I'm sure that everyone had been tempted to use this (the emergency hammer to break a window) at one point in their lives. However, I've never actually seen it at work...until yesterday.
After a very long relaxing time in Sanary-sur-mer at Axel's mom's glorified "tent", we headed home. When we planned the trip, we decided to make sure to make the return trip happen NOT on the last day of vacation (Jan 4th) so we did it a day early. We also made sure to pack inconveniently and inefficiently, as is our tradition, so as to carry plastic bags and baskets filled with random food items we don't want to leave behind in case no one comes back to stay at the house in time to eat all of the food.
We had not given ourselves very much time between trains but IF luck was on our side (which it was not), we could make every connection and get to Strasbourg with enough time to get some groceries and unpack to ready 2009.
Our first train was from Bandol to Marseille-St. Charles at 7:47 am. Axel's grandfather, Papous, was our send-off party (as per usual) and got us from the house to the station in 8 minutes (this is normal). We got there early enough to catch the 7:25 am train so we ran on and got to Marseille with tons of time.
Our second train arrived early enough so that we could sit in it for 15 minutes. This train was scheduled to leave at 8:41 am to arrive at the CDG airport at 12:29 pm. And then the train from this station to Strasbourg left at 12:47 pm. So we only had roughly 15 minutes for this connection.
And then, I jinxed the trip. I said, "Wow...we got an early train here, and now our other train is supposed to be leaving on time!"
We had found our seats (which are 2 of 10 seats in the bar car...good for having lots of luggage and being close to food...bad for the constant noise and the endless traffic of hungry people), pulled out the rubik's cube and knitting. All was relaxed until we heard the announcement that our train was indeterminately delayed because a window in car 8 was broken and because we were on a TGV, the fastest train in the world, we could not leave the station without the window. And then as minutes passed, we saw most of the passengers on our train run off to find other trains they can hop onto. Remember, this was the train that took people from Marseille, Aix, Avignon, and Lyon to the AIRPORT! So if you had a flight to catch, a train that wasn't moving was bad news! Our car was the conductor's car too, so we started to hear all of the details. 1. Because it is a TGV train, you could not take a car off and on. So we were stuck with this car with broken window. 2. It was a guy who cracked the window. And yes, he did it because he was angry about something. 3. If we start going on the track we're supposed to be on, the entire TGV system in the country will get all screwed up IF we don't hit the speed we're supposed to hit. 4. All of those people who got off the train ran onto the train that was leaving for Lyon. But that train was the slow train which meant it would arrive in Lyon at 12:30 pm.
So Ax and I made a decision to try and see if there was a train that would take us to Strasbourg from Marseille. We went to the ticket office and waited in line. We found that one train left at 12:15 and arrived in Strasbourg at 8 pm. Then we found out it was full. The person at the counter was very nice but could not find us seats on any train for that day or the next. And then I noticed the departure board and saw that our original train departure status changed from "indetermined delay" to "40 min. delay". I asked the woman if that meant 40 minutes from now or 40 minutes from the original departure and she said from now...which was WRONG because when we left the office, the train was JUST about to leave. We had to run with all of our bags, baskets, laptops and luggage as fast as we could and as SOON as we stepped on, the door closed behind us. So when we got to our seats, we found out that the window was fixed with some plastic and duct tape. And we were not going to be able to make our Strasbourg connection.
However, because the French train system is incredible in the number of trains for each destination, the conductors began to make announcements for alternate trains for every possible destination. People had to get off in places they were not originally supposed to get off but there was a connecting train to their final destination there and they were just going to be late. We got off at Marne La Vallee, otherwise known as Euro Disney! Of course, we didn't discover that we were actually AT Euro Disney until about 5 minutes before we were leaving for Strasbourg. The station was SO cold that the first warm spot we found (in a really crappy cafe...more on that later), we settled and huddled so it wasn't until I went to the other side of the cafe that I saw that Euro Disney was right outside the station. OK, so maybe the mickey mouse signs all over the place should've been enough of a hint, but we were underslept and a little stressed.
Some accomplishments of the day include:
Axel's empty yogurt tower
Our extremely long discussion about axel's stupid looking toque. The toque itself is innocuous. But it's how he wears it that kills all hope. For one thing, he wears it inside out. And it's a folding toque but he doesn't like it folded so wears it so it looks like he's wearing a pantyhose on his head. And the escape velocity tag is a mirror image because he wears it inside out. Here is the evidence.
What was REALLY cool was that, when we got off our cursed train, a bunch of SNCF people were at the top of the escalators to give you an envelope to put your ticket in for a full refund (!) and a first class ticket on the train to Strasbourg (!). What I didn't know was that if you were more than 30 minutes late on a ride for more than 100 km, they refund your ticket! So in the end, we got our trip for half price.
So a side bar on the cafe. I tried to order 2 decaffeinated cafe cremes. The waiter told me it was impossible. But I said I could order a double decaffeinated expresso so I wouldn't I be able to order a cafe creme that's decaf. He told me it's impossible because the machine won't do a cafe creme decaffeinated. So then I ordered two decaf expressos. And then I asked for cream and he then proceeded to steam come cream and pour it into my decaf expressos, thus making two decaf cafe cremes. This, my friend, is how I am learning how to think outside my seemingly logical N. American box and conforming to the french way of thinking.
Yes, we eventually made it home. With only a two hour delay in the end! And now we know that we could transfer at Euro Disney to get home!
1 comment:
That's such a positive way of looking at things! Don't you love it when French people say "it's impossible" for stuff that obviously isn't (like your cafe-creme decaf), or, "it doesn't exist" when they don't have what you're looking for in a store? I'm French, but that makes me flip out every time.
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