Getting Lost in Paris

Now honest I've lived in dozens and dozens of cities big and small.  I've walked everywhere in all of them.  I've never been lost.  I've wandered through Chicago and New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco.  I've been up and down in St. Louis and Detroit and Cleveland.  I've never never been lost.

I've even wandered all over Paris.  I just don't get lost.  I got to Frankfurt and walked all over the joint.  But for some reason when we got to the beautiful city of Paris this time I wandered off and unbelievable to me I got lost.

And it wasn't like we were in some outer dark corner of the joint.  We were in Marais,  the heart of Marais.  Okay.  But I got lost.  Completely lost.  I was lost for 18 hours.  Eighteen hours of walking.  I knew often I was very close to home.  I recognized streets.  But I couldn't find home.  I went out at five that morning and didn't get back till half past eight that night.

I bet it helped that we had no phones that day and that I had no map that worked.  I had no glasses either.  And I just didn't eat that day.  And I just didn't rest.  Strange.  But I had things on my mind.  I also didn't know where we were staying.  What street we were on exactly.

But eventually I found a great guy.  The only one who would let me use his phone.  In fact he simply handed it to me and said,  call anyone in the world, it is fine.  His name is Camera.  He is from Sierra Leone.  Nicest guy I met all day.

I called my wife in the states.  And as I did, she got an email from my brother's wife saying, you know we forgot to give you our phone number in Paris.  And by the way your phones don't work.  And this is our address.  Lynn called the phone company and said, hey the phones don't work over there.  They went hmm, well I can see they are all set up to work,  oh I got it, we forgot to turn them on.  Five minutes later Lynn called me back, and everything was solved...two minutes later my brother showed up in a cab, and two minutes after that, we were back at the apartment.

And that was the only time I've ever been lost in a city.  And I couldn't pick a better city to be lost in.