Paris Day 01 / 07 First Night In Paris

Paris was beautiful, but cashless it was a bit of an annoying situation, they went into another hotel and Mark went to the front desk and asked if they exchanged money, the reply: Of course, monsieur. Luck seemed to have changed. “Your room number? monsieur.” Continued the receptionist.

So far, so good, and then he asked that, “We’re not in this hotel” replied Mark “but if you could help us, we would be really grateful”.

“I’m sorry, monsieur, but we only have the currency exchange service for our guests” The desk guy added.

“Thanks” Mark replied, as he turned to Mireya and repeated “Room Number” he sighed “They only exchange money to their guests.”

Once they left the building the sun was gone and Paris revealed her night sight to them, the dark navy sky and the lighted buildings made them feel like they were on a post card, it was just beautiful, they were tired and apparently unlucky, so they started looking on to the Parisian sights that appeared before their eyes, and of course they kept knocking on hotel doors just to get one of two answers: “No Exchanges” or “Your Room Number?” which led to the first answer, he would gave out a “merçi” and they’d kept walking.

Looking for a currency exchange they went into a hotel where they were told they could get some euros at an exchange place that was on Champs Élysées, they thanked the man and went out.

“Champs Élysées it is” Mark said.

“What!?” Mireya shouted quite upset “Are you out of your mind? You’ve no idea

‘bout what’s where in Paris! How do you expect to find that place?!”

“Oh… Watch Me!” Mark replied.

“If it was thing of ONLY watching I wouldn’t mind but I have to crawl next to you! Going god knows where!” Mireya was tired, upset and penniless so obviously Mark was in huge trouble.

Mark decided that the best was to just stay quiet and keep walking towards Champs Élysées, not that he really knew where that avenue was, not really knowing where he was exactly but he walked with a decided and strong step through the Parisian streets. Mireya followed him upset almost stomping her feet against the floor in protest, but she kept a slight distance until they arrived to La Place du la Concorde, when she finally spoke “Ok genius, what now?”

“Well, we’re at …” Mark had no idea so he pulled out the map, opened it and started looking for references.

“You’ve no idea where we are” Mireya was half happy to snort at him and half pissed, but right now she was enjoying as he was completely lost. “Ugh, this sucks.”

“We, mademoiselle, are at La Place du La Concorde” said Mark proudly.

“Huh” Mireya turned and saw him, and when she was about to ask him how he knew but she saw the map on his hands so it crossed her mind that it was best not to push his ego, then managed to ask “And how are we supposed to get to Champs Élysées, Einstein?”

“Well, they’re actually pretty close” he replied noticing how hard was to impress her “they kinda come all the way to this place so  there should be a sign here somewhere, we’ll find them soon, you’ll see”

She knew he had no idea where how to find them but he seemed overly confident, like he knew exactly where he was and where he had to go now, that attitude irritated her “Fine, lead the way, mister Paris expert” she finally added.

He saved the map back into his bag and kept walking under the golden evening sky for a couple of minutes when an old lady bumped with them.

“Pardon” she said with a very rough and raspy French.

“No problem” Mark replied with a smile. His sister moved to his back keeping her distance and staying out of the conversation.

The lady was elder probably on her fifties and she seemed to be a tourist just like them, however Mark thought she would probably be from somewhere in central Europe because of the raspy of her accent, he was about to keep back on her track when the lady stopped him gently with a motion of her hand. He turned to his sister and then approached the lady “Yes?” he asked but she started asking something in a language he couldn’t quite understand “Français?” he asked, to that the lady shook her head in denial, same luck happened when he asked for English and Español.

He sighed and then the lady put her hand on her chest and said “Russia”.

Mark only knew how to say hello in russian, he sighed “Privyet” he replied with a smile, his sister stared at him.

“Ah, privyet” the lady said back to him.

Mireya stared in disbelief “What the hell?! He knows Russian?” she knew Mark was crazy and dazzled on a lot of different things, but to have actually learned Russian? That just seemed too much even for him.

The lady replied some words in Russian, to which Mark only shook his head and answered “No Russian, sorry”.

“Thought as much!” Crossed Mireya’s mind and she let out a grin.

“Louvre?” asked the Russian woman.

Mark smiled widely, and turned to look for his sister, she was still around, “Thank god, she’s not lost” he thought “Yes!” he answered to the woman “That way” he said pointing to the East.

The Russian woman nodded, smiled at him and said something which he thought meant “Thank you” in Russian so he smiled back and waved at her as she walked down the street.

“What was that?” Mireya asked.

“She was looking for the Louvre and got lost” answered Mark.

“And how the hell u know where the Louvre is?! You’ve never been in Paris before” she replied.

He couldn’t hold a smile “Google Maps” he answered.

“What?!” was all she could manage to say.

“Yeah, there’s a way u can zoom on Google Maps that allows u to see some of the big cities, it’s kinda like a virtual tour” Yeah, he was proud of having searched that before “I may not have been in Paris before but I’ve toured it, and the Louvre was right by the river” and the pointed to the bridge near them “Same river that goes right there”.

“Well then, were’s Champs Élysées?” she snorted out a little annoyed.

“Um, close” he replied, not really sure when will they find it.

They kept walking and they got close to the river and the bridge. Then Mark said “Well Champs Élysées are close to La Tour Eiffel, we might not be able to see the avenue but we can see the tower, if we get to the tower it will be easier for us to find Champs Élysées, and we might get a glimpse of La Tour Eiffel from that bridge”

Mireya simply snorted back in response, she wasn’t convinced with his arguments neither comfortable with the whole situation, but since she didn’t had an option she walked up the bridge behind his brother, she could feel the cold wind of the night giving her goose bumps, her hair flowing when the wind blew and hitting the back of her neck.

They stopped at the middle of the bridge, she was tired, penniless and hungry, her legs were hurting, and she had no idea how they were gonna get back to the hotel, yeah, she could say that the situation … sucked, entirely. She leaned on one of the sides of the bridge and looked at her brother gazing out at the horizon; she moved her toes inside her shoes and let out an exhausted sigh. Mark looked nervous, Mireya rolled her eyes and said “There it is!” and let out a quiet sigh “Damn it” she mumbled quietly.

Mark turned to where she was pointing and looked at the light up above rolling around Paris, holding it, above all the buldings on his way and crowing the dark night sky, rose up on the distance La Tour Eiffel “Whoa” was all he could manage to say.

“Mhmm and you’re crazy if you think I’m gonna walk all the way there!” She was exhausted and pissed, and right now, beyond cooperating with anything. “Let’s just go back and then, well, you can beg at some hotel and we might get enough to go back home”

“Yeah, it’s late, and it seems quite far” He saw the distance and looked how tired she was, he was pretty tired himself, but quite excited to be in Paris too.

“Finally some common sense” Mireya thought and she turned to her brother who started to motion on the way back, but suddenly he crossed the street “What the ..?” was sliding in her mind as she shouted out “Hey! Where the hell are you going?!”

“If we’re going to head back we can go through the other side of the streets, we might have a better luck” Mark shouted as he crossed the street.

“I guess he had too much common sense for today” Thought Mireya and groaned as she went behind him, her mind kept rambling “I’ll kill him when I catch him, then he’ll have the PLEASURE to have died in Paris, jerk… ”

They went through the other side of La Place du La Concorde by the side of a building to their right the circuit was glowing under the golden lights of the statues wrapped by the dark night sky.

“Isn’t it beautiful” Mark said as they went across a large street while looking at the monuments before them, his sister walking up close to him as he admired the wonderful contrast, the sole pure elegance of La Place du La Concorde rising from the dark surroundings of the Parisian night, he felt into a contemplation state from which he was abruptly pushed off when Mireya shouted out. He turned around and saw a police patrol turning around the circuit, his sister holding on to his arm tightly after almost got ran over by the French police.

“Assholes” she said when she got back some breath, he helped her stand steady still a bit lost on what had happened.

“You ok?” Mark asked

“I almost got killed!” she shouted, she glared at him with flames of rage in her eyes “… but as you would say, AT LEAST it was in Paris! Huh?!”

He stared at her confused “I guess you’re not ok”

“I should’ve been honored huh?! To depart but at least do so with grace and glamour in your beloved city of lights!” Mireya was shouting at him while making poses pretending she was high royalty, a model or a celebrity all to mocking him.

They stared at each other, he giving his best not to laugh at her, the view of her sister pissed off, shouting in the middle of Paris at night and giving up a lousy act of a star was just too much to handle, yet he tightened his fists and pushed that laugh and smile back staring at her eyes while she looked back at him, then she noticed what she had done and tried not to laugh her shame out and to keep up her ground.

Seconds went by slowly as they both made an effort to keep their feelings locked down and the whole environment was wrapped in a thick silence that was just disturbed by the sound of the wind through the leaves of the trees, Mark was cracking up and a smile started to show on his lips he was scared of provoking Mireya further, but his laugh was poking up and tickling his lips.

A loud laugh cut through the night wind and Mark stared at Mireya while she let it out and looked back at him “Will you move?! We’re gonna get nowhere at this rate!" she said while smiling more calmly.

“My god you’re crazy!” Said Mark as he walked by her side “Who would get you?! Shouting out and acting up like a diva” said Mark while imitating her then he looked back at his sister, her eyes wide opened and her mouth pressed hardly clearly holding a smile or laugh down, Mark turned his head quickly back and caught a glimpse of a line of police men standing guard behind him, he looked back at his sister. He had just did the same lame act, but why not? In front of a bunch of sexy French police men “Did they …?” Mireya simply nodded to that “Holy shit! How embarrassing!” He started through the eyes of the police guys

“… And in Paris!” Mireya’s voice sounded behind him.

After crossing another street they bumped at the door of another hotel, their eyes met and after nodding they walked up the stairs, Mark went in and after a few minutes came back to his sister’s side “Room number” he simply said and she sighed, then they both walked down the street back to where they had come from.