Pursue

We were now settled along a side walk on Rue de Paris waiting for our taxi to come pick us up. It had been a while for it to arrive so we all decided to take a seat on a nearby bench. I was about to call Renée to let her know we had arrived when a guy just about our age, possibly older, came up to us.

“Bonjour,” he said in his French accent, “are you waiting for your taxi?”

“Yeah,” Alice answered, “but it doesn’t look like he’s coming.”

“Ah,” he started sympathetically, “I’m sorry about that, by the way I’m François.”

“Thanks.” I said. “I’m Bella, this is Rose and Alice.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I was about to call a taxi for myself, but if you would like I can share it with you.” He offered.

“Um… sure,” Rose smiled at the man.

“Thank you.” I added.

“Ah, je vous en prie!” He smiled and pulled out his cell phone to call a cab.

“Uh… whatever that meant.” Alice laughed.

“We should really learn our French you know.” I commented. “Let’s try and translate what he’s saying on the phone.”

“…Oui, je voudrais prendre un taxi pour venir nous chercher sur la Rue de Paris, parallèlement à l'aéroport Charles de Gaulle.”

“Uh, I think he said something about a taxi, airport and parallel.”

“Yeah, we fail at French.” Rose giggled.

We started trying to speak the language when François returned.

“I’ve got one coming right away. He should be here in any minute.”

“Merci François!” Alice thanked him, with a horrible French accent.

“Ha-ha, bienvenue.” He chortled.

“As you can tell we need to learn our French.” I laughed along with him.

“It’s very good! Where are you coming from anyways?”

“The heart of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula,”

“You must have some bad weather there.” He laughed.

“Oh, you get used to it.”

“The taxi’s here.” Alice informed us.

“Where are you headed, I’ll help translate.”

“I have it in my bag, just a sec.” I rummaged through the large brown bad I carried over my shoulder and found the paper Renée had written our hotel name on. “The Hotel Crillon,”

“You’re staying at the Hotel Crillon? Wow.” He smiled and offered to take our bags.

“Thank you.” I had no idea what he was talking about. Renée had been the one to book our hotels, so I still had no clue where she had paid for us to go. I shrugged it off and the three of us loaded the rest of our bags, and sat in the back of the taxi. François was right behind us, and sat in the front.

“10, Place de la Concorde première s'il vous plaît.”

“I wonder what the hotel looks like… I hope it’s not really cheap. No offense to your mom Bella.” Rose laughed.

“No, I agree. I don’t want to stay at a dump.”

“Oh, si vous logez à l'Hôtel Crillon, vous ne voudrez plus partir! J'ai entendu dire qu'il était le meilleur hôtel de tout Paris. Il est très luxueux.” The taxi driver went on.

“Uh…”

“He said that you will have the best time in Paris.” François translated.

“Oh, thank you.” Alice thanked the taxi driver.

We talked and talked away the ride there. François had taught us some French sentences that would help us out a lot while our stay here. We learnt how to say ‘We’d like to purchase this.’, ‘please take us to…’, ‘I am looking for…’, and more greeting words.

By the time Alice’s accent had caused our ears eternal bleeding, the taxi had stopped in front of a gorgeous large building that reminded me so much of the roman times. It happened to be the best sight of my life. If this is what the outside of the building happened to look like, I think seeing the inside will be the cause of my death.

“…wow.” I breathed my eyes wide.

“How did your mom afford this? Again, no offense,”

“None taken,” My eyes were still fixated onto the architecture. “And to answer your question, I have no idea.”

“This is beautiful!” Alice had tears streaming down her cheek. “This can’t be real…”

“It’s real.” François appeared beside us with our bags. “Did you need any help bringing your bags to your room?”

“No we’ll be ok. Thank you François.”

“Alright, have fun on your trip.” He waved goodbye and walked back to the taxi. “Wait girls, before I forget. I wanted to know if you wanted to come to a party my friends and I are having tonight? Your first official Paris party! How does it sound?”

We debated on it for a second, and Alice looked up at him. “Sure, we’d love to go.”

“Great! I’ll pick you up at 7. What room are you staying at?”

“Number 10 in the superior double rooms,”

“I’ll see you at 7. Bye girls.” He ducked his head into the cab and drove away.

“This is going to be so much fun!” Alice squealed. Rose and I screamed along and started jumping around like complete and total idiots, but we didn’t care. We’re staying at the most amazing hotel we had ever seen! Jennifer Lopez probably stayed at this place, and I had just spotted three boutiques down the road from where I stood. This is the life.