Verdun

Trip Start Aug 10, 2008
1
12
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Trip End Aug 31, 2008


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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Once we were on the road to Paris, and Attila was trying to put on a brave face and pretend he wasn't sick.  I managed to see the Museum and Ossuary at the Battlefields of Verdun before Attila informed me that his symptoms were getting worse and he felt we should see a doctor.  I punched "Hospital" into our GPS and found directions to the Hopital in Verdun.  Now THAT was a true test of my French skills!  None of the staff in the ER spoke English (other than "hot" "cold" and "doctor") so I had to explain everything in French.  I just had to keep telling myself, "My French is better than their English."  I learned some new words too!  (Like "stool"... I tried "merde" and "kaka" before cluing into their response, "selle."  Fortunately, thanks to teaching Grade 8, I already knew the word for diarhea.)

They took very good care of Attila with blood tests, an x-ray, "selle" samples.... and the lady at the front desk helped me phone our hotel in Paris to let them know that we were going to be arriving late.  When all was said and done, I asked the front desk how we pay.  She insisted that we don't have to pay and sent us on our way with a perscription for stronger medicine.  (However, upon arriving home in Canada, we received an invoice for the services rendered.  Humph)

We arrived in Paris late at night but our hotelier helped us to find parking relatively close to the hotel.  Once in our room, we realized that there was an error -- we had paid for a room with a bathroom, but instead got a tiny room with only a sink and a bedet.  Not a good thing when you are travelling with a person with food poisoning!  The hotelier apologised for the error but said he couldn't move us until the morning.  Poor Attila.  The communal toilet was in very bad shape with very little privacy and no light.  We managed to get a little bit of sleep before hitting Paris in the morning.
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