November 7th-10th, 2022
I needed to visit Paris and do some business for a few days. I can’t get into the details of it, but the whole experience was horrendous. Anyways, I had to make the best out of the situation and managed to meet some new and old friends.
Take a train to Paris
November 7th, 2022
David was kind and very helpful. He ordered a taxi for me to pick me up from his farm and take me to Le Mans. From there I took a two-hour train ride to Paris. Mathilda came to the train station and met me there. We had a quick stop at my hotel, I dropped the bags, and we headed out to have a walk and eat dinner. The weather was not as warm as it was a week earlier, but still pleasant enough to stroll around the Parisian streets and enjoy it. We walked a bit outside of the very touristy area of Paris and chose a restaurant that mostly locals eat there. It was a cute beautiful restaurant with an outside terrace. The menu was not substantial, but there were a variety of good options. The food did not disappoint us. Moreover, the waiters were extremely nice and fun.
An unsuccessful trip
November 8th – 10th, 2022
To fulfill some business duties, I needed to take a flight and go on a trip. But the trip did not go as planned for reasons I cannot disclose so I had to return to Paris. The whole journey was exhausting and full of bad luck. I returned to Paris, but my baggage was lost. I had to give David’s address to deliver my baggage once the airline locates it. Little did I know that it would be a long wait.
I needed to stay somewhere upon my arrival in Paris, get some rest, and head back to David’s farm. The exhaustion and the stress of the trip prevented my brain from working properly so I made the simplest choice. I booked a hotel next to my previous job’s HQ office. I thought that David and many other old colleagues are working in that office and I can get help if I need to. It was a very good idea. David told me that some other colleagues are visiting from Romania and they were planning to go out for drinks and dinner. That worked out perfectly for me.
I went to the hotel, grabbed a quick lunch, and went to bed to take a quick nap which turned out to be 4 hours. I woke up fresh and went to the office that was just next door. It was a great feeling to meet my old colleagues and talk to them after several years. I worked on many topics with them in the past and enjoyed their company.
We left the office and met again with some other colleagues at a bar. After a drink, we headed to the restaurant which was about 20 minutes walk away. The restaurant was very nice with very great options. It was clear that they put a lot of effort to prepare every single dish. Also, the wine selection was great and the staff helped us to match the wine with the dishes we were getting. I don’t know how time passed. I had a great feeling there and felt connected; exactly what I needed after two days of exhaustion and stress. The walk back to the hotel was about 40 minutes, but I shared more than half the distance with my Romanian colleagues.
The next morning I took another taxi to the train station in Paris for my ride back to Le Mans. I had to take a taxi because, surprise, surprise! There was a strike by some sectors of public transport that stopped the metro lines. The ride back to Le Mans was even smoother than the previous one as it was a fast train with fewer stops on the way.
The taxi ride from Le Mans back to David’s farm was interesting again. The taxi driver was into old gaming consoles and comic books. We talked about old games and comics the whole way back which was approximately a 30 min drive. David was still in Paris so I had to enter the house with the key he had hidden. The cats were extremely happy to see me and were following me around asking for food. They were so excited they did not even let me put the food down and were just running around me and jumping.
Back to a familiar place, now it is just about recovering and waiting for my baggage. A wait that turned out to be very long.