I hate the strike - I really do. October 19th was a very long day. We got up and got ready and then I tried to return my hairdryer. Unfortunately that salon cannot do refunds so I was either going to have to exchange it for foreign hair product or keep the hair dryer. So, I now have a very expensive European hairdryer to keep - interesting souvenir.
We then made our way through some drizzle to the outskirts of town to the train station. Upon arrival we found that our train was delayed an hour. So departure time was now 1240 and we also found that our train from Paris to Nimes was canceled so we would have to catch a later one at 1720 that would put us into Nimes too late to pick up out car. Ryan, who is still suffering from disorienting jet lag, slept in the train station while I read. The delay ended up being more than an hour and I think our train left Bayeux at 1330 or something. We watched Saving Private Ryan during the ride since we had just been to Omaha Beach the dat before. Fun thing about the Bayeux train station is no food, no toilets, no WiFi. I called the proprietress (is that the right word) of the place we are staying in Provence to try to arrange getting from Nimes to her place but just got a ringing phone and no answering machine.
Got to Paris at 1530 or so and found our way by metro to the other station which was really crowded and dirty. We had a quick sandwich while standing, Ryan paid to use a really nasty toilet, and we waited to find out which track our train would depart from. I called our destination and was able to leave a message. Once they announced it there was a mad rush for seats. Because we didn't have tickets for that train I kept fearing that the people who had tickets for the seats we were sitting in would come and ask us to move. Thankfully that didn't happen. If you were a scoundrel you could just about go anywhere in France right now for free because no one is looking at tickets or anything. However since I don't know the language that well and have no interest in spending time in prison, we have had tickets for all our sojourns.
The TGV train was very nice and very fast (like 250 mph). We watched another movie and drank some wine and beer but didn't think to eat since we had lunch at 1600. Then we had the unfortunate luck of having a medical emergency somewhere on the train and had to make an unexpected stop for an ambulance to take someone away. About 15 minutes prior to our arrival we received a call from Deborah - the nice Aussie lady who runs the chambres d'hote. She arranged to have her gardener, Zhouri, pick us up at Nimes station and ferry us out to Mas Laurent. That cost us a cool 50 euros and will cost us the same when we have to return to Nimes on Wednesday to pick up our car. The Mas Laurent is a delightful place and Deborah made us a lively last-minute dinner of fennel salad, omelettes, and cheese with a little red wine to wash it down.
No pictures for this crummy day...
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