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Travel day...
Jun. 19th, 2011 09:46 pmI got up at 5:15 am this morning on my own, my subconscious probably terrified of having to listen to either one of the two alarms I had set for 6:30. I translated about 400 words by the time Galina and I had to seriously get moving on getting moving, whereupon we performed our morning ablutions, ate the last of the sliced ham and blue cheese, drank a cup apiece of instant coffee, and did a last once-over of the apartment.
We left our home for the past 11 days at very nearly 8 am and walked down a couple of blocks to the St. Augustin Métro station, in search of the #14 line, which would bring us directly to our jumping off point for the day, the Gare de Lyon. By the time we got to the right platform, I think we had gone down enough steps to be somewhere near China, and both Galina and I were about tuckered out from carrying our luggage into the bowels of the earth under Paris.
The ride was uneventful and I was able to figure out how to get a machine to cough out our tickets for the TGV to Avignon, which was just as well because it seemed nobody from the SNCF was on duty. (As far as the alphabet soup is concerned, TGV stands for "Train à Grande Vitesse"—literally a "high-speed train"—and SNCF is the "Société nationale des chemins de fer français," or the "French National Railroad Company"). I did see an information booth nearby, but the sign in the window informed all comers that the booth did not operate on Sunday, suggesting one might go to the booth at the station that was open on Sundays, and described where the booth was located, but as I knew nothing about the layout of the station, the description wasn't of much help.
Traveling by TGV is fast and smooth. The only bumps I felt were the result of buffeting when our train met an oncoming train. I tried to work on the train, and maybe got another several hundred words done, but for the most part, I slept for a large chunk of the trip.
We picked up our rental car and drove to the house and got the orientation from our host, who then fed us a very nice lunch and took off for home back in Lyon. The kids called a little while ago with Father's Day wishes.
There's also a rather generous pile of tourist literature on the coffee table downstairs. I'm looking forward to going through it, but first, I'll have to finish the last 1800 words of the item due by the end of the day tomorrow and send it all off.
Cheers...
We left our home for the past 11 days at very nearly 8 am and walked down a couple of blocks to the St. Augustin Métro station, in search of the #14 line, which would bring us directly to our jumping off point for the day, the Gare de Lyon. By the time we got to the right platform, I think we had gone down enough steps to be somewhere near China, and both Galina and I were about tuckered out from carrying our luggage into the bowels of the earth under Paris.
The ride was uneventful and I was able to figure out how to get a machine to cough out our tickets for the TGV to Avignon, which was just as well because it seemed nobody from the SNCF was on duty. (As far as the alphabet soup is concerned, TGV stands for "Train à Grande Vitesse"—literally a "high-speed train"—and SNCF is the "Société nationale des chemins de fer français," or the "French National Railroad Company"). I did see an information booth nearby, but the sign in the window informed all comers that the booth did not operate on Sunday, suggesting one might go to the booth at the station that was open on Sundays, and described where the booth was located, but as I knew nothing about the layout of the station, the description wasn't of much help.
Traveling by TGV is fast and smooth. The only bumps I felt were the result of buffeting when our train met an oncoming train. I tried to work on the train, and maybe got another several hundred words done, but for the most part, I slept for a large chunk of the trip.
We picked up our rental car and drove to the house and got the orientation from our host, who then fed us a very nice lunch and took off for home back in Lyon. The kids called a little while ago with Father's Day wishes.
There's also a rather generous pile of tourist literature on the coffee table downstairs. I'm looking forward to going through it, but first, I'll have to finish the last 1800 words of the item due by the end of the day tomorrow and send it all off.
Cheers...
