only had one key to operate this medieval door. Feeling around on the other side of the hall didn’t resolve my issue either. I all of a sudden envisaged myself waking up with rays of sunlight streaming through the hall window and people standing around me thinking ‘typical Australian, they’re all mental – sleeping in the hallway, no surprise’.

As most people know however I’m much more stubborn than that, I couldn't be beaten by a French door, could I ?! So I felt around the keyhole and managed to locate a key of similar size to that which I assumed would open the door. I tried it out and ‘hey presto’, it fit ! Two turns right…..nothing with the door, ok, two turns left, nothing again. One turn right, nothing, one turn left, nothing. This little game went on for approximately half an hour with self admonishing swear words becoming the norm as time progressively ran on by. Then, finally and almost rewardingly, with one turn and a ‘half door’ pull I unlocked the damn thing and was in !!!!!!!!!!! Mèrd !! That nearly drove me insane – F**k you Paris !!! F**k you for messing with me so early on, lol !