Journeying Mercies - Wednesday, 27 April

My journey from Minneapolis to Paris featured several small graces and fortunate circumstances.  There were a few funny challenges too, but hey, without those it wouldn’t be a “Mariellen trip!”  This is a longish post, but I hope you find it entertaining and informative!

First, as I’ve said before, I love Uber!  My very efficient trip to the airport with a helpful and friendly driver cost under $15 – less than half of what a regular taxi would be.  Their app lets me see exactly where I am, lets me see when I’ll arrive at my destination (based on real-time traffic calculations), lets me rate my driver, automatically charges the fare to my credit card, and emails me a receipt.  Not a big deal in one’s hometown, but in another city – priceless!  More about that later….

Back in March I applied for “Global Entry Trusted Traveler” status and gave the TSA my $100.  It took them a couple weeks to give preliminary approval on my application, but when I went to schedule my in-person interview, the earliest date I could get in Minneapolis was in early July.  Yes, JULY!!!  I could have driven up to Grand Portage or over to Milwaukee to have my interview right away, but hey, a girl’s calendar is kind of full!  I guess that the “you must have your in-person interview within 2 weeks of your preliminary approval” rule doesn’t apply when they don’t have any openings in their schedule.  So dang it, I’m not going to be able to breeze through passport check when I get home.  And since TSA Pre-check is part of the Global Entry package, I didn’t get that either.

I previously had TSA Pre-check on my Delta profile due to flying with a friend a few years ago who had Global Entry.  I had heard that people with “grandfathered in” Pre-check status were dropped this January.  But happily, for some reason, I got Pre-check on my boarding pass.

The airport very quiet on Wednesday afternoon.  But even though there were almost no lines, it was nice to sail through the Pre-check line without having to take out my computer, remove my blazer, be scanned, etc.

 There’s a little bar/resto called Mimosa at gates G1-6.  It’s comfy, offers easy ordering via an iPad at your table, allows you to pay right away so you can blast out when you need to, its system emails you a receipt, and you can tell the system what flight you're on and it will alert you when boarding starts or there are changes.  Let’s hear it for technology!  And the all-American burger & fries & beer weren’t bad either.

Gate agents let me pre-board when they see my cane, and I’m not too shy to take advantage of it.  I had just gotten past the checkin when I discovered that one of my shoelaces had come untied.  There were no chairs between there and the plane.  But thanks to a sweet Delta employee who knelt down and tied it for me, I didn’t trip and fall on my way to my seat.  God bless him!

It was shocking, I tell you, SHOCKING, to have a decent meal on my flight – a salad with nice sturdy greens, chopped walnuts, a few cashews, raisins, dried cranberries, grilled chicken breast and ranch dressing.  Plus some nice fruit.  I was so taken aback that I ate almost the whole thing!

And almost more shocking, I found that one of the albums on the plane's music entertainment system was of horn trios and quartets by Carl Oestreich.  Hooo boy!

Uber has a new service in a few cities (including Paris) called UberPOOL.  When you request a ride using this service, and someone else has requested a ride from and to similar locations, you will share the car with the other person and save 10%-50%!  I gave it a whirl.  The service was still quick, and I shared the car from the airport to the city with a couple of Italians.  My ride cost me €36 (it’s usually at least €50), which is just a tish more than much less convenient shuttle services.  Try it!

I learned from my driver that Paris’ mayor, Anne Hidalgo, is despised by almost everyone.  She is trying to push through legislation to ban private cars from driving in the city, she is trying to ban diesel cars and all cars made before 1997 (what? no more vintage Deux Chevaux on the streets?), she is trying to set a speed limit of 70 km/hr (about 45 mph) on the “périphérique” freeway circling the city (whereas she was recently stopped for driving 150 km/hr on that very road).  And she is relentlessly harassing apartment owners who want to rent out their places for weeks/months when they’re not in town (this is part of an effort to supposedly make Paris accessible to owners/fulltime renters of all economic levels by cracking down on absentee or foreign landlords – ya, like that’s going to influence the costs of goods & services in the city).  Aahhh, politics.

But I do love Paris.  I can feel a smile creeping over my face whenever the car or van I’m in enters the city.  Today was no exception, which is a good thing since there were a few more little challenges yet to come!

The owner of the apartment I’m renting said I could drop my bags after 11:00 am even though my checkin time was 2:00 pm.  Cool.  But, happily, a potential thorny situation was averted because the very moment I arrived at 11:30 the previous renters were leaving.  They were supposed to be out by 10:00.  Naughty, naughty!  They were shifting to a hotel for the rest of their stay, and said the owner told them they could leave their bags in the apartment for a bit.  They were just about to leave, taking the key with them rather than leaving it in the combination-lock dropbox.  NO – not cool!  They said they were just heading to lunch since it was the husband’s birthday (as if that mattered).  I convinced them to leave the key with me and said I’d leave it in the dropbox so that they could let themselves in and pick up their bags if the housekeeper wasn’t here cleaning when they returned.  I left my bags, put the key in the dropbox, and went out for lunch & grocery shopping.  When I got back after 2:00 I found that the lockbox was jammed for some reason.  I texted the owner about this problem and told her the story about the previous renters.  She was furious.  But it turned out that the housekeeper hadn’t finished cleaning yet (also not cool), so the owner contacted her and sent her over to let me in.  The couple’s bags were still here.  The housekeeper was only half done with the cleaning, but I was exhausted so I just stayed while she cleaned and laundered linens for another hour or so.  Finally at about 4:30 the previous renters came for their bags.  I was taking a nap, but I did manage to hear the doorbell.  They apologized, but good grief…what if I had been out?  What did they think this was, a hotel?  They were from California, but still!!!!!

Check out photos etc. of my apartment here:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2808595

And stay tuned for more stories.  I promise that they’ll be shorter.