The Hell of Leaving Paris

I had a feeling this was not going to work out. I didn’t get to leave the office until 5:00 and had 2 hours to get to the airport and check in. I was in the far south and needed to get to the far north of the city. Picked up my luggage at the hotel and then made a bee line to the metro station, of course it was rush hour and the metro was busy. Me, with my over sized luggage and not speaking French did not go well on the metro. I also needed to change subway trains four times – not fun! On the second change over, when the train just stops, I learn that the there is a strike by the metro workers and they were currently ‘working to rule’. Not what I wanted to here and I try and to figure out how to get to the airport another way. I ask, but nobody around me was willing to help me. I had to yell out to the train (in English of course) for some help. Low and behold, it was a Canadian couple from Edmonton (Christopher and Annette) , some 10 m away, who stepped forward to help me….what a god send thought. They gave me an alternative suggestion, which meant catching different subways and then a bus. It was complicated, but I needed to do it. I thanked them, said goodbye and left the train. I worked my way to the other station and get on the train, when to my surprise, there are Chris and Annette, who decided to help me get to the airport, knowing that the route was complicated…god bless Canadians! We all take the train to another few stations, while running to get there and then work our way upstairs to the surface. It was so cool, to the Eiffel tower all light up on in the distance. Unfortunately, the bus station was for a different airport. By this time, I am soaking wet from sweat and exhausted with the weight of my luggage. With 30 minutes to go, the time to take an expensive taxi had arrived, even though I had no money left, and hoping he would take my Visa card, but I was still a long ways from the airport. I said thank you and goodbye once again. The cab ride cost $120 CDN, of which I had to find an ATM machine at the airport. When I finally found the check in counter for Emirates Air, it was empty. I had missed check in by 40 minutes.
I called my ACF contact to inform them and then tried to get to a new ticket for the next day, which I was able to do at no extra fee. I also needed to find an airport hotel – the cheapest was $210 US. I was so tired when I got the hotel I hit the bed immediately, but in 2 hours I was awake again and could not go back to sleep, till about 0400, only to get up 0900 to work my way back to the airport.