Petra and I were all set to head to Paris, or so we thought. I booked our flights there and back, set up our hotel, and despite arriving I to the cuttiest of the 3 Parisian airports, I found us an amazingly priced shuttle service. 36 euro roundtrip per person. I figured it was cheaper because it dropped us at the Arc di Triumf rather than our hotel. In all my planning, I neglected to get us to and from the airport in Spain. I guess I assumed we would take the bus into Girona? Either way our flight was early and that wasn’t an option.
We were pretty frantic the day before so we went to the library to book a shuttle. How expensive could that be?
Answer: Very!
It turns out that you have to plan your flight around the shuttle service because there is a 15 euro surcharge for early or late flights. We had both. Awesome. I charged the 142 euro shuttle to my card, then realized we had used Petra’s email address, which she can’t access from her phone. The confirmation page said we would receive an email within 24 hours telling us what time our driver would get us. But…our flight was leaving in 20 hours.
Our Paris trip was quickly turning into a nightmare and we hadn’t event left yet!
By some small miracle and a lot of help from Mario we learned our shuttle would pick us up at the bright hour if 4am. Wow.
This driver was prompt and courteous. However I had only slept 3 hours and my ability to express myself in Spanish was seriously lacking. I was eating my breakfast in the car and the driver asked what I had. I responded “un sanwich de nutella y pantelones” at which point the entire car erupted in laughter. While I had meant to say a nutella and BANANA sandwich, I said pantalones instead of platano. Yes, I was apparently eating pants. He explained that eating was not allowed in the car but he would make an exception for us. Lol
We arrived at the airport for our flight on Ryan Air, “the low fares airline”. I see why it’s cheap. It costs 20 euro per ticket to check in at the airport. F-that! We saved our money and did that online. Add 30 euro to your fare if you want to check a bag. If not, you are allowed just 1 carry-on. Not 1 + a purse. Just ONE. TOTAL. And no more an 10kg. Petra and I were experts! 9.9 for her and 9.8 for me.
Too bad no one checked. I could have carried on a pet elephant and they wouldn’t have cared.
The fight was good and we arrived in Paris BVA. Our shuttle driver would be waiting with a sign with our name in it. I felt special.
Except this would be the first of many experiences in Paris where I learned I am not special. I’m a non-French speaking American, the most loathed of all tourists.
For a HILARIOUS ACCOUNT of what happened, see Petra’s blog: Will it F up my passport if i put it in the fridge?
To sum up the events, our driver left us waiting over an hour, then put us on a bus bound for EuroDisney so he pulled over on the side of the highway and had us switch buses. I thought we were being sold into prostitution.
I see now why this was so inexpensive. Who would have known the most fun shuttle ride would be the expensive last minute one? The one with a 4am nutella and pants sandwich.
