Sidestepping the Strike!

On Friday morning I didn't really have time to go and see anything, so I just took my time packing all my goodies and stuff and getting ready to leave. I ate breakfast for the last time, then gathered my things and headed off to the train station. I think there had to have been some kind of miscommunication when the guy at Information told me how to get to the hotel in the first place, because I just went across two streets, and followed one street all the way down to the station; it wasn't difficult at all. I got there early, so I ended up sitting on the platform for a while.

I had been slightly worried, because I got an email that morning saying that there was a train strike in France, and so there were possible problems with the trains. When my train going to Lille didn't show up until ten minutes or so before it was scheduled to leave, I was really starting to wonder. I actually think that train was just a Belgian one, however, since all of the announcements were in Dutch, and I didn't understand a word.

When I finally got to Lille, I had a two-hour wait until my train to Paris, so I got myself a sandwich for lunch and hung out in the station. The train to Paris was a TGV, which was fun. I like riding in them, because you can tell that you're going really fast and it's just fun. Once in Paris Nord, I again had to cross the city to get to the other train station. The Métro has apparently also been undergoing strikes, so there were certain lines (especially for the RER) that were closed, and about one train in five wasn't running. The one thing that was annoying was that the automatic ticket machines don't accept paper money; only bank cards with chips inside or change. When I discovered that, I had to find the window and buy one with the bills I had. The train was also very crowded; I'm sure because of the strikes.

When I got to Paris Montparnasse, the station that serves Tours and the western area, I had another wait of about an hour before I was able to get on my train. It was very crowded, and I'm sure some of the people were on there because their other trains had been canceled or delayed because of the strikes. There was a guy in my seat, who I had to ask to move, and then the guy sitting next to me slept the whole way. I literally think he went unconscious the second we started moving. Again, it was a TGV, so I got some reading done and watched the scenery for the hour or so it took to get to Tours. I ended up getting home even before the family had started dinner, so all I had to do was join them.

There were two new people: Anika, a friend of the family who is Swedish but teaches French and lives in France now; and Tess, who is a new student from Korea, and is living in Luzé's room since Luzé left. All of the other Concordia students were off traveling still, so the house was very quiet, which was nice. I unpacked some, got myself more organised, and settled back into the house for the weekend.