My childhood dream was traveling to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. Over the years I fed that dream by trying to learn the language (unsuccessfully, so far) and falling in love with a country I never stepped foot in. You can imagine my surprise and pure joy when my boyfriend asked me if I wanted to do a four day trip to Paris followed by another four days in London. I literally stopped listening when he said Paris. And so we did the trip. After a long flight from NYC, a ride in the metro and a hotel check in we decided it was time to see the tower.
That’s when I started to panic.
Of course, there is nothing scary about the Eiffel Tower, but it was an event so idealized in my head I was afraid the actual experience would not live up to my expectations. On our way, we stopped at a local market full of arts and crafts, not very French looking, but no less interesting – and the stop helped me relax and kind of forget the fear of meeting my beloved tower.
I relaxed so much that I was completely taken off guard when the Tower appeared about a hundred feet away, showing one leg between two buildings. I felt like the Tower was playing hide and seek with me all this time and I just found out I was part of the game. At that very moment the air went out of my lungs and with watery eyes, and not so steady hand, I started recording a video of the impressive mass of steel. While filming it from top to bottom I noticed in the background, almost at the end of the street going to the tower, a police officer making an arrest.
I finished filming the Tower — and the police action – and we continued on our way. Suddenly I heard the police officer asking me: Parlez vous Français? No. I replied. You can not film me, he said in English with a strong French accent. At that moment I feared my dream vacation had become a nightmare. Against all common sense I found myself defiant. Sometimes, when I’m under stress I react in total disconnection with my reality. The only thing that came to mind was to say: I was filming the tower and you were in the way. Are you serious? Was I trying to get arrested? Fortunately the second officer came around and said. It’s ok, she is a tourist. And without turning back we left, giggling a little bit, of course, because we were nervous.
Once we were at safe distance we checked the video camera to and found out that in the end the joke was on us. In my excitement to see the tower I left the camera on during downtime and off when I wanted to film, resulting in a lot of cobblestone street footage.
I didn’t get the video of the arrest after all. But not even that little incident with the police could take away what I felt in the magical place of my childhood fantasies. Paris was there for me to explore. The Eiffel tower was ready to meet me and witness my tears. If I had fear of disappointment, it all disappeared that day. And when I finally saw Paris from the top of the tower I felt like the City of Lights was mine and I was invincible.
Lymaris Estrada writes her travel stories in the Spanish blog: El Mundo de No Tocar. She lives in NYC.
Why I like this story: Expectations versus things gone wrong.And everything better than expected.