… at the front of the train that brought us back from Paris this afternoon.
If you look carefully, you’ll notice all of the marks and dents on the front cowling around the coupling hitch. That’s right – I’ve been involved in a railway accident (well, of a sort) on the way back home.
It’s all happening to me these days, isn’t it?
Even though it was a (comparatively) early nigbt for me, I was totally flat out until the alarm went off. No noisy neighbours, no power cuts, nothing to disturb me.
We had the usual morning performance but instead of a shower I went out early to the SPAR supermarket down the road. A baguette, tomato, banana and a reel of plaster. I’ve noticed that with all of the walking that I’ve done just recently I have a blister on my little toe and I need to pad it out.
Today I have vegan cheese (from the Loving Hut yesterday) and tomato butties, with a banana for pudding. And having plastered my little toe, I can’t remember what I did with the rest of the reel of plaster. Age is certainly catching up with me.
Having packed, I checked out and walked through the burning early-morning sun to the station, where I just missed the 09:09 train.
But not to worry, the 09:19 train from Genk to Blankenberge was not far behind so I didn’t have long to wait.
It’s one of the AM96 class of multiple units, built in 1996 and although they might not look it, they are capable of 100mph, which is just as well because I didn’t want to hang about.
And even though it was packed, I managed to find a comfy seat.
It was a good plan to arrive in Brussels early as it gave me an opportunity to visit the bank that’s in the vicinity. I managed to cancel the monthly payment for the parking in Leuven, but as for activating my bank cards for use outside the EU, apparently there’s a problem. The copy of the electricity bill that I presented to the bank last time as proof of identity of my change of address has been rejected. I need to contact my own branch to see what I have to do next.
Anyway, I don’t have the time to go to Schuman so this is something that I need to do by writing when I arrive back home. Just one more task added to the heap.
The TGV pulled in a couple of minutes late. It’s one of the first-generation ones and they are now starting to age and are showing it.
Little patches of corrosion appearing around the most exposed places and just painted over. It makes you wonder what they are like where you can’t see – not the kind of thing for a nervous passenger when you are hurtling along at 300kph.
Apart from that though the voyage was quite uneventful. Except, of course, that I somehow managed to be convinced into lifting down all of the baggage of a group of Dutch women. And I reckon that it would have been so much easier for them to have bought tickets for the kids instead of stuffing them into the cases – unless it was lead off the local church roof that they were transporting.
10 minutes late arriving in Paris, but it didn’t matter one jot because the metro was strangely deserted and I arrived at my platform in a new record 35 minutes. And had I done that the other day I might just have caught my train.
The train to Granville was busy but I was in luck (for a change) – at least at the start of my journey anyway.
Not only was the seat next to me empty but I was on the north side of the train.
Not only did that mean that I was out of the sun, it meant that after all this time I finally managed to take a good shot of the Eiffel Tower.
And not only that. If you look on the horizon to the right of the image you’ll see Montmartre and the Eglise de Sacre Coeur.
You aren’t half having your money’s worth, aren’t you?
We rolled on and on through the countryside, with me rolling in and out of sleep (just by way of a change).
In the past I’ve seen something that looked very much like a solar farm just across the road from the railway station at Surdon.
And so being in the right place at the right time I was able to confirm that it is indeed a solar farm. That’s quite interesting.
And so off we set again to continue on our route.
The weather was slowly starting to deteriorate by now and by the time we arrived in the vicinity of Vire it had changed dramatically.
The skies had gone completely grey and overcast, and it looked as if we were on the point of receiving a right old pasting.
A little further on we were presented with a perfect example of an “anvil” storm cloud which you can see right in the middle of the photograph.
And when we stopped at Vire, we were met by a torrential rainstorm. There was a terrific gale blowing that was whipping up all kinds of dust, vegetation and other objects.
It really was impressive.
We carried on through the weather, but we didn’t get far.
About half-way between Vire and Villedieu-les-Poeles we ground to a halt, right across a level crossing, to the dismay of a couple of farmers and motorists who were trying to cross.
After we’d been stopped for five or ten minutes, we had an announcement. Apparently a very large branch had blown down off a tree alongside the railway line in the storm, and we had hit it.
We had to have the train inspected to make sure that there was no significant damage and that it was safe to continue.
As a result we were a good 40 minutes late arriving in Granville, and I had a brisk walk home.
The storm that we had had in Vire had clearly passed through Granville as well because the streets were littered with all kinds of debris.
But I was much more interested in this particular sight just here.
I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen the harbour gates actually in the process of opening, but I was in luck today because they were actually in operation as I walked past;
They are open for about six hours a day, I reckon. 90 minutes before High Tide, and they close 90 minutes after High Tide.
And not long after I returned, we had a torrential rainstorm. That put me off going for my evening walk – not that it mattered because I have done 109% of my daily effort.
But one thing that came out of this voyage, and that was that instead of taking my backpack and a small suitcase, I crammed everything into my new large backpack and took that.
And it worked just fine. There was an issue with the zip but I felt much better with it and I was certainly much more mobile. I shall have to do that again.
