Trains, Trains, and More Trains -- Storytime

Week 15: 12/23-12/30

Welcome to /miel/, a written account of my life and what my days hold here in France. Thank you for coming to read today.

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas, filled with sweet smells, lovely people, and delicious food.

My Christmas was very good, and I spent it with some new friends I’ve made in Reims. However, my trip getting to Reims was a time and a half, not in a positive way. It's story time.

I was taking my BlaBla bus back from the south of France, and I was supposed to get into Paris by 9:00 pm on December 23. I was supposed to take the 9:30 or 10:30 pm train back to Noyon on December 23. I was supposed to take the 9:30 am train to Reims on December 24. ALAS, none of this happened.

My BlaBla bus was late by 1.5 hours, so by the time I had gotten into Paris (before travelling 30 minutes to the train station by metro), I had missed the LAST train to Noyon. THE LAST TRAIN FOR THE NIGHT. Because it’s a smaller town, there were absolutely no other public transport options. Trust me, I checked them all. I tried BlaBla car as well, I tried all train connections, and all to no avail. So, as I sat in a café, drinking a much needed cup of coffee and eating a croque monsieur at 11:30 pm, after a 11 hour bus ride, I did what I knew I had to do – I called my mom and dad.

Through talking about my frustrations, and trying to figure out a solution that didn’t involve me wandering the streets of Paris all night until the morning, I ended up booking a hostel next to the train station. I arrived easily (thank you Paris metros), and finally was getting checked in, until the lady asked me for my passport. I told her I only had my drivers license, and she said without a European drivers license or a passport, she couldn’t check me in. On the verge of tears, I wobbled, “Please, will a picture work?” Bless her soul, she said YES! I got checked in finally.

Oh also, this hostel is INSIDE of a night club. So I’m listening to blasting music and “uhnz, uhnz, uhnz” almost all night. I get to my room to find my bed dirty, but I was too tired to care. I slept on top of the sheets and finally went to sleep… UNTIL some other girl in my dorm room started playing Spanish music OUT LOUD from her phone. Can I not catch a break?! I stared at the wall until I fell asleep.

Okay, that was December 23.

I woke up on December 24, (Merry Christmas Eve to me, in a smelly hostel and a dirty bed), and caught my 8:30 am train to Noyon. I was going to make my 9:30 am connection to Reims to catch up with my friends there. However… (you knew it was coming, didn’t you?) my train was 30 minutes late leaving Paris, so I missed my connection to Reims.

**Quick, important tangent: When you buy a train ticket in France, you are able to use that exact ticket to take any train that day. Typically, you need to be taking the exact same trajectory for this to be okay, otherwise you may be fined on the train. But, they only sometimes check your tickets any way (maybe 20% of the time), so a lot of times, we just take the chance.**

I arrived in Noyon, having missed my connection, and decided I’d go home, unpack and take a shower. There was another train at 1:00 pm that I could take with a connection to get to Reims and that would work. Although it was a different trajectory than my original ticket (foreshadowing…).

I got to Paris for my connection and while I went to board my connecting train, there were controllers scanning tickets to get onto the train. No worries, I showed her my ticket and she immediately said, “Nope, not the right ticket.”

Me: “I understand, but I missed my original train this morning because another train was late, and I have to get to Reims so I took this trajectory.”

Controller: “Okay, you can get it exchanged for free at the inOui office over there.”

Me: “Thank you so much!”

*Train leaves in 20 minutes*

**Another train tangent: inOui trains are high speed trains that are usually direct and are more expensive. This is why my original ticket (a regional train ticket) wouldn’t work.**

I go to the inOui office, explain my situation for the SECOND time to an agent, who directed me to take a number and wait. The clock was ticking and ticking… and before I even got called to talk to another agent, the inOui train was long gone. It’s okay, I thought, I’m sure there’s another train.

My number gets called, and I explain my situation to this new agent for a THIRD time: “Good afternoon sir, I need to exchange my ticket because I missed my train this morning to Reims because my train from Paris to Noyon was delayed by 30 minutes. A controller told me I can exchange my regional ticket for the inOui train to Reims.”

Agent: “Nope. Can’t do that.”

Me: “Okay, but sir I need to get to Reims. Is there a train I can take?”

Agent: “Well… there is another regional train, but I can’t guarantee you a spot. You’ll have to wait and talk to the controller before the train and see if they let you on. It’s at their discretion.”

Me: “So I’m going to wait here for 1.5 hours to see if at the discretion of someone else if I can maybe get on the train.”

Agent: “Oui, exactement.”

So, I wait. Finally, it’s my time to shine, the train is here and I have to go to the controller. I explain my situation for the FOURTH time, but this time I add: “Please ma’am, please. Let me on this train, please.”

Controller: “This train is completely full………………………but you can board.”

Me: (internally) BLESS YOUR SOUL THANK YOU SO MUCH OMG I AM SO GRATEFUL

(externally): “Merci beaucoup madame, merci merci merci et Joyeux Noel »

I was on the train! I sat in the breezeway, but I was there! Finally, after I had been through the wringer for 24 hours, I was given a stroke of luck. Bless that controller’s heart.

So, I finally got to Reims and I spent it with Maru (Argentinian assistant) and Liviu (Romanian violinist). It was perfect. We had mulled wine and vegetable curry on Christmas Eve, we watched Mean Girls and stayed up talking until way too late.

And that was December 24.

On Christmas, we all slowly woke up, had a crepe and a cup of mate (Argentinian green tea), and spent the day watching movies and drinking warm drinks. I called my family to catch up over Christmas, watched them open some presents and saw how horrible Molly’s haircut is.

I won’t dive too much into it, but it was a weird Christmas. Different, new, and weird. I had zero of my traditions, I haven’t seen any of my favorite Christmas movies, and I didn’t go to a Christmas Eve church service. While it was different, I truly had an amazing Christmas building new relationships and learning more about others. It was perfect.

I returned to Noyon on Monday (with ZERO trains missed, yes!) and have not been doing much since then. It’s felt nice to just crochet, watch Netflix, and be in my fuzzy socks all day.

I received a Christmas package from my family yesterday and it was perfect. It made me feel so loved and it was everything I could have wanted.

Maru came to Noyon last night and we spent today in Compiegne (the neighboring town) looking at the Chateau de Compiegne, doing a little shopping, and eating a delicious hamburger. Tonight we are relaxing, eating some sweet potato gnocchi I made from scratch yesterday, and going to bed early!

Tomorrow, we go to Amiens to meet up with 7 other assistants to celebrate New Year’s Eve. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m excited to spend this weekend in a new town that I’ve been wanting to visit, see an amazing cathedral, and next weekend I get to see some friends from Bozeman!

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

TL:DR

High: Having a different, but equally amazing Christmas with friends.

High #2: Spending time with Maru, and getting a private violin concert from Liviu on Christmas Eve.

Low: My entire public transport fiasco, and an unclean hostel bed.

Low #2: My entire public transport fiasco (yes, again).

New French Word:

terrain de chasse – hunting grounds

Lesson(s) Learned:

1. Bus stations are sketchy.

2. Cheap hostels are cheap for a reason (sometimes).

3. New Christmas traditions are okay, but it’s okay to miss your own traditions too.

4. Be ready to go with the flow, but also be ready to make your case if something goes wrong.

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Until next week, I wish you all well. I miss you all incredibly much. Please send me a message, an email, some snail mail, whatever suits you best.

Happy New Year, cheers to 2023!

All the love,

Abigail

Below: Swedish kanelbullar. It's similar to a cinnamon roll, but the dough and filling has a little bit of cardamom inside, and the twisting is a bit different. Delicious!