Paris for a week
Off to Paris to see my favourite cousins, Patrick and Jackie. Sitting in Perrache Station waiting for my train and watching the sun rising brings back memories of the Gare de Lyon when aforementioned cousins took Sarah and me for an extraordinary and unforgettable meal at Le Train Bleu in 2009. They were so kind to us at a time when we needed it badly.
For 35€ I can travel to Paris on OUIGO, the cheap TGV which runs between Lyon and Paris for half the price of the normal fare. The trains are much the same as the normal TGV except that they are painted blue and don’t have a dining car. There is also slightly less room, but as the trip is about the same length of time, (in fact slightly less than 2 hours) it really didn’t bother me. On the way up and on the way back there were free seats. For many people the downside is that the train terminal is at Marne La Vallée instead of the Gare de Lyon, but for me that’s actually a bonus as I can get the RAR (suburban train) directly to my cousins’ house in Cergy Préfecture.
It’s also the site of Euro Disney which is great if you want to visit it. You step off the train and you’re there! There are also good connections to central Paris. The only disadvantage in my mind is having to queue with the hundreds of other tourists in order to purchase train tickets for the suburban network. When I arrived to buy mine there were only 4 ticket machines and approximately 200 people or more waiting in lines. Part of the problem is that the dispensers are fine if you know what you are doing but most of these people are tourists and there is no staff on hand to assist them. Whilst we are waiting one of the machines breaks down! This is much worse than picking the wrong queue in the supermarket! About people have to feed back into the other queues or go to the end of the line and start over. You wouldn’t want to be in a hurry. There are railway staff around but they are busy chatting to each other just far away enough to not have to be of any assistance. In England this just doesn’t happen. When I arrived at Paddington last week, there were dozens of railway staff ready to assist clueless passengers like me to buy the appropriate ticket.
Still I can't complain. I live in the most amazing place, I have the opportunity of visiting London one week, Paris the next. If the worst thing that happens is that I have to queue up for an hour just to buy a train ticket then that's a small price to pay. I'm getting used to French customer service or lack thereof.