Public Transportation

Public transportation is excellent in France. We don't own a car and rarely take a taxi.

Our travels are typically limited to central Paris. There's still a lot we haven't done or seen.

We are proficient at taking the metro and buses in Paris. I think we've gotten a bit cocky.

Once in awhile, we will take a real train trip. This involves planning, purchase of tickets, etc. and we are pretty good at doing this. We did a randonee (hike) recently and took a train to and from the hike location. It only takes about 15-20 minutes on a train to be outside of Paris and in a forest.

The world outside of central Paris is accessible to us via the network of French trains, the tramway, the RER, the SNCF, the TGV, Eurostar, Transilian. These are all different networks of trains that sometimes interconnect. Using these trains, you can get almost anywhere in France and to many places in western Europe.

Yesterday, we headed outside of Paris to some friends' house for lunch. We had the directions to their house. We left the house earlier than planned, thinking that we'd have a cup of coffee if we arrived too early. We bought the tickets on the RER, found the RER station at St. Michel. Terry even asked three times if this was the right spot the right train. Each time the answer was a resounding "oui".

We were a bit dressed up, it was a beautiful summer-y morning, perhaps a little humid but very nice. We boarded the RER and I decided to watch the stops on the map. We came out of the tunnel and saw the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, the beautiful greenery of springtime in Paris. All was right with the world.

Then, the dreaded announcement in French came over the loudspeaker. The speaker system in french trains and train stations has to be ancient. The announcer speaks quickly and the sound system is very scratchy and squacky. But the one word I did hear was a direction, a town. And, it was in the wrong direction -- yes, we had gotten on the wrong train. The trajectory was right for about 4-5 stops but then there is a fork in the road. We needed to go southwest, this train was going north! I screamed to Terry "GET OFF". We were in the top level so we raced down the stairs, pushed past all the people with suitcases, bikes and babies and got off at the next stop. We went to an information booth and the woman told us that we had to walk to the next RER station, we couldn't get back on going the opposite direction. (No idea if she was right, we just trusted her).

So, out of the RER station we went. Now, it was threatening to rain. We followed her directions, walking as quickly as we could. Now we were running late! We walked and walked, past two bridges on the Seine before coming to the next RER station. We went in, figured out the correct direction, got on the train and got to our friends' house about 20 minutes late.

As soon as we got inside their house, it started to rain -- a thundering, pounding rain. So, I was happy that we weren't even later than we were.

Have we learned from this?

I hope so, but I'm not sure. On the way home, we got to the train station and looked at the signs. There are always two sides to choose from and you have to find the side designated for the direction of the train you want to take.

But, the signs are incredible. On the right side, there was a sign that said "A" with an arrow pointing to the other side and on the left side was a sign that said "B" with an arrow going to the other side. Doesn't it seem simpler to just label the side with A or B, without the arrow? We got home without further error.