That first day... My return ticket to the US from Spain was cancelled, due to a change in the airline schedule and they changed everything. I ended up dragging my luggage across the entire face of Paris on foot, looking for a hostel that, as it turns out, had permanently closed. This really nice guy showed me another that was close by, despite the language barrier!
I ended up spending the next day with Spanish speakers and had a blast! Such a good time, in fact, that I fell asleep in the airport terminal and almost missed the flight. Nobody bothered to wake me up for boarding!
The best part was asking for directions in a random pastry shop, though. The ladies only spoke French and, of course, I spoke Spanish and English...
Awesome story! My first time in France was memorable too. I separated from the group to head back to the hotel on my own (I was a teenager) Of course I got off at the wrong metro stop. Being Canadian, I'm embarrassed to say that on a good day, my French sounds like a wounded animal. The stop I did get off led me to the nastiest, scariest, back alley I've ever come across. Lucky for me, I did recognize a street vendor and he was kind enough to take me back to the hotel. Mmmmm random pastry shops in Paris!
Haha. I was told Canadian French sounds weird to the French, too, so that couldn't have helped! The metro mix-up sounds frightening. That was amazing of the vendor to help!
The lades in the random pastry shop were hilarious. I didn't speak French, and none of them spoke English or Spanish. I had asked how to get to Notre Damme. They didn't really know how to get there on foot, either, and were discussing it. Then one of them said (in French) "I'm a lady," looked at one of the others and said "you're a lady," shrugged and said what I can only guess is "which lady are you looking for?" At least, that was what I understood of it. I understood just enough! They were awesome :-)