All my life's a circle (Paris - on the wrong side of the peripherique)

And it's not fun.

But, we'll be home soon. Sunday night to be exact. The fight with our travel insurance company is over. I am allowed to accompany Jayne in Business Class provided I pay for the ticket myself. So, $4,000 later, we are still together. There will be some reimbursement of money we have already allocated so it's not quite as bad as it looks.

The offending limb.

I've not had to deal with a travel insurance claim of this magnitude before, but I found the use of the term 'assist' in their email quite ironic. Yes, I know they are all working hard, and they do 12 hour shifts, but, 5 case managers in 4 days? Notes on files not being passed on? Compassion only goes so far as the word. Justice is excluded by the black and white of the policy. I would have been happy to stay with one of the earlier managers and told her to phone at a time that suited her - I didn't care if I was being woken up, the continuity would have been sufficient compensation.

The good news, apart from we're coming home, is that we are flying Malaysian Airlines and they are about to join the group Qantas is with, so we should be able to claim frequent flyer points.

I finally managed to secure a nurse to come to the hotel to do a blood reading for Jayne. I am injecting her with anti-coagulants on a daily basis and we need this to be monitored. My first attempt at getting a nurse resulted in a card from the pharmacy. Jayne phoned him. He doesn't do home visits and suggested she consult the internet to find a laboratorie. Most helpful. So I consulted with Google and found a lab only 400 metres away. Had some fun and games with my version of French and their version of English to be told ... no, they don't do home visits either. They directed me to a ... wait for it ... pharmacy. Sigh. All my life's a circle.

I was determined to succeed, so I approached a different pharmacy and after we established my lack of French, I was directed to another lab about a km in the other direction. So, after my bonjour, I went straight for "parlez vous anglais?" As usual, the reply was "a little" and I said my French was also "un peu". My accent provided much laughter, but, tomorrow morning there will be a nurse at the hotel to do the blood test.

Tomorrow we are moving hotels. Thankfully, this one is fully booked, so we had to move. We are going to one closer to the hospital and it also has a restaurant. Take away is not a hugely popular concept in France. If you don't cook, you eat out and walk home. So, we are both getting tired of baguettes and pizza.

 

I've seen the sights of eastern Paris and beyond and I prefer the Bastille where we were. I won't miss trying to find food for dinner or the porn stars that inhabited the room next to us one night. No, no details, this is a family blog, if you really want to know, that is a conversation to have in person. Neither Jayne nor I got much sleep that night and we were very happy when they didn't return the following evening.

Today, in between rounds with the insurance company, and rain showers I walked down to Place de la Nation and took a couple of snaps.