Escargots

Poached Eggs with special sauce

Foie Gras

I didn't had this one but my friend did and I had half a piece from her. It's actually duck liver with a sweet sauce (the black sauce). The taste is not very special, but the texture of it inside your mouth. It really feels like its melting on your tongue. Worth the try!

As I sat in the car that took me from the Vienna International Airport back home, I looked out of the window and I realized how safe this city was. Touching down just 2 hours ago in Vienna from Paris, I want to write this down as soon as possible because my memory is still fresh.

Paris - a city of romance, a beautiful holiday destination, turns out to be a horrible nightmare for me and two of my friends. I'm not saying that the city is ugly per se. The city is Beautiful. There are many beautiful sceneries and architectures.  But I think people should be made known to the dark side of Paris before entering what I think is, a "devilish hole" for tourists.

A brief background to start off. My friends and I made a last minute decision to fly from Vienna to Paris for a 3D2N trip since we're on a holiday. But it was also a mistake on our part for not doing much research about Paris. However, we were warned about pick pocketing in RERs (Train). I didn't see it as a huge problem because I thought everywhere would have a problem like this. But it was utterly wrong of me to think that way. Because I didn't expect pick pockets to be so rampant in Paris.

Let me now tell you how this nightmare began.

We landed at the Charles de Gaulle airport at the suburbs of Paris at 9AM in the morning. Walking out from the arrival area, we seek help from the friendly staff at the information counter who gladly helped us. As students, we wanted to save money from hefty cab fares so we decided to take the Metro instead. He kindly told us the way and we proceeded to the RER to take a train from Charles de Gaulle to Paris.

We arrived at the Gare du Nord metro station with our luggage and pushed our way through the huge crowd. Walking towards the Metro from the RER station, we were totally lost. Firstly, we didn't know where to buy a ticket. Secondly, we didn't have the Metro map and lastly, we didn't know where to go. So we asked around. I heard from some of my friends that French people don't like speaking English. But from what I saw, their understanding of the English language is also minimal. Of course not all, we met some who spoke pretty fluent English. Nevertheless, we managed to find the way to the ticketing counter. On our way up the stairs, my friend Cheryl was tapped on her shoulder by a man who said to her after "I love you" and walking away. Surprised but confused, my friend decided to walk away. We later realized that this was one our their "distracting tricks". I'll come to that later. So we purchased our tickets and successfully managed to locate our hotel.

Our hotel was a two star hotel which was still bearable. But the hotel wasn't the main problem.

And so, after settling down with our baggage we started our adventure. With some help from the information counters at the Metro, we found the Eiffel Tower. Upon reaching the landmark icon of France, I was pretty shock with what I see. Men standing around the streets with three upside down cups with an object (I didn't really see what was it) placed under any random cup. They mixed and moved the cups around and people threw money to bet where the object is. And most of them who joined were tourists who were unaware that this was a trick to cheat their money. Ignoring them, we proceeded. The day ended fine. We went back to our hotel at 6 in the evening and planned the places we would like to go the next day.

Just to add on. Already at the first day, I realized that the Metro stations were not very clean and very often when we walked through the tunnels to transit from line to line, a whiff of urine smell would find a way into our noses. We realized why after witnessing a beggar urinating openly at the tunnel of the Metro station at the side. Beggars were also sleeping everywhere in the Metro station. Worst of all, people were openly begging in the Metro itself. The Metro tunnels where we have to walk when transiting from line to line were very long and dark. I didn't feel safe there at all.

Anyway, day two was where the nightmare happened. From morning to afternoon, it was all fine. It all happened when we were having dinner at the Hard Rock cafe in the evening. The Hard Rock Cafe Paris is located near the Richelieu-Drouot Metro station. We sat outside the cafe along the streets because it was too crowded inside. As we sat down, we saw many groups of tourist entering, also just standing outside to take a picture before leaving. We sat in front of a table of Austrians whom my other friend Mabelle had a brief conversation with since she is an Austrian too. We were happily enjoying the food and drinks when everything started. Here was how it went:

4 children, aged between 10-14 years old. 3 girls and 1 boy. Out of nowhere, they rushed up to our tables and shoved papers in our faces while mumbling in French which none of my friends or I understood. Naturally, our attention were drawn to the papers in front of our faces. Five seconds later, the kids drew the papers back and suddenly left. The last girl however, turned around and stole a chicken on our table and happily walked off.

Still in shock and confusion, we asked each other what had just happened. Then the Austrian lady behind us was telling my friend to check for our belongings. True enough, my friend Mabelle realized that her iPhone 4 which was placed on the table just for a short while was gone! We stood up and looked around. The children vanished.

We told the staff at Hard Rock Cafe and she said they cannot do anything and that we should go to the police station around the corner. Then they warned customers to keep their belongings always in sight and chased the people who loitered around the cafe. The waitress who served us was pretty kind. She collected the souvenirs for us from the shop and brought them to our table together with the bill because we said we had to leave.

Making our way to the police station, still in shock, we were greeted yet again with another shock. My friend who had her phone stolen nervously said in English to the policewomen "My phone was stolen by 4 children!". An English-speaking lady on the phone standing beside us unsurprisingly said "Oh another one!". (We later learnt she was a Newyorker who had her wallet snatched.)

"French? English?" the policewomen said in a heavily french accented voice.

"English" my friend replied. So she called upon her male colleague who tended to us. His attitude was extremely poor. He asked my friend where is she from and she replied "Austria". Raising his eyebrows, he asked again, "Australia?".

"No, Austria."

Frustrated, he said rudely: "Your passport."

My friend took out her passport and gave it to the policeman. He took it, looked at it for a while, threw the passport back to her and said "Okay, so you speak German?"

My friend replied yes and he gave her a four paged form to fill in as a police statement in German. As she was doing so, two other girls came into the police station and spoke in French to the policeman. Not understanding any French, I watched them and figured out that they were trying to explain to the policeman how her necklace was ripped off from her neck. 3 cases of robbery happening at the same area, same time and guess what time it was? 7PM. It's summer now and the sun only goes down only after 9PM. This is the real "Daylight Robbery".

Anyway after filling in the form, my friend gave the statement to the police officer. He took it, but probably didn't read it because my friend wrote an account of what happened in German and I guess, he didn't understand German. He tore the first two pages off and stamped on it and gave it back to her saying: "You can't get back your phone but take this statement, maybe you can get back some money from the insurance, I'm sorry."

THE END. Nothing was done.

Figuring out that we cannot do anything more, we went immediately back to our hotel. With dampened moods, we stayed in our room the entire night. I went online with my phone and read about what other tourists have to say about Paris. Mostly were negative. Reading more, I learnt that those children were what they call Gypsies. They live mostly in the suburbs, begging, robbing or doing illegal stuffs. Of course I believe some were forced to do this.

The next morning, we stayed in our hotel and packed our luggage. Putting all valuables in our locked luggage, we headed the advice of some tourist who were previously here, and wrote down the direction and names of the train stations on our hand so we don't have to pull out a map all the time and openly declaring "we are tourists, please rob us". We Safely reached our train station and immediately after stepping out of the Metro stations, people approached us with a paper asking us for a signature. Yes, distraction. With a firm "no", we pushed the paper away and made our way to the airport shuttle bus. And on the way to the airport at the suburbs, I saw something even more horrifying.

In the dark shades under a huge bridge was a huge group of Gypsies selling stuffs laid on the floor. And trust me, they look very scary. Passing by another bridge, we saw tents pitched under them and the surrounding area was very dirty. A slum would a a good word to describe. I wanted to take a picture, but my phone and camera was locked in my luggage and hence did not.

We stayed at the airport for hours before boarding our plane which was scheduled to leave Paris for Vienna at 7PM.

Back in Vienna, I feel so much safer.

To be honest, besides the Eiffel tower, nothing in Paris gave me the wow-factor. I see architectures too in Vienna. This is purely my opinion, no offences to anyone. I wouldn't still say that people should not visit the city. Rather, I would want to say that you are entering the city at your own risk. Of course, you can be more vigilant and alert. But read more stories about Paris from tourists like myself who have similar experiences. Those Gypsies are what I would say "Professionals". They work in groups most of the time, I believe. And sometimes, you wound't even know if you've fallen into their traps.

If I have never experienced this myself, I wouldn't have believed it was that worse here in Paris just by reading stories on the internet. But now, I've seen everything myself. I'm still in a state of shock because I cannot believe that such things are happening here.

To conclude, the city Paris is beautiful. Nice sceneries, architectures and also some nice French people who are willing to help confused and lost tourist like myself. It's just the Gypsies which are what I think, a main problem tourists will face in Paris.

So I thank you for taking the time to read this long post I have written. And I wish you best of luck if you're intending to embark a trip to Paris.

P.S. I will upload some pictures soon. I'm too tired to do that today.

plscallmesam.blogspot.com by Samantha C.