Bon Jour Mes Amis

Ok, I apologize for not updating the blog here…things have been hectic. Not in a bad way, just overall, busy.

I left Chicago on Thursday to arrive in France Friday morning. It was an uneventful flight, to be honest. I slept for about 4 hours and was feeling pretty rested when I arrived.

The plan was to then take the train down to Gare du Nord, walk to Gare del Est, and take the train to Nancy, where my workshop and conference are. Figuring out how to get the train down to Paris was a bit of a challenge, and I was not alone in that regard. Everything I had read said that you could get a ticket at a machine in the airport and then head into the city. Many others apparently read the same thing. And in theory, it’s probably true. However, most American credit cards do not have the little chip in them that is needed here, so everyone’s credit card kept getting rejected. Eventually we figured it out, found a line to wait in and were able to buy tickets at a stand.

I made it down to Gare du Nord without issue and then made the 10 minute walk down to Gare del Est. I checked my bag as I had 4 hours before my train and walked due south to the Louvre. It was a very nice walk and the end was fantastic, as from my vantage point I was overlooking the Louvre and Notre Dame, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I’m very much looking forward to spending next week there with Nina.

I walked back to Gare del Est to get my train ticket—well my boarding pass as I had bought my ticket online. I went to the electronic kiosk and entered my reservation number to claim my pass…”Invalid code.” Tried it again. “Invalid.” Ok, I had an hour, so I needed to find someone to figure out what was going on.

I found the ticket office and the woman who greeted me there told me to stand in a line with 25 people in front of me. At that point I had 55 minutes until my train arrived. I got to the front of the line in 45 minutes…My train left in 10. I explained that for some reason my pass wasn’t printing and that I had bought my ticket, here’s my receipt, here’s my code, I don’t understand what’s going on. The woman looked at me, looked at my receipt, spent 5 minutes just looking at her computer, and then printed my passes. I was grateful, but would have thought at some point she would had said something to me…hell, all the ticket people were chatting with the customers, whether it was in French, English, German, or what have you.

Anyway, I had my ticket and 5 minutes before my train left. I ran, got my suitcase, and then booked it to my train, getting on just a minute before it departed.

The train ride to Nancy was uneventful…I fell in and out of sleep for a while. I arrived, got to my hotel, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and worked on the talk I had to give the next day. Then I passed out.