{"id":14884,"date":"2021-08-22T00:32:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-22T00:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=14884"},"modified":"2021-10-08T17:19:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T17:19:23","slug":"saturday-21st-august-2021-im-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=14884","title":{"rendered":"Saturday 21st August 2021 – I’M BACK …"},"content":{"rendered":"

… home right now, on one of the most uneventful journeys that I have ever had – at least, as far as the trains went.<\/p>\n

Despite going to bed early I couldn’t sleep at all and I remember things like 01:00 coming round and I still hadn’t dropped off. Although I must have done at some point because there’s some stuff on the dictaphone. There had been an army patrol up in the High Himalayas, 2 jeeps and some soldiers. One of the jeeps had split off and gone somewhere and picked up 3 tyres. On the way back, one of the guys with the tyres had arranged to be dropped off somewhere so he was dropped off in this mountain pass which was quite a coincidence just as the other jeep came into view. The 2 jeeps carried on without him. he scrambled down the mountain which was honeycombed with German troops and the Germans were talking about the guys who were bringing the tyres, so this must have been a plan. In one of the buildings above the pass that the Germans were guarding was Caliburn. You could see from the German point of view that they were down there in the pass and on the hillside Caliburn suddenly rolled out of this garage, did a wheelspin start and was away. The Germans were throwing bombs at it and the windows broke but Caliburn kept on driving up this hill.<\/p>\n

When the alarm went off at 04:30 I hauled myself out of bed feeling about as bad as I have ever felt, but surprisingly, it didn’t take me long to make everything ready.<\/p>\n

The walk down to the station (and I do mean “down” because it is downhill) was pretty depressing – imagine having to stop to catch my breath when I’m going downhill. I’m clearly going downhill right now, and in more ways than one too.<\/p>\n

Being rather early this morning, I was just on the point of entering the station when the 05:33 to Oostende pulled in. A carriage door opened right in front of me so I pushed my way onto the platform and scrambled aboard just as it was on the point of closing. No photo unfortunately but it was a Class 18 electric that was pulling it.<\/p>\n

We pulled into Brussels-Midi with over an hour to wait for my train out to Lille so I had to loiter around. But then, I’d rather be hanging around at Brussels waiting for my train than in Leuven wondering if I’m going to make it to Brussels in time.<\/p>\n

\"TGV<\/a>The train this morning was, as usual, one of the TGV “Reseau 38000′ machines, number 4525 – or, at least, my bit of it was.<\/p>\n

There are called “PBA” trainsets because they spend much of their time working the Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam route, although the 07:13 which I susually catch is a train that goes to Strasbourg.<\/p>\n

It describes a wide arc going via Lille, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Marne-La Vall\u00e9e, mainly because the direct route through the Ardennes via Luxembourg isn’t of the correct standard for sustained high-speed running and upgrading will be extremely difficult.
<\/p>\n

It was a delightful journey to Lille because I had the sweetest, cutest passenger that I have ever had sitting next to me. She wasn’t particularly talkative which was a shame but it was still a pleasant journey.<\/p>\n

\"TGV<\/a>The walk down to Lille Flandres was a struggle too<\/p>\n

The train that was going to take me to Paris was already in at the platform at Lille Flandres, as it usually is. You’ll probably notice the time on the clock as well. I’ve done a lot already and it’s still early.<\/p>\n

Once more, it’s a TGV Reseau Duplex double-decker but undortunately there were no comfy sofas in the lounge area. I had to cram myself in and it wasn’t easy either with all of the luggage that everyone had.<\/p>\n

Most of the journey was spent having a sleep because the morning had caught up with me by now
<\/p>\n

\"TGV<\/a>Our train was made up of two trainsets and, interestingly, the front trainset wasn’t another one of the Reseau Duplexes, as I discovered when we arrived at Paris Gare du Nord.<\/p>\n

Instead, we have been pulled to pulled to Paris by one of the old TGV POS trainsets. That’s not something that happens every day, is it?<\/p>\n

At Paris I stepped onto the platform of the metro just as a train was pulling in – perfect timing again. I shall have to do this more often. Luckily I was able to grab a seat and have a comfortable journey across the city.
<\/p>\n

\"84580<\/a>It was just as well that i’d had a good rest because the labyrinth in the cellars of the Gare Montparnasse, up and down stairs and walking along these long corridors just about finished me off.<\/p>\n

Luckily there was an empty seat in my little corner behind the coffee machine by the platform where my train was waiting because I couldn\u2019t go much further. I sat down and had a good rest.<\/p>\n

For some reason that I don’t understand, the wait seemed to be much longer than it is usually, and I couldn’t wait to be called forward and to settle down on my comfortable seat – well, I hoped that it was going to be comfortable.
<\/p>\n

At long last the platform – which we all knew anyway – went up on the noticeboard and we could all move off to our train.<\/p>\n

And actually, it wasn’t as comfortable as it might have been because it was packed to the gunwhales today \u2013 there wasn\u2019t an empty seat anywhere. I’ve no idea what was going on down the line, but whatever it was, it seemed that everyone In Paris was going to it.<\/p>\n

Once the crowd thinned out, I managed to eat some of my sandwiches but my appetite has definitely gone again for now and I’ll save the rest of my lunch for later.<\/p>\n

\"84581<\/a>When we pulled into the station I gathered up my possessions and cleared off towards the exit.<\/p>\n

As I reached the end of the platform, another train pulled in. There’s another line that passes through the station at Granville – the line from Caen to Rennes.<\/p>\n

In the past it used to take the direct route through Folligny but when they did some excavating work a few years ago they found that the curve that connects the Granville-Paris line to the line towards Caen was in reasonable order, so they refurbished it and brought the trains here.
<\/p>\n

\"Bombardier<\/a>And just after I clicked the shutter, another train came into the station.<\/p>\n

One of those (and don’t ask me which because I don’t know) is the train from Caen to Rennes, and the other one is the reverse from Rennes to Caen.<\/p>\n

They all meet up here a couple of times per day so that passengers coming from Paris can travel on easily to places like Avranches and Coutances, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

of course, if there’s any vice involved, I’m bound to be interested.<\/p>\n

As I left the station I debated whether I ought to wait for the bus to take me home. In the end I decided to walk which was not the best idea that I had. While going downhill into the town was one thing, the rest of the journey back up the hill on the other side towards home was a different thing entirely.
<\/p>\n

\"crowds<\/a>It took me an age to climb up the hill, with about a dozen pauses to catch my breath.<\/p>\n

One of the pauses was overlooking the harbour. That’s interesting today because the festival of working sailing boats or whatever it’s called in now in full swing and there are quite a few people down there this afternoon enjoying it.<\/p>\n

As for the greenery, it doesn’t ‘arf look nice, but wouldn’t it have been nicer decorating on a permanent that new car park that they resurfaced earlier in the year instead of having one big miserable mass of Macadam.
<\/p>\n

\"sailing<\/a>With events like this going on, the place is bound to be full of working sailing boats making an exhibition of themselves.<\/p>\n

Down there we have Marit\u00e9<\/em> of course and the other boat bears a very strong resemblance to Charles Marie<\/em> but I can’t see her name at all from here.<\/p>\n

Having recovered my breath, I carries on up the hill towards home, much more weary than I was when I set out. I can see that if things don\u2019t improve over the next few weeks I shall be going to and from the station on the bus in future.
<\/p>\n

Back here I put away the food in the fridge and made myself an ice-cold strawberry smoothie to cheer myself up. Next, I poured the rest of the coffee from the flask into a mug and brought it in here to drink. And when I awoke about 90 minutes later, it was right by my side, stone-cold.<\/p>\n

Football on the internet later – Barry Town v Bala Town. A rather entertaining 0-0 draw but it was always going to be 0-0 because both teams were rather lacking in firepower up front and neither goalkeeper was really tested. I don’t think that either of these two teams will be challenging for very much this season unless they can come up with something in attack.<\/p>\n

For tea I just had a handful of pasta with some veg tossed in garlic, olive oil and black pepper. And now it’s ridiculously late and I can’t sleep so I don’t know about tomorrow. I’ll just go to bed and get up when I awaken, provided that no-one disturbs me first.<\/p>\n

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… home right now, on one of the most uneventful journeys that I have ever had – at least, as far as the trains went. Despite going to bed early I couldn’t sleep at all and I remember things like 01:00 coming round and I still hadn’t dropped off. Although I must have done at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,3,7527,11247,8630,4507,1616,8338,7526,8629,8571,3371,2699,13183,13182,8858,1308,7876,1317],"tags":[3350,829,1673,4624,199,7528,11249,8632,1302,10855,212,2560,5287,5565,8351,8631,7414,12117,8581,5918,5756,13184,13185,8860,1311,7891,1392,2380,1315,5486,13947],"class_list":["post-14884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-belgium","category-brussels","category-brussels-midi","category-charles-marie","category-condo-gardens","category-eric-hall-2","category-france","category-gare-du-midi","category-gare-du-nord","category-gare-montparnasse-vaugirard","category-granville","category-leuven","category-lille","category-lille-europe-railway-station","category-lille-flandres-railway-station","category-marite","category-paris","category-place-darmes","category-tgv","tag-bala-town","tag-barry-town","tag-belgium-2","tag-bombardier","tag-brussels-2","tag-bruxelles-midi","tag-charles-marie","tag-condo-gardens","tag-crash-out","tag-dekenstraat","tag-dream","tag-eric-hall","tag-football","tag-france","tag-gare-du-midi","tag-gare-du-montparnasse-vaugirard","tag-gare-du-nord","tag-gec-alstom-regiolis","tag-granville","tag-leuven","tag-lille","tag-lille-europe","tag-lille-flandres","tag-marite","tag-paris-2","tag-place-darmes","tag-railway-station","tag-sncb","tag-sncf","tag-tgv","tag-tgv-duplex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15076,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884\/revisions\/15076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}