… a mistake or have a problem.<\/p>\n
That’s not a big issue under any circumstances.<\/p>\n
What is important is how you manage to negotiate yourself out of them.<\/p>\n
So when the train for Paris this afternoon set off 20 minutes late, and just got later and later and later as it travelled east, now was the time to put the SNCF to the test, because thanks to all of this, I knew that I would never catch the TGV to Brussels.<\/p>\n
For a start, there was no conductor on the train. So I couldn’t have it stamped then and there.<\/p>\n
There was however an announcement “anyone in danger of missing a connection should go to the information desk” which, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, is right away across the far side of the station.<\/p>\n
And so I did.<\/p>\n
I explained to the receptionist what had happened, and he told meto go in and see the “travelling today” people.<\/p>\n
Despite the hundreds of people in there, there were just 5 staff on duty. So we sweltered and waited. One of the staff thenclosed down his post, and a girl came to take over.<\/p>\n
She took (because I timed it) over 11 minutes to start of the computer, adjust her chair and the screen, disinfect the desk and all kinds of things before she was ready to work.<\/p>\n
Eventually she made a start and about half an hour later it was my turn. Of course, I drew this woman, didn’t I? She looked at my ticket and said “there’s nothing I can do”;<\/p>\n
She told me that the Thalys is not an SNCF product but an independent company, and I should go there. So I wanted to know why the receptionist hadn’t said anything to me, to save me wasting my time.<\/p>\n
She couldn’t answer that, but at least she stamped my ticket with an official stamp and a brief note.<\/p>\n
The metro was, surprisingly, rapid and had I been away from Montparnasse rather smartish, I might even have caught my train.<\/p>\n
A helpful SNCF guy directed me to the Thalys office and there, the receptionist checked my ticket and looked at her computer.
\n“The next train is …” the one that’s an hour after mine, leaving in 10 minutes “… and it’s fully booked”. But she gave me an authority to travel and told me to sit in the bar.<\/p>\n
And that wasn’t all. She noticed that I looked hot and flustered (my normal state of affairs these days) and gave me a glass of water.<\/p>\n
So SNCF didn’t do too well, but Thalys scored 10 out of 10.<\/p>\n
Last night I’d gone straight off to sleep and apart from a brief awakening, it was totally painless until 08:00.<\/p>\n
Alison and I had breakfast together and then we went for a walk along the beach. We couldn’t stay long because the tide was coming in, but we sat on the wall and had a good chat for ages.<\/p>\n
There seems to be something going on here later today. They’ve been setting out all kinds of tables and chairs out here and there’s some kind of fast-food stall in operation<\/p>\n This is the kind of thing that always happens when I’m on my travels, doesn’t it? We came back here to make our butties for the trip, and then left for the railway station.<\/p>\n![\"table](\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1808\/1808040.jpg\")
<\/a>On the way back to the apartment we passed through the Place Cambernon.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n