The Arc de Triomphe, my mothers head, and I.
We're in a time where we see a lot of shit in the news. We experience bad things perhaps daily, and sometimes we just find ourselves in the eye of the storm and in a situation that feels devastating.
Last year I went to Paris mainly to see Madonna live for the first time at Stade de France. My mother and my little sister came with, and it became more than just a concert trip.
My mother and sister under the Eiffel Tower.
We came to Paris early after spending some time in Amsterdam even earlier. Found our hotel, and walked downtown to see some of what's worth seeing in Paris.
After a lovely downtown walk, great food, and fun posing in front of the Eiffel Tower, we took a tour bus past the Notre Dame and decided to walk from there back to our hotel. It was quite the walk. We noticed a bit up the road that we were being followed by a typical bad guy from a comic book. Whenever one of us turned around facing him, he'd turn slowly the other way and start walking, we continued our way, but the next time we looked back he was following us again. Stressfull!
We couldn't lead him to our hotel, so I went into a bar/restaurant after trying to take a picture of him with my phone, which made him walk straight towards me after trying to hide behind a street sign across the street. I tried asking the bartender for help, but since he didn't understand English that well he pointed to another man sitting by the bar. As I was explaining that we were being stalked I realized that the stalker was standing just inches away from me and the other guy, and I froze. I felt his height, his stare behind his black sunglasses, I saw his dark washed out t-shirt, leather jacket, jeans and greasy shoulder length hair combed backwards as I started fumbling with my phone. It was very threatening, and after a moment I grabbed the English speaking guy to take him outside. That's him!! He is the guy who is following us! And as I said it, our stalker was back with us, we walked back inside where my mother and sister was. A few more people gathered around the bar, realizing there was a situation. We sat down, My mother and sister by the wall, and me across the table tried to drink a coca cola from a glass without shaking.
We had asked for them to call the police, but no police in sight. The guys at the bar thought the stalker had left, but as I glanced up into the mirror above my mother and sisters head angled towards a second entrance to the bar I saw the stalker walk right in and sit down by a table there. I didn't know what to expect, did he have a gun? What was he after? In desperation I called my husband to tell him what was going on in case something happened to us. We were supposed to done with washing up after our tourist time downtown and on our way to Stade de France, but we couldn't get away from this situation. After a little while more our stalker walked out from the bar, and everyone by the bar thought he was gone after that. That is, until my sister pointed out that he was standing outside on the opposite side of the bar staring straight at us from behind a sign, only showing the top of his head.
At some point what I think must have been the owner of the bar came in, and he walked around outside a little. After kinda checking that the coast was clear, he said he would follow us to our hotel with the guy from the bar who spoke English. I didn't exactly want to go out, but we wouldn't make it to Madonna either if we didn't leave. My mother, my sister and I were escorted out towards our hotel, one guy following us, the other guy following and running back and forth a block to make sure he really wasn't there. What kindness! I was so appreciative of these people helping us only to make us feel safe. They warned us it was a bad neighbourhood, which we took to heart.
After 3 quick showers we ordered a cab and left our hotel for Stade de France and Madonna. We made it, even though we missed the opening act! The show was great and loud, and I got goosebumps, but I couldn't help but think that the whole stalker situation put a small damper on it all for me. Kinda state of shock!
Stade de France, Madonna.
Concert done! We were all hungry afterwards, and luckily found an Indian/Pakistani restaurant nearby. 12am and Indian/Pakistani dinner is a great combination, footage from the Madonna-concert we had just witnessed was on the late news, and the Indian woman who owned the restaurant was very kind. We asked if she could order us a taxi so we could get to our hotel on the other side of town, but were told that this was such a bad neighbourhood that no taxi would come up here at this hour. We just looked at each other almost in despair, would we have to walk on the streets again in the middle of the black night in these bad neighbourhoods that seemed to be everywhere and risk meeting new stalkers?
Amazingly the owner of the restaurant offered us a ride home after closing up, a middle aged posh Russian guy and his date were supposed to come with too. When Russian Male Posh said it was time, we left. The owner of the restaurant's husband drove, my mother in the passenger seat, the Russian love couple and I behind them, and my sister and the owner of the restaurant sat in the back. It was a long ride, and after driving around for a while downtown, the Russian guy suddenly remembered where he stayed and was dropped off. We managed to find our hotel more quickly, and made sure this generous woman and her just as generous husband knew how much we appreciated what they had done for us.
We woke up very early after a couple of hours sleep, took a taxi 2 blocks(didn't take any risks) to Gare du Nord to make the train to Charles de Gaulle Airport where we parted ways. Mother and sister on their way to the Netherlands and then Norway, and me on my way to Stockholm, Sweden.
Gare du Nord, just before 6 am, September 21st 2008.
To experience such scary ways of mankind, and in the midst of all despair we experienced the fantastic generosity and heartwarming kindness of people who where complete strangers to us. Thank you!
One of the heroes of Saturday September 20th 2008, English speaking guy at the bar André:
She loves apple juice.
