Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Spring Fever 2008
Paris to Champagne
I woke up at around 0730, had a
refreshing shower and made my way up to the Club for breakfast. I
knew that I needed to leave the hotel at about 1100 in order to be
in good time for my train and wondered whether or not to attempt
another bit of sight-seeing before then. Perhaps still feeling
cheated by the way things had gone on Monday, I decided to make the
most of it and caught a metro train to the Ile de la Cité.
(Actually it ended up being two trains as I got the coloured lines
tangled on my metro map, but heigh-ho.) As with so many things in a
major city, it all takes time and I did a kind of fast walk around
Notre Dame at a decidedly non-tourist speed before returning to
base, on the correct train this time
In good time, I was checking out of the IC Le
Grand and caught a taxi to the Gare de L'Est.
The
traffic wasn't too scary and I arrived at the station with a rather
excessive 50 minutes to spare. When my train eventually arrived, I
was surprised that it was just a little 4-car multiple unit and I
correctly guessed that it would fill up quickly. Nevertheless, I
managed to get a good seat in the little first class section. As the
train glided near-silently out of the station, picking up power from
the overhead wire, I didn't realise that it had a surprise in store
for me. Maybe half an hour later, however, something rather
startling happened : an underfloor diesel engine burst into life,
took the strain and began to power us off the main line and onto an
unelectrified branch line. My train was both electrically powered
and diesel powered and the really clever bit was that
it switched from one to the other without stopping! No such thing
exists in the UK. I hadn't even had my TGV ride yet and already the
French were demonstrating their mastery of rail transport.
The weather on arrival in Troyes was shocking :
rain pouring down and desperately cold. I had to wait about 15
minutes for a taxi. When the driver asked me how long I was staying
in town, I explained that I was going on to Reims and then
Strasbourg. "You are globetrotteur, Monsieur", he observed. I
enthusiastically agreed, not even daring to mention the Middle East
and Caribbean
I was soon checking in to my latest hotel, the independent Maison de
Rhodes, a little discovery that I was pleased to have made on the
Internet. I spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing, in view
of the appalling weather, and had an exceptionally nice dinner in
the hotel. As the rain had eased off, I managed a short after-dinner
walk and was able to take a few photos of illuminated buildings. I
really hoped that the next day would bring better weather.
