My First Visit to France

(No part is exaggerated in this post)
One sunny morning my flight dropped me to an Alien land. Every damn thing was written in alien language. But what a relief – numbers still looked the same. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long, my luggage came on conveyer pretty fast (these aliens must have enslaved people from our planet). I picked up the luggage and walked to the Exit to catch a cab. Just before the exit I noticed a pretty lady sitting at an Information counter. She greeted me (or that’s what I feel) by saying some words that I didn’t understand. Now, what is the point in greeting somebody by saying something that they wouldn’t understand? Wouldn’t a simple smile do? I spoke just two words ‘Taxi please’ and she said ‘oui oui’, as if she is hurt or something. Then she showed me the way by swaying her hands in all possible directions. I followed the directions and started looking out for bunch of cars parked together, assuming it to be a common taxi stand view. And what I found was just one taxi there. Lucky me, I reached bang on time for the only taxi. It seems taxis are becoming extinct and government is only running behind tigers and lions to protect them. I showed the hotel address to the Taxi driver agreed to take me. You guys must be wondering what this place is. NO, wrong guesses. It’s not some remote place in South Africa or Amazon. It is Bordeaux, one of the key cities in south west of France.

It seems I landed here on a wrong day. It was nice and sunny Sunday. Now what could be wrong in that? I was about to reach my hotel and I still didn’t see a single guy on road. I discovered later that everything remains closed in Bordeaux on Sundays. And to make it worse, sunny day dragged all the people to beaches nearby. Are they distributing some freebies on the beach? Is Sun or Sunday so rare in France? Why they didn’t teach me “Once in a blue Sun” phrase in school? It wouldn’t have shocked me now.

Cab driver dropped me to the hotel. I didn’t understand what he said to me but by looking at the figures on the meter I could understand how much I had to pay. I reached the hotel entrance only to notice that there was no one there to receive me. It looked like I was trespassing in some strangers property. My manager had given some codes that helped me to open the door and then another code for a vault inside. I fetched my keys from the vault and tried to decode the letter enclosed within. Do only French guys come in that hotel? Then why the hell the letter is written in French. Anyways with simple logic I could make it to my hotel room.

I reached my room, dumped my luggage and then switched on the TV. I browsed entire channel list at least twice but not a single English channel. Only option left with me was my laptop for some English entertainment. Good they didn’t make me delete all English data from my or convert it to French. There was a hotel guide kept near the TV. Before picking up I assumed that everything would be in French and wasn’t shocked later.

Next day I had to go to office. So I got up early, donned my office suit and followed the directions I had got from my Indian office. At the tram station I had to purchase the ticket and a noble soul had told me before that the vending machine accepts only coins. So I had managed some coins before trying my luck at the ticket vending machine. Everything in French again, guess they don’t want international passengers to buy tickets.

By now my definition of ‘developed country’ had changed. I waited for some time and then got the Tram and later a bus to drop me to office. I got down from the bus and then I had the difficult task of finding my new office. There was no one to ask so I entered a shop at petrol pump. As expected the lady inside was not able to communicate, so she drew some maps for me and used hand gestures to direct me. My office is not a very popular office in that area. I can’t blame that lady for not knowing places around her. Alas I had to be picked up by my colleague and I managed to reach office the first day.

Only after reaching the office I realized that there was some sort of strike of bus and trains which would continue for another week or so. So I will have to manage with reduced frequency of public transport on week days and without any transport on week ends. Fetching taxi is very costly in Bordeaux and without public transport you are simply locked inside your room. Anyways I spent few days in Bordeaux (or should I say in hotel, inside my room). I have inquired for a French course. Hopefully I will learn some French soon that will help me to interact with people here or at least buy food from supermarket where there is nothing written in English.

Let us come to some positive points. People here, although cannot communicate except in French or Spanish, take pleasure in helping you. They would greet you with a smile, may it be in escalator or bus stop. In India or at least in Mumbai no one has time for even a smile. Country wise this place looks good and green (and pink because of girls) but only if they could do sometime for international visitors it would be very helpful. All those who are planning to come to France be sure to learn some basic French before arriving here.

--Ashish Kanak
ashishkanak@gmail.com