When in Paris, carry an umbrella with you

Overconfidence is not good! Has anyone advised you so? I have been advised so many time. I don't know why! I look so far away from confident (on the negative side) to advise me about overconfidence. It doesn't matter. Like all advices I have ignored this one too. But advices are like past. It has a way of sneaking upon you when you least expect it to. And that is what happened to me in Paris a couple of weeks back! The strangest advice, after finalization of all paper works for my travel to Paris, was to carry an umbrella. I suppressed my smirks and asked why. It rains very often in Paris.

I spent a major part of my life in Kerala where you get so wet in monsoons that you don't need to take a shower! During childhood, the rule of thumb was not to wear a rain coat while riding the bicycle to school. When I became an adult, the edicts changed. Don't wear a rain coat while riding a motorcycle to work! Later when I moved to California, I neither took an umbrella when I moved nor did I buy one after reaching there! I have been to Pier 39 when it drizzled! The raindrops on your face while watching the famous bridges on both sides of you is a magical experience. Moreover, how often/far do you have to walk in US of A? Every place is accessible by car and you can also buy a car easily. As you can see, the umbrella does not come into the picture at all.

By the time I moved to Paris, I was overconfident about my abilities to survive in the rain. You don't need a car inside the city. The Metro stations are usually a few feet away. There is always a taxi station nearby all the major centers. If all this does not work out, it can't be as bad as the monsoons in Kerala. All your best laid plans can go awry. I was stuck in Paris when it was raining. The Metro had closed down as it was past 2 am. There were no taxi stations nearby. To make matters worse, none of the taxis passing by would stop. You can't blame them. How will they stop when they already have a passenger? I was prepared to get wet in the rain. There was one thing I did not take into consideration. The rain here is cold. It is so cold that it penetrates through your clothes into your skin like a spear. With each droplets, you relive this sensation again.

Remember this. If you are coming to Paris, please carry an umbrella. If you are too lazy to carry an umbrella and encounter a similar situation, send an SMS to "TAXI"(8294) with your postal code and time of pickup. Of course, you need to talk in French when they call you back!

Tags: Musings,Rains,Umbrella,Paris