Funniest Thing for September

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. There are no restrictions on length. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.) The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is MADGE CHRISTENSEN of Greenwood Lake, NY:

In the year 2000 my oldest sister and I decided to treat our youngest sister to a trip to Paris. Our Air France package deal included airfare plus five nights in what Parisians call “the American hotel,” Le Méridien Montparnasse.

My older sister decided she didn’t need to learn the public transportation system and put us in charge of planning each excursion to view the sights. We did an excellent job of it, and within a day we were quite knowledgeable about which trains went where and especially how to get “home” to our hotel.

I have to admit it was a bit tricky, as we were across the street from a major train station and there were two lines of subways that converged down below. We seemed to need one line in particular for our jaunts and knew it best.

One day when big sis had an excursion idea that she wanted all three of us to participate in, we decided to let her plan the route. While we spent the morning showering and getting ready, she studied the city maps, then off we went.

We walked the half block to our usual subway entrance and paid our fares. We took the train one stop and she said we needed to change trains to a different line. We got off, walked forever through tunnels, over ramps, down steps and up more ramps and finally found the train she mentioned and boarded.

“One stop,” she said.

We thought it was strange, but it was in her hands and we trusted her. Up we went — up more stairs, on ramps, through tunnels and onto the street — only to find we were directly across from our hotel. We’d spent over 30 minutes and several euros to cross the street!

Big sis handed over the maps and we didn’t let her touch them again!