Avignon to Reims - 7 minutes to spare!

Farewell to Avignon and the sunny south this morning. Fortified by a double expresso strong enough to wake the dead, we piled onto the TGV bound for Paris Gare de Lyon at 9.41, arriving at 12.23. 700km, the equivalent of Wellington to Orewa, in two and a half hours. Amazing!

We thought we had allowed plenty of time to take a taxi to Gare de l”Est (18 minutes by Google), particularly as we had arrived 10 minutes early. It took us 10 minutes to reach the taxi stand, then another 20 minutes standing in a queue like Oliver asking for more, as the odd taxi bimbled in and loaded up. When our turn finally came, we had a short but intense conversation with the driver, who insisted on being paid in cash. “Je n”ai pas de cash!” I snapped at him, getting quite Parisienne by now as the minutes ticked by.

Finally securing a taxi that would accept a card, we set off through the many traffic snarls of central Paris. Worst was the 10-minute full stop at Place de la République, where the police had a block in place glittering with blue flashing lights, and about 20 vehicles. The minutes ticked by. Our train was leaving at 1328 and we were going nowhere. Finally the traffic in our lane started to move. We jumped out outside the Gare de l”Est and dashed inside. Our train was already loading, on Platform 25 . The signs only went as far as 22! Arrgh! The helpful SNCF staff in red jackets who had helped us in other stations were not to be seen. On a hunch, Neil headed off to the right. Platform 25! Hooray! But our carriage was the one at the far end, on a train that reached the horizon. We switched on the afterburners and made a fair speed alongside the train. Carriage 1 - we heaved our bags in the door, and made it to our seats with seven minutes to spare. Who needs thriller movies when you have the French train system to keep you energised?

At 1440 we arrived in Reims - grey, cool and overcast after the bright colours and fierce sunshine of the south. The hotel was a short walk - but a big disappointment. Old and sad. The carpet was Karitane yellow with black, the walls battleship grey. The room was tiny, a double bed with two feet of clearance all round. The view from the window was a drain. No space to set up one suitcase, let alone two. Neil disappeared downstairs and returned with a new room number.

We jammed ourselves into the wardrobe-sized lift, which even had a side-opening door, much scraped, rather than the usual lift double-doors. At least the new room was a bit bigger, and with a better view.

Next issue was our accomodation in Le Quesnoy, three nights from now. We had booked a Airbnb before we left, having been advised there are no hotels in this little town.
Yesterday the Airbnb host cancelled our booking - he had a water leak. After much faffing about, caused by the fact that the Airbnb process doesn’t recognise e-Sims, we confirmed another booking. HA! This morning we got a note saying the hostess Sardine (oops, Sandrine) had cancelled for no reason. Neil chased up another Airbnb advertised as being in Le Quesnoy town. That turned out to be a 45 minute walk nearly in the next village.

To clear our heads we went for a walk - first to the magnificent cathedral of Notre Dame. The Germans in World War One made a point of smashing this into as many pieces as they could manage, as it was the coronation site of the French kings (31 in all), and so a key symbol of French Nationalism. After the war, the American Rockefeller Foundation provided major funding for the restoration effort. The cathedral was reopened in 1938, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We were pretty hungry by this point, having had only a couple of buns since breakfast. The streets were lined with eateries of every shape and size. None of them was prepared to serve us with FOOD at 1730. Sorry Liz, Subway saved the day.

Back at the hotel, Neil came up with an ingenious solution to our accommodation problems. We gave up trying to find anything in Le Quesnoy and decided to stay those two nights in Lille - in a decent hotel - and commute by train. Whew!もっと詳しく