Arriving in style

Here is a summary of my flight over here: 67 year old British woman sitting two seats down from me yells "Have you had a nose job?! Your nose looks too perfect to be real!" Then she proceeded to drink neck and neck with me (wine was free, I took full advantage) and shortly after criticized me for how much I drank. She then spilled coffee all over herself and got mad at the cabin crew for not being able to dry her shirt. The staff were direct with her "aside from giving you a new shirt, there isn't much else we can do". She then criticized the person in between us for sleeping the whole flight (lucky him!). Arriving in Paris.... My cab driver insisted that it would take 2 hours to get to my apartment and so I left the airport much sooner than I should have. The agency rep for the apartment was scheduled to meet me at 5pm. I arrived at 2:45pm. My apartment is off a courtyard, so I had to wait outside for close to two hours with three massive suitcases in the January rain. After that, it's been a series of events in which I get lost. There is no grid, just a series of forked roads. Often I think I'm travelling down the same street for a while until I look at the difficult-to-read street signs and realize that I'm on a completely different one. I was working from home the day after my arrival and decided to treat myself to a nice Parisian lunch. I left my place and wandered around until I found a place that seemed quaint. When I exited the place, I realized I hadn't the slightest clue where I was. This resulted in my being 'out to lunch' for close to three hours by the time I made my way home. The good thing is that I've learned to make a lot of mental notes about shops I see so that I can find my way home wherever I go.