Aeroport

Am having the most amazing time of my life. Aai-Baba had come to Paris, for a short vacation, and left on a guided tour of Europe for the next 9 days. In the 3 days, they were here - there were quite a few incidents :P.

1. Airports and ME !
Apparently, I have an uncanny knack of landing up on the wrong side of Runways. While the Bombay CS Airport incident, where we on the wrong side of the wall, law, airport, runway and the 'line' (of the 'line not to be crossed' fame), all at the same time, might be known to some of you, I continue the same in Firang Land, as well.
Aai Baba were landing on 16th, so I was to pick them at the airport. CDG handles more traffic than BOM, atleast a few times over, but over-confident that I am, I make a lot of mistakes, very frequently. They were landing at 08h10. I woke before the alarm, bathed, dressed, and was out of the hostel at sharp 6am. 06h25 reached Chantiers.
Now I was in a queer situation. Having a Zone 1-4 Pass enabled me to get to the last station before CDG, but not the terminals itself.
Smart that I am, I deduced that it would be a waste buying an additional ticket, and a morning walk from the last station in Zone 4 to the terminal, would help hide the extra cheese calories, so that I appear in shape to Meet my Parents :P
Google Maps, helped me estimate that, I had to walk about 5 kms. So far so good, said the smart me.
07h20 - Parc des Expositions, on time.
Now a short walk was all that was left.
I hit the road. Now since, anyway who wanted to take the train route to CDG, wudnt get down here (except ME, of course, Smart that I am). Anyone, driving to CDG wudn't come to a RER arret. So the road, had no English directions to the aeroport. I trusted my instincts and started walking. With a little help, I was at the walls of CDG at 7:45. Out of the host of french signboards, I figured out that the one saying Fret Terminal. Since, there were only big trucks going that way, there was no one to confirm directions. Doesn't matter. I was at the Aeroport wall, how far could the terminal be.
I walked, but there was no let-up from the walls of the airports. At 08h20, I finally located a Gas Station attendant, and after a lot of 'Je ne comprends pas.', understood that I was walking towards the Freight Terminal [Hasn't someone warned against, Half Knowledge!].
Never being the one to give-up, I re-traced my steps, until I realised where I had taken the wrong turn, in life. Others wouldn't have any more confidence in their smartness, but I persisted with the head of mine, and steadfastly refused to alight a bus, that would take me. The bus stops, said only 4 stops, how far could it be?
Now Roissy, the suburb that houses CDG, is so bloody far, that the distance between stops, that is about 300m in Paris City, goes up to 1 Km here.
Another long walk later, I reached the terminal, just about 100mins late.
For my parents, their 1st time on foreign soil, was spent in anxious wait for their unreachable Son to turn up. [My phone didn't ring - I Say ... With iPod in my ears, I didn't hear it - My mom contests]. With people from 3 continents, trying to contact me, I had 9 voice messages, with instructions in Francais to retrive them, meaning they were complete, consistent and useless for me.
So here's what the situation actually was -
The walk from the Parc des Exhibitions to CDG, wasn't any less than 11 Kms. I missed a turn, meaning that I walked a 2 Kms - in a direction, and as much back. I landed up on the wrong side, of the runway again!