My iPhone and its bugs

Nothing is perfect. Its nature's rule but we can develop thing can be close to perfect.

People say Apple stuff is pretty perfect. Lets take example of iPhone - worlds dominant handset manufacturer and seller. Best in feature, app, look and usage. I see some of basic functionality are buggy here.

1. on iPhone4. iOS 5.
We use SMS messaging service as basic tool and way to communication.
Feature, group SMS.

I added some of my friends in sms "To" list.
Put some text.


If some of the text sms failed to deliver. It shows red estimations sign like !
Problem is we never come to know what all sent successfully and which all are failed.

This is strange bug from iOS 5.0.

2. Recently, I tried to delete some pics from photo stream. iOS don't allow you to delete files from your device. 

You have to connect to PC and backup photoes and resync to delete/modify pics on your device.


3. I also have got iPhone 3GS which sometimes have issue of picking up the call. Screen fails to recognize my touch while swapping and accepting the call.

Chateaux of the France

Last end of summer in Paris, we (my wife was with me) visited some of the Chateaux around Paris. Most of people know famous Chateau de Versailles Castle. I personally didn't found it very great just because it has huge garden and lake. There is less of attractive I found. Its more crowded with lots of people rushing in and out. 

I liked another nearby Chateaux. Royal Chateau de Fontainebleau! Place is 40 min away by RER or some train going from Gare-de-Lyon to South side of France. Place is also covered in zone 6 costing you 14Euro to and fro journey by Bus service. 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/Oupx1 



Here are details copied from http://parisbytrain.com/paris-to-fontainebleau-by-train/

Paris to Fontainebleau by Train

Departure station => Paris-Gare de Lyon

Train Line => Transilien or Ter

Direction => Laroche-Migennes / Montereau / Montargis / Sens

Arrival Station => Fontainebleau-Avon (Zone 5)

Ticket => Billet Ile-de-France - Fontainebleau–Avon

Price => 8,40€ one way

Passes Accepted => Carte Orange/Pass Navigo, Ticket Mobilis, Paris Visite Card

Attractions => INSEAD, Forest of Fontainebleau, Chateau Fontainebleau

First Train / Last Train => 06:05 / 23:35 (see notes)

PDF with timetable: http://parisbytrain.com/files/2008/12/paris_fb_timetable.pdf
you will also get this timetable if you visit ticket window at Gare de Lyon. 

and return : http://parisbytrain.com/files/2008/12/fb_paris_timetable.pdf

More details: http://parisbytrain.com/paris-to-fontainebleau-by-train/

Place is beautiful to spend time with family and close group. Palace has more French history. The pond nearby Palace makes it more beautiful in view. Good to visit in Summer.

Here are some photoes:

Here is official website : http://www.fontainebleau-tourisme.com/index.php/en/



The famous INSEAD school of Management is right there.

References:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Fontainebleau
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/fontainebleau

Jai Shivaji - Paris. Gare de Nord

People of India knowns many kings of India who fought against British Emperor to keep their home land safe from Britishers (while many kings who changed their color by joining British). One of the great Maratha king - Chhtrapati Shivaji Maharaj (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji) was one of the biggest rival for Britishers in early 18th century. Full historical name as Shivaji Shahaji Bhosale founded the Maratha emperor which became one of the largest in 17th century http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/India-1760-map.jpg . I studied it all in history book. Seen in many motivations movies on king Shivaji and his bravery to challenge Mogal Emperor, Aadilshaha and Nijamshaha to forbid them while entering his home land. Well, its still unfortunate that, King Shivaji's birthday is celebrated two times a year because historical data indicates one date and another political party says its some other date. Its still controversy!

Here goes our story. It was about 10.30pm, Paris, near Gare de Nord. I was looking for nice India hotel for dinner. I knew Sarvanabhavan is good place to have dinner but wasn't sure if it would be still open till 11pm to serve me food. I decided to try and turned my way towards the hotel.

As usually, place was little crowded due to its famous typical India food. I took a place as service tambhi pointed the table. I ordered for North India thali and was doing some pass time on mobile. Three drunkards in their mid 50s with bottle of rhum in pocket drinking while sitting on next table brought my attention. They were shouting something in their local language and sometimes in French. Neither of them was known to me but i was just guessing what they are talking. One of them was too drunk. Other one was trying to keep him in control. I washed my hands and got refreshed and took my seat again.

Conversation started as they started talking to me in their local language or French. At that time I could't guess exactly what language it was. So was the condition and the way to throw words from mouth with smell of whisky and rhum (Thanks my dinner was not on table!!).

I said politely (its better to be polite with drunkard at first conversation) , "je ne pas parle francaise! (I do not speak French) or the language you are speaking!" . I had habit of speaking phrases in mixed French+English when I don't know what to call it in French.
Other guy who was less drunk, asked me in English,"You speak English"
I said, "Yes, I speak English, Hindi and Marathi and little little French but do not understand French. I am Indian."
Reply,"Oh good! ce bon. We Indian."
I just said, "Good."  Hoping to end the conversation.
Now the drunkard said,"Where from India?"
I: "Bombay, Mumbai , Maharashatra"
drunkard: "Ce bon. I know. bon place. oui"
Little smile and reply, "Good. nice"
Drunkard: You know, king Shivaji of Maharashtra. Great king. Come to Tunjawar in Tamilnadu. Good person and king. Fought with British. bla bla bla (something in Tamil, Telgu or malayalum or French)
Less drunk drunkard: Its nothing. He is drunk too much. no problem. its fine.
I: Yes, Great king. I respect king Shivaji.

Well now, hotel waiter was worrying that drunkards are making me uncomfortable and its causing harm to reputation of hotel. He came asked 3 of them to leave the place. Again, the conversation was in their local language and I had no clue what they are trying to say. Less drunk man spoke to me, my friend is too much drunk. Its OK.

Drunkard was happy to common known and interest from Indian.
He said, "Jai Shivaji. Great king. He fought with British. I no speak English. I not like British. French is Ok. "
I: "Yes, British did lot of bad things in India... bla bla .. Shivaji is great!"

Waiter was bringing my dinner and i had stop further talking with drunkards. Anyways, Tambi (the waiter) came in and pulling drunkards to gate. He had to do it to save reputation of place.
I said,"Merci, Au revoir." (Thanks, good bye)
Drunkard was just shouting,"Its no problem. Our friend Shivaji. Jai Shivaji !! bla bla"

I waved my hand while the leaving from main door to good bye.

Its just coincidence but few kings made great impacts on society. Well, Tanjavor was never a home land of king but he ruled the province with equal respect as to his home place. Thats makes the great kings. Shivaji was never called himself a Ruler or dictator. He was kind of people. People loved him and they were ready to dye for him! That was Maratha Kingdom! But as Indian kings keep on fighting with each other and leading to ultimate victory to British Emperor.

I still feel, most worst thing of history of wars was "Battle of Plassey" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plassey  ! What a shame was it!

Story or incidence is real but there is no record of what happen and who were those drunkards while shouting "Jai Shivaji!"

Trip to Mont Saint Michel

Date 24/12/2011 ! May be its last blog of the year!

Read http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/index.htm for book information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint-Michel

For practical info, read below

I started my journey with covoiturage.fr by booking my one way trip with awesome couple Flore and Phillipe. Nice guys to company for journey. We did chit chat while on the way with African, Brazilian, Spanish music. Couple speak French, English, Portugese and Spanish so it was OK for me. We started around 10am and reached by 2pm at Mont Sainte Michel ( Pronounced as Mo-Sa-Mishel in English). We followed the path http://g.co/maps/r7gng
I had not booking my journey back to Paris. Flore was bit surprised to know it and was very curious on "how i will travel back to Paris?" I too wasn't knowing it but i said its adventure to go for unplanned and unknown first time journey! You get to learn lot of new things. And surely I did it!!!

I went inside the big doors. I saw couple of museums and reached to main door to buy the tickets. Its 9Euro normally. I reached top of the mont and came back by 4pm. I meet Flore and Philipe on way back in restaurant for lunch. Omlette with fries was good for me.

I reached down to look for transport. Best way is to meet guys from tourism office. Lady gave me path details and handed me over the small paper to track my way to Paris. I had to take bus at 5.15pm from  Mont Sainte Michel to Rennes and from there I need to catch hourly train to Paris. Bus took the way http://g.co/maps/d7jwr .

French speaking couple was sitting on first sit at entrance. I was just second in row so got front seat just behind the driver. I was watching people of multiple ethics and languages were riding the bus. There were many of Japaneas, Chinease, Turkish and one English speaking family. There was no one who knew French except the driver and couple on front seat at entrance. Bus moved slowly and said good bye to  Mont Sainte Michel! It was beautiful in evening.

We cross road toward Rennes for an hour. I was thinking to take a train to Paris from Rennes. I was worried if they have train from Rennes and obviously I had pay heavy for booking at last minute. There was clear signal on next circle. Driver was running at speed of around 30km/hour. Suddenly signal light turned red and bus stopped with couple of glitches. Signal turned green in small time, we were good to go. Driver turned the gear. Grrrrrrr...rr.. and peeep peep peep... sound started.
Driver couldn't start it.
I was getting worried. I understood something is wrong with the bus. Its public transport bus and could be possible to go down anytime! Drive now called his superior sub station member for help. I could only understand word like "Merde, ohh.. putain!!"
Its was sure, its going to take some more time. People on back side starting gossiping among them.

Driver got up from seat and wore his over coat and came in from. Started speaking with French guy sitting in front row. French guy pointed his finger to me!!! I had understood, they said English (Anglais) while speaking.
I was seeing the console of display was shows windows commands on black prompt. It was again MS Windows and bus never started running. It was lot of electronics and software stuff in bus. I never understood why French make things more complicated and comprehensive to use. Bus is simple device to run an engine and move on with help of mechanism of ignition engine and fuel. It will only need light and power supply for ignition and front lights. I was afraid, what is use to this shit electronics display and 100s of button on driver panels. Its all use less to fix the bus. Even driver wasn't sure on whats wrong with bus. It was bad!!!
Below conversation in French written in English to read it correctly. Correct spelling and meaning in bracket next to it.

Driver turned to me asked,"vule vu parle aungle?? (Do you speak English?)"
I understood what he was saying, so said "Oui! j parle aungle" (Yes! I speak English.)
Now driver started in fast French, which was impossible for me to understand or guess. "£%^*&(*(*$£%$"!
I said, "J compre ampu faunce!" (I  understand little French )
French guy sitting on front explained to me that, driver will go out and look for another bus to carry tourist to destination. He want me to explain same to passengers as most of them were non-French tourist.
I said,"J compre. I understand. I will do it!"

I stand up and announced clearly to everybody,"Hello all, bus is not working properly. Our drive is going to bring another bus for us to go to Rennes bus station. Please wait for him. He think he will come back in 5-10 minutes. Don't worry. Thanks!"
Japaneas couple sitting in 5th row was little worried, they asked, "what wrong with bus and when he is going to come back?"
I said,"Hope so he will be back in 5 minutes with bus! But I don't know whats wrong exactly. Its all electronics more then mechanics in this bus!"
passengers on back side started gossiping on same. I think so all understood the problem.

After 8 minutes, drive came back and with bus. As bus reached near us and drive was visible. Passenger on back benches said in single volume,"Yatto!!"  It wasn't so laud but was in sync. I knew the word !! Yes finally ! I repeated with them, "Oui, yatto! Its done!"
We moved out of bus as instructed by driver. While getting into the bus, I said "Merci" to driver, he decently replied with "de rien!! Desole! Merci!". He knew, i can understand these words.

We took the bus and it moved to Rennes train station. We came out and diverted on our own ways. Lot of chinese and japanease touriest started running towards train station as they had already booked the train ticket for 7.10pm train to Paris. I too wanted to catch the same one. But I didn't booked the ticket. I started walking towards the train station in same direction.

I saw the 7year old little girl and her mother. They were sitting next to me in second bus. They were 10-15 meter away. The lady looked at me to bye bye. He bows half and said good bye in Japanease way. I shook my hand toward them and said good bye!! I also saw French couple sitting on front seat. The guy knew me, he waved his hand and said good bye. I did same and said "Good bye!!!"

I managed to buy 62Euro ticket to Paris from Rennes at 8.03pm TGV  with help of French guy who was waiting for his brother to come. His brother knew train ticket booking better then him so he asked to his brothers help in booking the ticket. I guess, its costliest train ticket I had ever booked!!! I had no options. I moved to big display waiting to see platform number to come up. It was peaceful journey way back by TGV train. I reached Montparness by 10.20pm. I took metro and reached home by 11pm.

Was too tired and sleepy. I managed to upload 2-3 pics on Facebook and went to bed! It was long long day!
Bon nuit!!!

Apartment search in Paris

First thing come to mind, its not so easy. "C 'est pas tres facile!" and its going to be very very costly!
I'm writing this blog considering you as new to the city. Paris- awesome city with sparkling lights and beautiful girls. But behind every French face, there are things they do for living and compenciating the cost of living in Paris.

First and most important of it is finding good home in Paris. Its slow and long process!

Step 1.
Roam around the town to figure out good area for you. Consider locality and living in place.
a. Like if you consider cheap is good. Look for sub-urban area in district 92, 98, 95, 20 and so on.
b. If you are ok to live in little dirty but close to city centre with 75XXX as postal code. Look for Barbes, La Chappel, Gare de Nord area. 750  09, 10, 18
c. If you love to see Eiffel tower everyday, wish to spend few more bucks and find place in district 750 08,07,06,15, 16
d. If you love latin districts, look for area 750 05, 06, 14
e. Remember to consider your place of work for location. Its very important to have place near by your work location.

Step 2.
Now you decided couple of areas which are ok for you to live.
Start search with online site given below:
Remember, all agency's ask for the fees to book the apartment for you. You have to go via agency if you don't know much in Paris. Its usually around 1 month rent of the apartment. But it varies with agency and conditions.
a.

http://www.parisattitude.com/

or

http://www.parisattitude.com/search2.asp
==> For tourists who speak English and don't know French. It don't ask you guaranteeing for apartment. They ask only money. Remember, they ask you more then actual rates in market as you can't speak French and communicate with apartment owner. 
Its good for small time stay and quick booking of apartment.


b
other among my search list
http://sublet.lodgis.com/en-gb/paris/listing/

==> Again in English but good site for quick search. Rates are little reasonable with very nice info on site.


c.

http://www.paristay.com/
Nice site to start with. In English and many other languages to use.

d.
http://www.leboncoin.fr/locations/offres/ile_de_france/paris/?f=a&th=1
In French but its easy if you use language translator. Refer to direct posts from owners and so you can save 1 month agency fees. Its easy that way. But its again complicated to arrange meet with owner and proof you are the one who can pay the rent on time and have enough money to feed his apartment.

e. http://www.seloger.com/
==> In French. Little complicated. Its filled up with many agencies listing apartment details here. Site is free but you have to pay to agency who is booking apartment for you.

f. http://www.pap.fr/
==> In French. Easy site. They call it Particular to particular. Again its more of less same as seloger.com

3.
Keep contacting as many owners as possible and see the apartment. Its like keep on hitting the balls in dark so finally you may have one of them hitting the target. Keep applying to apartment which are good for you.
I feel, few apartment owners are too arrogant to choose their tenant as if they are choosing the son-in-law (gendre) ! Its funny but owner may ask you :

1. How old you are
2. Family or living alone
3. what is your income
4. Letter from company where you work
5. Guarantee for payment of rent
6. How long you live in Paris
7. What contract you have with company
8. bla
9. bla

I feel its none of their business. But as you know 'Beggar don't have choices!!' . He can't choose if to get 1 coin or 10 coins! Its same way here. You are a beggar and your boss is apartment owner. 

Don't be afraid and share all info to apartment owner.

4. 

Now its wait and watch game. Owner is going to check all list of application and choose the final strongest contestant to be his tenant.

I imagine this like a animal matting game. Its usual case in dogs, snakes and lions! If the female want to have sex with male from her own species. She send a specific kind of scent/aroma in nature. All interested males goes to the common place where she would be waiting for them to arrive. Now, poor and little ones goes away as they don't dare to fight with strong contestants. Even sometime female could be strong enough for them to handle. Strong one come face to face to show the fist of their jaws! They understand the strongest one and he is declared as the winner by female. I guess, its usual case in all species except humans. Humans go with weird kind of selection. 

Ooops, I'm goes away from root topic. So, Owner will finally choose the best person to be his tenant. 

They will have to do formal things like, creating the agreement with help of lawyer, arrange agency fees if any, handover of apartment, list of working and non working furniture and instruments in apartment. 

Along with it tenant has to sign the insurance for apartment. Matmut is good one to do it. 

Finally, you gets the key to apartment and start shifting to new home!!!

I may write another blog on home shifting in Paris. I understand it well the complication and depth in such activities. Experience is the best way to understand things!!! Hope you get it just by reading ;) 

Bon chance!

Related articles

• holidays rentals in Paris (locationsvacances.wordpress.com)
• 2010 Paris Furnished Apartment Market Report (prweb.com)

Drop me email or comments if you need any assistance in particular!

Toilets in Paris

Today, I make confession that, I broke few rules of general public hygiene in Paris!! I guess, doing pee at public place is considered so! That too, near GREATEST ICON of the city!

From last 2-3 years, I have been visiting Paris for work purpose. Unarguably its one the most fascinating, beautiful city of the world. The City of Lights, city of Fashion, bla bla ..

In my obvious observation, i could see long long queues to get in toilets.
I understand that, French people don't go to toilet and they have developed huge capacity to just control it until they reach home. So, its like don't drink a drop of water and keep your hand crossed till you reach your home! Its indeed said too too bad if someone goes for toilet to friends home. Its under Very bad manners!!
Discovering a public toilet is really difficult job when you are really on edge of pouring out some water. I'm sure beer drinkers knows it very well. I guess, that the reason why I don't see many French people drinking beer on public places or roads.

Here you can find the toilet. I 'm sure google map should show the signs with public toilets on it. Its the most important thing in Paris. I'm afraid google didn't did it. http://maps.google.fr/maps?rlz=1C1SKPL_enFR451FR451&q=Toilet shows no such place.





So, the story goes like this. One upon the time ... February'2010 or 2009! My apartment was located very close the Icon of Paris- Eiffel Tower. I was staying with my friends. We planned to visit Pantheon and on way back I lost him and cut my way towards the apartment via Gardens of the Luxemburg. My rectum was full of liquid and I wanted to pour it out urgently. I walked the way from small lanes from Musee de Army - Invalids.

It was around 7 pm. It use to be dark by 5pm in Paris in Winter days. I was searching for public toilets on the way. I knew, there are couple of them near Eiffel tower. I walked by Gardens near Eiffel tower and searched for the lonely standing toilet on the corner of road towards Bir Hakim metro station. I was very happy to found the destiny of the moment!! I reached the place and started pressing button to open the door. But my bad luck, it wasn't opening. I could barely read on side wall of toilets. Its open in limited hours only. If I'm not wrong, from 8am to 1pm and 2 pm to 6.30pm. (I was wondering if some French guy is working inside to make this as working hours! Hope it works on Weekends ;) ) This was terrific discovery for me. Shocking one !! Oops!
I got another shot when I couldn't find my apartment key in my over coat. I thought it was with me but it wasn't. It was with my friend and we didn't had mobile connection to call and confirm if he had reached the apartment. That was another bug shock for me !!!
Being Indian, I 'm very optimistic to find the way around to meet the need. It was bit deserted evening. I could hardly see people roaming around the garden area of Eiffel. That was the moment, I found the other way, bushy area around the garden was good option. There was small store which was close and could give me good place to do pee. I moved in the bush to find the covering space and got poured out all the liquid ammonia from my rectum to soil of France. I was looking up toward the great Eiffel tower. I wish Mr Eiffel had created few public toilets near Eiffel tower. I would have been much more thankful to him!!!

I suppose, this could be also reason why metro station staircase and deserted places smell bad. Someone must be in urgent sometime to release the pressure on time! Its all about the time.

For visitors, here are some must know things if you visit Paris:
From http://europeforvisitors.com/paris/articles/paris-public-toilets.htm

Paris Public Toilets Sanisettes ABOVE: This sanisette is near the Opéra Bastille (the glass building behind the tree). Not so many decades ago, the phrase "Paris public toilets" evoked images of smelly streetcorner pissoirs, hole-in-the-floor squat toilets at neighborhood cafés, and lavatories ruled by female attendants with the demeanor of prison guards. Today, nearly all of the vespasiennes or pissoirsare gone, and tourists of both sexes are well-served by modern, self-cleaning toilets known assanisettes on boulevards and in parks throughout the city. The sanisettes come in several styles, but all have the same basic design: You press a button (or, in some cases, insert a coin) to open the door, and when you step inside, a sensor in the floor causes the door to close and lock. You do your business, then open the door and exit. The door closes again, the toilet is automatically cleaned and disinfected by a motorized mechanism, and a green light signals that the lavatory is ready for the next user. In the past, sanisettes were pay toilets, but the city of Paris began converting them to free operation in February, 2006. Free toilets are identified by a sign that reads "Toilettes - Accès Gratuit." (Toilets in the suburbs usually aren't free, so if you venture outside of Paris,  keep a few 20-cent coins on hand for emergencies.) Here are a few more things you should know: Sanisettes are normally open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. After 2200 hours, you'll need to find a café or the nearest wall. For safety reasons, children under 10 shouldn't use sanisettes without an adult companion. (There have been reports of sanisettes beginning the cleaning cycle with small, lightweight children trapped inside.) In addition to sanisettes, the city of Paris has two dozen public lavatories that are open from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. until 6:15 p.m. The lavatories have attendants and are mostly located near major public buildings and tourist attractions. Older sanisettes aren't wheelchair-accessible, but the newest models are. Sanisettes are complex, high-tech devices, and you may encounter one that's out of order. If that happens, look for another one, or head for the nearest café.

Last note: Toilets in Europe are uni-sex. They usually don't have ladies and gents toilets as separate. You may find a women and men doing pee on same row and waiting release their enormous pressure !! :)
Keep posting such memorable incidences of life!
By the way in India, you may find someone peeing out of corner of road with small place to hide himself. Its still not see as crime. Its kind of freedom to do pee when its really uncontrollable.

Halloween in Paris

It was 31st Oct'2011 Monday. I didn't knew if it was Halloween. I went to office as usual way and came  back in evening at my apartment. 


The door bell rang at evening time. Its very rarely to have unexpected visitors in Paris. We were quite surprized to see the visitor. I opened the door. I could found 3 little cute adorable girls with cute devil makeup and dress! Someone would have hardly scared to see them. They were carrying lots of sweats and chocolates in  carry bag with them. They kept on showing me the bag and asking for something. I couldn't understand what they wanted to say. There were 2 younger girls who could understand that I don't speak French. 
Somehow, I manage to say, "Je ne parle pas Francais! Je parle anglais."
They told me the way they celebrate Halloween. Kids are suppose to visit all residents and they should give sweats and chocolates to kids. That is kind of gift to kids for Halloween dressing! I barely said, Happy Halloween and asked them to wait for 1 min.
I went inside and brought a large chocolate and handed it over to Little girls who was showing me her chocolate bag! It was nice feeling to make smile on those adorable faces!
Eventually, I missed joining some party outside for Halloween celebrations but could enjoy small part of Halloween. I was still great!!!


We had many such visitors from evening time but kids were not speaking English so it was impossible to guess if its Halloween! I should keep track of such celebrations in Paris. 

Paris to Mumbai 3rd time!

Two days ago news headlines was showing bad weather reports for the day. Air France and most of airlines were running in late or functioning badly. Chales De Goule airport was down. Winter came suddently to make French lifes difficult. Metro & RER local trains were running late or were not functioning well. Many people had to sleep in cars as roads were filled up with snow. People were not ready for the change so suddenly. Car tire changing is always necessary before winter. In fact, some people had to stay in subways and cars to survive the cold.

It was 11^th December'2011, i was suppose to reach on flight in morning 10 am. On day before, I tried hard to get taxi booking. All of the taxi services rejected request to take morning reservation. Finally, I decided to get any taxi while on the way. I got up early and stated moving! Couldn't found a single taxi on the way, most of taxies were parked or busy to attend me. I walked to nearest railway station Duplex with my friend. I had metro pass for zone 1 and 2 so I took metro Denfer Rouchor to get direct RER train to CDG International Airport. I reached Denfer Rouchour by 8.15 am, was running short of time to reach Airport. My metro pass was not valid to go Airport, so I joined the queue to get the ticket. It was figure of 8.70 Euro. I had couple to big notes of 20, 50, 100 Euro so had no worry about money. But to my surprise, ticketing machine had "no input" take notes. Hell!! I checkout few coins I had. I started putting them together to get 8.70 Euro. It was just 7.90 Euro! I had no idea what to do now?? Even if you have money, it hardly helps in such situation!!! You are damm stuck!

I remembered the similar incidence in my last visit to Paris in Feb'2010 with French guys. I was taking RER ticket to reach Champs-de-Mars from Porte-Nuilly-Malliot with my collegues. I was barely able to speak French at that time. French man started asking me if I have spare coin of 10 cents. There was no way they could tell same thing in English. I just spread hands before them showing all coins I was having. They picked up few small coins and said, "Ok?". It was understandable, i said "its ok and left for my journey". One of the guy who could speak a bit of English said, "next time, i pay"! I just said,"merci!". That was only word I could speak properly.

In same way, i found someone who could help me. Young couple behind me where French but fluently speak English. They understood, i 'm facing problem with getting ticket. I asked them, if its possible to insert these notes in machine. Girl was speaking fluent English. She said,"Machine don't take notes, you have insert coins. Let me help you in getting ticket." . She took the charge. She choose French language, asked couple of details about the travel. I told her, I want to go CDG airport. Again, we started putting coins and it stuck at 7.80. I had no more coins. I had few Franks (Currency used in nearby countries. I had saved few while coming for Switzerland in last visit). I showed all available coins to her. She had an Euro coin whic she inserted. Finally, I got the ticket!! hurray! But I had to give exchange of 1 Euro to her. I had no option other than 50 Euro note and few coins of Frank. I tried to give her 5 Franks as exchange. She kept on refusing to take it. She kept on saying."Its ok. Its ok my friend". She finally refused to take any coins. I could only say,"Merci beacoup"!

Somehow I got the right train to airport and catched my flight. Flight and company for journey was good. I spend time chit chatting with Australian uncle and aunty who were also stuck in Paris in snow fall evening. I said, it was bad duing snow night, many of friends had to stay in cars or subways on that night, it was really bad. Aunty couldn't resist herself, she said, "It wasn't bad! We had to walk 2 km on open road to get safe place to stay for night!! That was really bad!" They had to walk 2 kilometer to get to safe place. Vacations were bad experience for them. Girl sitting next to me was French. She could hardly speak any English and was travelling to Sydney. We played "Reversee" game in LAN. Talked few things in French to make her know English place. I found a nice facecut which was good to make a sketch. I made a sketch of her on back side of Passport xerox. It was good timepass as I had seen most of the movies they had in collection. One of the air hostess got the sight on it and she complimentes it well! It was wonderful flight to Abu Dhabi. Journey was good and reached on time for next connecting flight at Abu Dhabi.

I checked for mobile network, got some sms from friends. I came on airport and checking status for my next flight to Mumbai. Oh boy!! it was "delayed"! I asked the Etihad guy, he conveyed message that, its been delayed by 2 hours. Matter of fact, it was delay of 4 hours! I woundered around airport. I did my chocolate shopping. People were really arrogant while taking food. No queue, no manners. Most of them were middle-east uncles. Somehow I checked for compatible food for me and joined the Indian people staying at departing gate. I met some Mumbai guys who were waiting to catch the same flight. Most of them were flying from US via connecting and connecting flights. While waiting for delayed flight, I got couple of calls from friends from India. My roomies were waiting for party and car driver waiting at Mumbai international airport to receive me. I texted him to come on airport after 7am! So, somehow I reached at my place at 8 am instead of 2.30 am !! It was bad but wasn't too bad! I had nice sleepy in morning at my home. It took couple of days to adjust the 

My first Winter in Paris

I was lucky to spend initial days of winter in Paris. It was beautiful to see (just to see not to go out in cold :P) the snow falls. Once woke up on wonderful morning to have walk around places near by. Its really beautiful to see the Eiffel tower and snowy gardens. 

I was living near Eiffel tower on rue de Federation so I was use to roam around the snowy walkways around the tower. There were very few people around on snowy day. I could see few kid enjoying their school trip. Kids were having fun in such freezing cold. I tool the walk on bridge on river Siene from Eiffel side towards Trocadero. Walked on gardens around Traocadero. Poor statue of nude man was freezing in cold. I reached near place de Kleber. I walked along the Avenue de kleber till Arc de Trumph and turned towards my destination to walk to office.

Those were last few days of my stay in Paris and wanted to enjoy chilling weather and place. 

Its fun to play in snow if you are with friends. Having hot coffee is best thing to do while sitting on outside the hotel. Chilling weather and hot coffee is perfect combination. Wonderful thing is French people hardly wait for snow to stop. It always good to carry on your work irrespective of the weather. Its assumed to be variable. But yes, in early winter days, most of people are not ready to for snowy roads. They have to change car tires to be good to go on snowy roads.