Nice to Rouen

Had an exceptionally easy start to the day. Not too early, not too late, and we were easily on the train with lunch in hand. This TGV was a much nicer ride than the one going to Nice. But, once we got to Marseilles, we didn't move for a long time. Apparently there was a malfunction in the switching system. That put us about 20 minutes late getting into Paris. That might've been fine except it was really 25 minutes late, there were big crowds and the directions for making our connection were bad to non-existent.
So, after waiting in line for 20 minutes to buy a one day pass, we finally made it on the RER. Amazingly enough, our connecting train was scheduled to be 15 minutes late. But, as we had to make another connection from the RER, or walk, we didn't have enough time. We chose to walk. Probably missed our train by 2 minutes. But, all is well that ends well, right? The next train to Rouen was right there and we got on board. Happy times!
Arriving in Rouen, we took off for our apartment. Cool place in an old half timbered building, that has since been covered over. Anyway, 82 narrow steps later, we arrived at the door. We unlocked the lock and couldn't get in as the deadbolt lock had been locked, and we had no key. We seated ourselves on the rickety old stairs and waited about a half an hour for our landlord to answer an email about our dilemma. Then, we waited at least another hour before the cleaning lady arrived with keys. Of course, she didn't have the deadbolt key either, so after a few phone calls and pushing on the door, probably another half hour went by and she forced the door open. Apparently the deadbolt hadn't been opened completely before the door shut, so just a piece of it was catching.
So after a very long day, we finally were in our apartment.Read more