Well, we aren't quite on our way home yet. We arrived (in a rush) at the eerily un-busy train station this morning, looking for the quay, confused when it showed the first train to Paris wasn't leaving until 2:30 p.m.
Il y a une grève, the train employee explained. All the trains in France are on strike. Ah, I said. What else can you say at that point?
So the new plan is to hope to squeeze on to the 2:30 train to Paris (apparently a few will run throughout the day), and hope to meet Alex and Kathy at Gare de Lyon between 4 and 4:30 p.m., and and hope to squeeze onto the at 4:58 p.m TGV going to Beaune. Yes, that's a lot of hope, and I'm not counting on any of those things actualy happening. For now, the kids are happily watching French TV and John and I are catching up on the news, since clearly we missed a thing or two while we were away.
The funniest part (as you have to look for a laugh in these things) is that when we came back to the hotel, hoping they hadn't started cleaning our room, I said to the lady at the check-in desk "There's a strike today! The trains!" Oui, she said, and shrugged her shoulders, as if to say "it happens all the time" (and it kind of does, I guess). The North American in me wanted to shout "couldn't any of you have mentioned that when we checked in or the many times we've seen you since then? Would it have killed you to let us know there was a big change in travel plans for the WHOLE COUNTRY today? (and at the very leaset we could have slept in!)" Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders back at her, and asked if we could have our room until noon.
After that, I went out and got some groceries and stocked up on surprises and treats for the kids, thinking it could be a hard travel day ahead (tight and long train rides without seats, if we get on a train at all).
I guess you don't really get to experience France until you get to experience a strike, right?
3 comments:
Dear Lisa & John,
Eh oui, you have just experienced the most authentic French experience of them all - la greve.
This of it as an excellent opportunity to brush up on your gallic expletives.
Bises & Bon Courage!
Laura
If you haven't seen la greve, and the train strike is the classic, you haven't really experienced France. (In 3 trips, I've experienced 2 rail strikes. The last one we weren't even traveling by train, but driving and the strike closed the A7 near our destintation -- so we spent 2 hours in a non-moving car with a 4 year old and a 6-month kid. Yumm). Glad to hear you did make it back, though.
Laura -- thanks for the good wishes. We needed them (and survived relatively unscathed).
Mike -- ah, the six month old makes it SO much more fun! Glad you made it! John and I were part of the tail end of a metro strike in 1993... but we were young and in love and just walked wherever we needed to go. Not so easy these days... but all in all, it wasn't so bad (and could have been worse!
Post a Comment