Wednesday, July 18, 2012

That day in which I spend an hour within 10 feet at Gare Du Nord...

So, this weekend I lost the 4 most important cards in a person's wallet: ID, Subway Card, Credit Card and Debit Card. (UGH...no idea, long story, surprisingly, this happened sober AND in broad daylight. And I'm pretty sure it's my fault). Anywho, as you can imagine this has been and continues to be a french bureaucratic nightmare to get them all replaced. And in some cases I'm ignoring them completely, like the subway card (known hereafter as a navigo card), in the hopes that it just shows up (I can't help it, I'm an eternal optimist. Just like my mother ...right Andrew?).

Anywho, I'm on my way from Gare Du Nord to work this morning and I had two choices -- argue with a cab driver to use my AmEx or take the subway by procuring a ticket through the ridiculous amount of change I have in my wallet (no bank card = no cash. For at least 8 days. YAY FRANCE!). I opted for situation two, as I saw it had the advantage of not having to blabber in incomprehensible french and it would rid me of some weight in my wallet..WIN WIN! Clearly, I wouldn't be writing about this if it was a WIN WIN! type of situation.

I go to the machine to buy my ticket (of course there is a line, OF COURSE!) and I wait patiently. Luckily for me I'm reading Tina Fey's newish book Bossypants and the time flies by and has the added bonus of looking like a psycho laughing out loud whilst reading a kindle. It's Gare Du Nord, gotta fit in with all the crazies. Anywho, I start unloading the change to buy the ticket (RAMAN if you're reading this, I DID IT AGAIN!) and it all of sudden breaks down and says that I've put in too many coins in the machine and it sends them all flying back to me. UGH. Apparently you can't put in more than 20 coins into the slot (I thought I had counted it perfectly, but sadly that McGill math degree doesn't include a class on counting coins. It was a pre-req course I missed from 2nd grade. I blame it on moving to california). ANYWHO, I finally figure out the change, grab the ticket, run to put it through the  machine and BAM ticket not accepted. And I have no idea why. So I go to the ticket window to try to ask (another line OF COURSE) and BAM ticket window closed (it's 11h30. totally normal!). And I'm out of money and none of my cards work at the machine (damn America and no pin cards!). At this point, I am not a happy camper, and I see no other options than to go replace my Navigo card.


Prepared to be asked to give blood, promise my first-born child, or both, I reluctantly head to the Navigo desk. I immediately think they are closed as there is no line. A nice lady (with a smile!) says, no, in fact, they are open, and have a seat. She may have even said the words "how may I help you?", but I also remember her with a halo aound her head so this may just be a fantasy. I say in perfect French (hey! this is my fantasy!) that I lost my card and I would like to replace it. She asks for my passport and I swear no more than 5 seconds later I have the card in hand. I'm also pretty sure choir bells started ringing and a handsome man escorted me out of the office.


Skipping along and pretty pleased with myself I head back to enter the subway and the card doesn't work. UGH. Holding back tears and about to give up and just set up camp in Gare Du Nord (there is a lovely cafe on the 2nd floor, or so I hear), the man behind me says all the machines aren't working and I can walk right through. OIDFJPOIADJVKOV;ZLJKPOIA Turns out the ticket was fine from the start and the last hour of pain (sans the choir bells in the Navigo office) were for naught. Oh France, you win again! 


(But in truth, I wouldn't have it any other way - - If life was in France was easy, what would I have to write about? :)

2 comments:

Natalie Corinne said...

I got stressed reading this but am glad that choral pieces are in your miracle moments. We had a huge issue getting to the airport taking the Metro in Paris. I'll spare you the long story but it included me crawling under the gate. Keeping it classy.

Unknown said...

For about the first half of this...I was thinking subway card was like one of those punch cards for a subway sandwich shop. I clearly live in the land of no mass transit!