Travel day to Brittany

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Today was another travel day for me. I woke up early with Flore and her mother around 8 o clock in the morning and got my things ready to leave. Flore and her mother were making there way to the north of France to meet Flore’s father where he was working for the week. They were taking the car and so they dropped me off at the train station so that I could catch my train at 11:52 am. I sat and waited in a special waiting area inside the Dijon train station and read a lot of A Clockwork Orange.

I must say that one of the best part about this entire trip has been my ability to read un interrupted. This trip is almost 85% relaxation, and because of that I have found a lot of time to sit, think, and read. On the train the time goes by like it is nothing when my nose is inside of a book.

I arrived in Paris at Gare de Lyon about 1:30 in the afternoon. Getting off the train I searched for a Bus stop for number 91 which would take me to Gare Montparnasse. I didn’t find the stop very easily so I hopped into a taxi. For a mere 10 euros (I hate dealing with this system of currency. 10 Euros is like 17 dollars!) I arrived at the train station and waited for my train. I worked some more on my book while I waited for the platform to be posted and ate a sandwich avec Jambon (Ham) et Fromage (Cheese)

Once the number of the platform had been posted, I made my way towards the train hastily. I had to walk quite a ways down the track because it was such a long train. Once I arrived at my car I found my seat and sat down. Moments later I had a nice lady ask me if I was sitting in the right seat. I checked my ticket and sure enough I was sitting in the correct seat. She checked mine and noted that my reservation was for the next Saturday, the 16th.

The man who had made my train reservations in Dijon had made them for the wrong Saturday. Understanding the mistake I found a seat right in front and waited for the train to pull off for Lorient.

The man came around to check tickets and I showed him my reservations. When he looked at he informed me that they were for the next Saturday. I informed him that it was a mistake at the train station in Dijon and he stamped my Eurail pass and went on his way. (I came to find out later, that he could have charged me the price for a full ticket because the place for Eurail pass holders on the TGV(fast trains) is limited.

Arriving in Lorient I met Loic on the platform without any trouble. His mother and father were on the platform and I met his mother with the usual two kisses on each cheek and a handshake for his father.

We went into the ticket office to make reservations for my train to Paris on Thursday and ran into some trouble. The train that left on Thursday directly from Lorient to the Airport Charles de Gaulle arrived at the Airport past the time my flight left. The only other option for me a train that left at 6:20 in the morning was already full with the number of Eurail pass holders.

The woman told me and Loic’s family that I must pay for the ticket in full if I wanted a spot on the train. Loic’s father paid for it despite my protests because originally he was going to pay for Loic to come and see me in Dijon. His rational was that if he had to pay for that and a return Journey it would have been much more expensive. As it was I got there by using a day on my Eurail pass and by coming to Brittany I actually saved them money.

We made our way by car to Loic’s grandmother home. Talking in the car with Loic and his parents it really started to dawn on me my ability to make conversation in the French language. Sure it might be conversation riddled with simple pronunciation and grammar mistakes, but hell I try don’t I? I am understood most of the time, and even if I am not understood it does not take much to explain what I am trying to say. Hopefully with this next year of French ahead of me and a work exchange in my future I will be able to develop a mastery of this language. It’s difficult, its beautiful, I would also suppose that it possesses a degree of sexiness as well.

Anyways, I made great conversation in the car and we arrived at Loic’s grandmother house just in time for dinner. We had potatoes, wine, baked chicken with the best Dijon mustard, and lots of bread for dinner. The food was amazing as is typical in all my meals in France and I spoke with the entire family.

After dinner Loic gave me a grand tour of the house and showed me where my room was. I set all my stuff down and got every thing laid out and then went down to join the rest of the family in clean up of the dinner dishes. After everything was put away, we played games, watched television, and talked. I really like the fact that this family does not split off to different rooms after the eat dinner, to play on the computer, read, and talk on the phone. It is pleasant to see a family play games together as mine once did.

We went to bed around 11 or so and I started to organize my computers files and write this blog. I do not have a connection to the internet here at Loic’s grandmothers home, but I hope that the next time I have access to the internet I will be able to post this blog as well as some pictures so my blog.

Ciao for now

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Comments

[Carolyn]

relax
Way to go on having time to relax, read, and think!! I'm very thankful that you have great friends and are having some great family time. I love you, Mom