The good news is the bus I took from Thonon to Bellegarde was ten minutes early. I arrived at my platform to catch my train well ahead of schedule. The bad news is I decided to stand on the wrong end of the platform. My train to Lyon was five minutes late which seemed a minor inconvenience and nothing more. I met a nice lady that explained the delay as she understood the French announcement over the intercom. When the train finally arrived it was really long; I'm guessing 15 cars. My ticket was for first class and as the train drove past me, my new-found friend and I realized there was only one 1st class car at the very front of the train. So off we ran some 300 m to catch up. 1st class = better be able to run fast. So we ran and ran and we ran some more, and we got on board. I was able to get my heavy luggage stowed in the overhead bin just as the train started to move towards Lyon. I'm getting too old to sprint 300 m pulling behind heavy luggage. Ok. I'm still on schedule.
So I arrive at Lyon Part Dieu on time. I had what I thought would be a 1.5 hour wait, but the "Strike Gods" have struck again and my train to Paris is running 30 minutes behind. So here I sit now resting against a concrete pillar. It is not exactly comfortable on the floor, but I cannot change the circumstances I find myself in. I gave a beggar two euros. He came back a second time and I told him, "no". If all goes as "planned" I will only need to sit here 45 more minutes. I brought with me some 5 carrots so I ate three. So I started to have a sore seat so I decided to stand in front of the departure monitors to kill time. The beggar tried a third time and I pretended I did not hear him. Eventually it was revealed that my train would depart from platform letter I so I went in the direction of platform I (sweet irony that I could use "I" so many times in one sentence). I became confused because there were two trains leaving from the same gate at the exact same time. How can this be? There was a picture of a train on a monitor so I thought that I was to be in cars 11 to 18 to get to Charles de Gaulle airport. I asked a guy if I was right, but he did not speak any English, but he asked his friend. The second guy said train 18 was right so I got on. Ok, to back up, this morning I had an assigned seat on a train heading to Paris from Lyon. Then, because of the strike, my first train out of Thonon was cancelled and I was assigned new trains that were traveling to Paris sooner. That sounded good at the time, but I never was assigned seat numbers. I asked a lady who works for SNCF at Lyon about the lack of a seat assignment, and she said that was because the train was probably full. She suggested I get on the train, look for a seat, and stand for two hours if I could not find one. I thought to myself, "Great advice, but not very helpful." So when I boarded up in Lyon, I just went down the isle of train 18 hoping I would find an empty seat. No such luck. I eventually found a place to sit in 2nd class on car 18. I'm more a less the only one in this part of the car. The train conductor came and asked for my ticket, and he was a bit mad at me because I'm not on the train that my ticket reads. I'm on the one an hour ahead of my original ticket because of the change. I tried to explain my situation in English twice, and both times he pointed to my ticket showing a 2000. hour departure from Lyon. It is true. In the end he tore up my ticket (I thought - oh great) and he walked away no doubt thinking I'm a stupid American. This is also true, but at least, I think, I'm headed for Paris. So if I was to arrive at 2102. hours and the train left 40 minutes or so late, I hope to arrive at the Paris airport by 2142. hours. The conductor guy was cold to me so I didn't have the courage to ask when we would arrive. The sun is to my left so I'm heading north (assuming that during train strikes the sun still sets in the west) so I consider this fact somewhat reassuring. The train, I must say, is traveling at a very fast pace. I think the beggar stayed in Lyon.
A girl walked towards 2nd class and through the grey glass she looked exactly like my daughter. Same height, similar weight, identical haircut. It was not my daughter. She's in Belgium right now. I'm losing it. At 2045. hours a guy with me in second class, who had stowed his suitcase above him in an overhead bin, had said suitcase fall on his head. He and his laptop are o.k. Not good. I decided to eat a carrot. Make it two carrots. I'm out of carrots.
The trained started to slow at 2115. I think there may be one stop before the airport. I'm expecting it to happen. We sped up again. I do not want to end up in Brussels. The sun has set so I've lost my sense of direction. We slow again. We are stopping, but only one guy in car 18 is leaving. We are at Marne La vallee-Chessy. This must be the stop I remembered. A new guy got on and I asked if the next stop was Charles de Gaulle? He said, "Of course. In 10 minutes." I said, "Thank you." He said, "You're welcome." We move again.
Once arriving at the Paris airport, things went rather smoothly. I followed signs to airport shuttles. I found a board which told me to take the "black" bus. Just as I got to the buses the black bus was about to depart. 15 minutes later I was at my hotel. 10 minutes later and I got into my room. Hoorah!
No comments:
Post a Comment