Paris - Act IV

Somehow, I forgot to mention my awesome introduction to Paris... Wandering around the Gare du Nord, trying to figure out how to transfer to Line 2 (which turns out to be longer and more complicated than you might think), a man asked me if I needed help. He proceeded to rush me through the station (in, I might add, what appeared to be the wrong direction) at breakneck speed (especially considering that I was dragging all my luggage behind me).

We arrived at what I know to be exit gates, and he gestured that we needed to go through, but I didn't have my ticket handy (you need it to exit), so he just had me squeeze through behind him. He brought me to the ticket vending machine, and selected the booklet of 10 tickets.

Now, I'm very much the kind of girl who does her homework, so I knew there was no way I was going to buy a booklet. I needed a single ticket for that day, was going to spend the next day recovering from jet lag and getting to know my own neighbourhood. I then intended to buy a Navigo pass, which is good for unlimited travel for a week (Mon-Sun). I explained this to him, and he tried to pull off a line about how the Navigo pass doesn't exist anymore. I had to call bullshit on that one, since I (well-informed traveller that I am) knew that a different card was recently eliminated, that the Navigo was introduced to replace it, and that it was very much available to me.

Warning flags had been going off the entire time, and I certainly wasn't going to be bullied by some random guy into buying something I didn't want. After a few more attempts to convince me, he must have seen that he wasn't getting anywhere. I blinked and he was gone, disappeared back through the entry gate.

Why do I tell you this? Pride. Terrible, awful, sinful pride. This is the first time I can think of that someone has tried to swindle me, and I wasn't taken in for a minute. You never know things will go until it actually happens, but now it has, and I totally had him pegged.

I guess his plan was either to grab the tickets, or snatch my cash or card, but it doesn't seem like a particularly good scam to me. Not that lucrative, really.

Who knows? Maybe he wasn't a very good grifter, but I like to think that I'm just a savvy traveller.