Paris III

The next morning, Saturday, we went down into Reception to find ..... still no tickets!  
After going on line, free wi-fi provided by the Hotel and assistance from the staff, we managed to find out that we needed to contact the office at Gare de Nord.  
The address given for the office was not really clear but eventually we found the kiosk inside the station.  The lady explained that she was unable to help us but if we came back after lunch, she hoped that her colleague would be able to.


We went off the the Baroudeur, just outside the station where we had spent some lovely afternoons and we knew they did good food.
How times change!  
I think the waiter must have thought us two English idiots!  We ordered deux Croque Monsieur, Grand Creme and deux Kir.  Simples!

This is what we expected! 

What we received was a slice of stale bread with some boiled ham and grated cheese layered and grilled over the top! 
It was disgusting!  I was shocked when the plates were put in front of us, but the taste was unbelievable ...... I could not eat it and PJ had to leave his.  When we told the waiter that we did not expect such rubbish, he said that it was probably because it was French bread!!  
I could not, would not, ever go there again! 

We walked back into the station to be greeted with the words that the young man could not help us, but after much explanations that our travel tickets were with his company, he gave us two of his own personal Metro tickets so that we could get to the main Office.  If you happen to be visiting Paris and see the kiosk .... ask for Olivier and say thank you for us.  He really does know the meaning of Customer Service!
We found the offices at Pyramides quite easily and the waiting area inside was very pleasant.  We were called to the counter quite quickly and when we explained that we needed our travel tickets and/or a refund of courier fees there was much discussion between the manager, staff and the Hotel!  
After an in depth investigation we were told that they had no explanation as the tickets had been definitely sent to our hotel.  They took all our details and, the clever man I am married to had taken copies of all the paperwork, so we left copies of our paperwork with the manager.  They issued us with some tickets which we could use over what was left of the weekend and told us that they would be in touch with us to tell us what had happened.  With that the skies opened up and the rain and hail came down so hard we had to wait inside the shop.  
Eventually it eased off enough for us to leave and we went over the road to a cafe for a celebratory Kir!
We found ourselves a table and when the waiter came over to us ...... well! .... I swear it was Rylan Clarke!!!
I asked him if it was but no ..... it was a Frenchman ...... I told him who I thought he was and he was straight on to the web ...... hope he thinks it is all good....

We then went over to our friend's apartment and spent the rest of the day doing what we came for - drinking, eating, laughing and generally enjoying ourselves!
We rolled back to the hotel very late at night ...... or was it morning .... the shops were still open!