Arras - Day 1

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Geo: 50.2929, 2.7825

Bit of a quiet one today. I was up reasonably early to pack my meagre possessions and head to Gare du Nord. After a very smelly cab ride, I found Gare du Nord to be a very easy train station to negotiate, which was a relief because when the cab pulled up I looked up and thought "My God its HUGE" Like Italy, they don't tell you which platform to go to until 20 minutes before departure. By that stage I had somehow made a friend. Some random dude approached me while I was outside having a smoke, started chatting to me in French. When he realised I couldn't speak french he whipped out his mobile and we chatted via google translate. I thought he was just being polite but he stayed with me until my train departed. And I mean he STAYED with me. He walked me to my seat, put my bag up in the overhead storage and sat down to chat until the announcement told him all non passengers must get off the train. (Well I think thats what it said)

The train trip was relatively uneventful. Train was cool but we were travelling backward the whole time. I guess I'd have to travel from Arras to Paris to go forward. The countryside was picturesque. So pretty here. Green fields and old country houses, just like you see when watching the Tour de France. Got a few happy snaps.

I couldn't check into my BnB until 6 (its a home stay I found on Air BNB) so once I arrived I had about 7 hours to kill. I thought I could store my luggage at the train station, but apparently not. Thankfully I'm travelling light these days, however my new bag is drunk. It has wheels but the slightest alteration in terrain and it wobbles all over the place. I walked around town for half an hour until I found a little cafe. I know I'm in the country because almost everything is shut on sunday. I asked for vino, got a caffe instead. After my coffee I asked for directions to the town square (should have printed a map before I left Paris but I figured there would be a tourist map at the train station, bad assumption). Only one person in the cafe spoke a little english (yep I'm in the country) he gave me the best directions he could, they kinda worked. I took one wrong turn but found a sign pointing to the town square.

The tourist office is in the town square and thankfully they have wifi. So I got onto maps, got directions to my accommodation and took a screen shot. I also managed to pick up a tourist map but its not very detailed. Clearly they don't cater to DAT's (Dumb Aussie Tourists) They had quite an interesting display on the first world war, but I only got to see a small part of it before they closed the door and turned off the lights, literally. I'm standing in this corridor reading about the British base camp, when they closed the entry, two minutes later the lights went out, leaving me and about 10 other tourists in the dark. We all wander around the corridor (it was a big U shape) back into the entry hall of the tourist office. I sat down and started tooling around on the web looking for Fromelles tours when they closed the front door to the office, then this dude said something in French and walked to the second door, I guess he was saying it was closing time. So now I'm out in the town square and its pouring rain. I spied an irish pub across the square, but alas it was closed. So I kept walking around the square and found a cafe that was open. Gods be praised, the waiter speaks some english and they have wifi. This is where I spent the afternoon. They had a good Sav too.

The weather changed so much and so quickly, at one point it rained so hard I had to wonder if I was in France or the tropics. While waiting for the weather to clear, I suddenly realised that I had left my one Australia/Europe adaptor back at my hotel in Paris. I rang them and they were happy to forward it on but there is no way the post will deliver it here in the 3 days I'm here. So I guess I'll be iff to find an electronics store in the morning. Can I get a break here?

Around 5 the sky's cleared and beautiful sunshine came out. So I figured now was a good time to make a move for the B&B. Made it here with relatively little drama. Didn't take any wrong turns and I only walked past it once. Yay me. The host, Claire, is just lovely. And bonus, the computer is a Mac, so I can plug my phone and iPad directly into the computer to charge them up...turns out I can get a break.

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