The little girl sitting in front of me on my flight was
delightful when she wasn’t screaming (I could have used some noise-cancelling headphones!). The little boy sitting to my right was delightful all the time,
and he occasionally gave the girl a rather quizzical look. So a pretty
uneventful flight, all in all!
For the first time in the past several years, the Xcom MiFi
device I rented (a kind of personal WiFi set up for the country you’re
traveling to) didn’t work when I landed nor in the airport terminal. And for some odd reason, my cellphone data
plan wasn’t working either, so between those two failures I couldn’t
communicate with Uber to order a ride into the city. After futzing around with the
technology for a while, I finally decided to join the taxi queue. As I was
loading into a taxi I asked the driver if she took Visa, which she didn’t.
The taxi coordinator was very helpful, he cheerfully unloaded my bags for me,
and he flagged down a G7 taxi (they take credit cards) that was a few cars down
in the queue (nice guy!). Traffic can be
horrendous going into Paris, but given that it was a Sunday morning, it was
pretty quick and smooth.
(By the way, UberX, which is staffed by professional
drivers, is still operating in Paris. The lower-priced Uber-Pop service was
shut down after protests in July. I am a huge fan of Uber for many reasons, not
the least of which is that they pick you up where you are – no looking for a
taxi queue or flagging one down on the street – and even UberX is less
expensive than taxis. (See my previous writeup
here: http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.fr/2015/06/uber-uber-tuesday-9-june.html
))
 |
| CityLocker's location in the 3rd arrondissement |
I am usually able to drop my bags off at the apartment I’m
renting even if I can’t occupy it until the official checkin later in the day,
but this time the previous renters weren’t checking out until noon, so I had to
find an alternative. Technology to the rescue! A few weeks ago I ran across
info about a locker-rental-in-town service called City Locker. They have
several locations within the city, one of which was less than a mile from my
apartment. It’s an unmanned storefront equipped with a digicode door lock and
scores of digitally locked storage bins. You rent a locker online and they
email you the code to unlock the storefront’s door (it changes daily) and the
code to unlock your locker(s) (they also change daily). It works slick! I was
able to squeeze both my checked bag and my carryon in the locker. Info here: http://citylocker.fr/mobile/index.php?ID_langue=en
 |
| both my bags fit! |
However, Musée des Arts et Métiers, one of my favorite
little museums, was just a couple of blocks away! After a restorative café crème I
headed over there. And bonus – admission was free the first Sunday of the
month! It’s a rather old-fashioned museum, with big glass and wood displays,
showcasing technology and invention and often-artistically-stunning devices
that have been developed down through the centuries to understand the universe,
to aid transportation & communication, to create and maintain dwellings
& clothing, to capture & control energy, etc. etc. etc. http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/visitor-information The museum was
built around a former church, and Foucault’s Pendulum hangs in what was the
chapel. And they serve a brunch in their café on Sundays – a bit over-priced,
but welcome! You can eat indoors or in a
lovely little courtyard of the museum.
 |
| Foucault's Pendulum, with a transportation exhibit in the background |
 |
| a Model T! |
 |
| an early steam-driven vehicle |
 |
| a terrific bicycle collection |
When it was time to head over to the apartment, I went out
to flag down a taxi at a nearby queue. When one with a green light finally came
down the street (it took a while!), a man standing behind me ran around me to
ace me out and grab it. I raised my hands in a universal “WHAT??” gesture, and
the cab driver had a quick word with him, then moved ahead to pick me up! Nice
guy. I asked him to make two stops – the first to pick up my bags at City
Locker and the second at the apartment. He totally understood my broken French
and was very helpful. Happiness.
When I arrived outside the apartment I called Hervé, the
owner/manager. He came walking down the street a couple minutes later and
asked, “Did you get my message? You could have come a little earlier.” Nope, my
darn MiFi and data service weren’t working. Oh, well. C’est la vie. He was very nice and showed me around the TERRIFIC
apartment (more about it in a later post) and explained how to use all of the
equipment. Home at last!
As soon as I connected to the apartment’s WiFi, I emailed
Xcom to explain my problem. Happily, a tech responded immediately. It took
several back-and-forth emails, but he was able to talk me thorough resetting
the device. Phew! I really do depend on apps on my phone for maps, research,
email, etc. when I’m out an about, so this technology is absolutely critical
for me. Here’s a link to the service,
based in California and available for pretty much every country in the world: https://www.xcomglobal.com/
If you’re just going to Paris, and can wait until you’re in
town or have trouble with another device while you’re here, you might want to
rent a device locally. I found this service, which is a bit cheaper than Xcom.
They can ship the device to your hotel or other location in Paris, or you can
pick it up at their office in the 3rd arrondissement. http://travel-wifi.com/default.jsp
Technology. It can delight. It can frustrate. And it’s been
like that down through the centuries. So I guess I’ll just have to deal with
it!
No comments:
Post a Comment