To Paris on the TGV

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It’s a strange life!!
For the past few weeks after daylight saving finished in Europe we had been waking in the morning quite late,sometimes not until 8am even.Yet this morning,without a car for the first time in months to get to our next destination,we are awake at 5.30am!!!And all this because we had programmed out minds to think that we must be awake so we can get prepared and over to the station so we don’t miss our train to Paris at 9.30am, four hours away!!
We did manage to get some further shuteye before we got serious about rising at 7am.
With all but the barest supplies of a couple of pieces of fruit,yogurt,toast and butter our breakfast will be of the ‘express’type this morning.
Getting down the 4 flights of winding, narrow steps with the suitcases, was easier than coming up them although the experience still wasn’t without its challenges especially when Gretchen wanted her suitcase carried down by holding it on both ends as the handles are no longer reliable.This made looking for where to place each step down interesting as it was impossible to see over the suitcase to where I should be aiming for.
Yesterday,after struggling with the suitcases up the steps,we were considering just dropping them down the stairwell from the 4th floor and hoping that they and the contents would still be in one piece after they landed.
Anyway the mission was successfully completed and the luggage and I are still all in one piece and transportable for the short walk to the station.
The weather this morning is overcast and there are heavy clouds on the horizon so we think we may be getting out of town just in time to stay ahead of the rain,as we have successfully done for 99% of this adventure.Although the forecast from weather.com for Paris is rain for today and all week!!We don’t know why we keep going back to that site as it hasn’t been right all along and neither has bbcweather.com !!
We should be staying in Marseille until next weekend at the AB’s are due here to play France in what should be a cracking game after the rather boring affairs against Wales,England and especially Italy.However we shall be home in NZ by the time the game is played but have no SkyTV to watch it on and will have to rely upon poor man’s TV to watch a replay and try and avoid hearing the score before it comes on later in the day.
We joined the small crowd of people around the platform monitor waiting to tell us which platform our TGV train to Paris would be leaving from.
We had a choice of 16 trains to choose from meaning they leave basically every hour from 6am in the morning and at a top speed of 270kph we will be in Paris in just a touch over 3 hours,way better than flying by the time you take getting to and from the airport,checking in etc etc.So it is little wonder that so many people seem to be catching the TGV.
The TGV rail system in France goes to all the important places and certainly it looks very efficient as we set to test it out.
The trains are in sets with a locomotive each end and our train this morning is made up of two sets so if it was full there would be around 900 passengers.Railway must be a money making venture in France!!!
We are travelling FIRST CLASS!! That is a step up for the BBA we hear you say.
Well we were fortunate enough to pick up seats in first class at €40each online which was only €5 more than the second class seat on offer.So why not enjoy a little more comfort!!
Our seats are on the upper of the twin decked carriage which should give us a better view of the countryside as it speeds past.It certainly is an extremely well maintained train and very comfortable with plenty of leg room.We thought we had chosen seats facing forward but in fact they are rear facing which in the end is actually quite a good thing as the train goes so fast that anything you try to focus on close up is gone in a flash.Whereas looking back at where we have been allows you to take the countryside with more leisure.
The train only makes 2 stops and they are the local towns of Aix-n-Provence(the lovely town we spent a Saturday morning in while we stayed in Trets) and Avignon(our first night out of Marseille when we swapped RR for HH).Then it is non stop to Gare du Lyon,Paris.
We have ridden the bullet trains in Japan which travel at a similar speed but the ride while still smooth had a different feel to it which may have had something to do with the Bullet rail line being very straight for long distances while the TVG line,which also shares local lines here and there,seemed to be a bit more undulating with more corners.How,ever it virtually quiet inside the carriage with almost no clickity clack from the rails.
The TGV line avoids the centres of any towns including the two stops from Marseille that it makes,the stations for those two towns are on the outskirts away from any residential or even industrial areas.The line from Marseille virtually travels through farmland all the way to Paris.The weather improved as we made our way north to Paris and it looks like the rest of the day may not be too bad for a bit of sightseeing once we get ourselves to the hotel.
We arrived into Paris pretty well much on time and got ourselves from the platform above ground down to where we needed to catch a train to Gare du Nord which is close to our hotel.As we came off the platform three heavily armed soldiers walked by,sub machine guns and all.Hello,we have arrived back in the big city!!Security at this level is not something we have seen since London way back in late May and even then we felt the British were more discret.Still it is better to know that they take security serious in Paris.
We emerged from the Gare du Nord and our hotel,the Paris Leige, was just 100 metres walk.
Our room is on the third floor and there is a lift!!BUT the lift is just big enough for one person and a suitcase..........place on the floor the right way so the door can close!!Having a pack on your back makes it even trickier getting oneself in the door and positioned and then dragging the suitcase in so the door will close.
I went up first and deposited my stuff in the room and then came down and helped Gretchen with her suitcase into the lift and ran up the stairs to meet her and the lift when it arrived.Hey presto!!
We took a walk down to the spot where the Bastille used to be and on the spot now is a statue to its existence.Light rain had been falling when we set out on the walk but it had stopped after we called into a boulangerie to get a late lunch.
Our return to the hotel was by a rather circuitous route via the Cemetery du Pere Lachaise where many famous Parisians are buried.The only problem was that the place which is surrounded by a high wall was closed despite a notice saying it was open until 5pm.So we may just have to go back on one of our 3 days of sightseeing as the place is well worth a visit according to the Lonely Planet.
After we continued on from the cemetery a change came over the race of people we were passing in the street and a quick check of the names and writing on the shops showed we had moved into a muslim area.This soon changed to Asian as the avenues heading for Gare du Nord ran into each other changing only in name.
We picked up a bottle of Beaujolais,vintage 2009,for a pre dinner drink before we went out to choose from one of the literally dozens of restaurants within a few hundred metres of our hotel.
Tomorrow we start to sightsee Paris in earnest!!

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Photos

Iguana Restaurant
A touch of New Zealand in Paris

Comments

[Stella]

Safe Journey Home
Hope that you have a good trip home - back to summer - lucky you!! Love Stella and Jean

[Pier O'Cabal]

http://renegirard.wordpress.com
Very beautiful description of the France great sncf TGV system, thank a lot Wiskers. Don't hesitate to join our local team of happy follows of the Mist Art Ben. (http://www.apartrental.com) to rent an apartment in Paris. Edith will be honored as in a wild top feast of MAB. Try the vintage there has always been excellence among choice. Then you can easily make it to any point "by foot"!