June 23 - Paris

I must be at the end of my vacation because I have very little patience left.  We took the train from Nice to Paris and what a nightmare it has been.  The train left Nice and travelled west to Marseille along the Mediterranean coast.  This was a very scenic trip with great vistas to be viewed from the train.  When  the train turned north along the Rhone valley the scenery became very rural with vineyards being the main crop.  We transferred to a train at Lyons to go to Paris Charles De Gaulle airport and our hotel for the night.  This train travelled at speeds in excess of 250 km/hr.  It was a very smooth ride and you would not know that you were travelling that fast.

Scenes from a train : Part 1

Scenes from a train : Part 2

                                                                                           Scenes from a train : Part 3

Getting on and off the trains is a battle with the crowds.  In Paris it became ridiculous with potentially serious consequences. Because our suitcases are very heavy, we needed to take the suitcases off in two separate trips.  We got the first set of baggage off with no problems, but when I went to get the second suitcase, the doors to the train were closed before I could exit the train and for a period of time it appeared that I would be heading to Normandy while Marg was left in the Charles de Gaulle airport.  This infuriates me because these ignorant people getting on the train wouldn't follow the simple rule that requires you to stay to right on stairwells allowing departing passengers to exit.  One fat idiot stopped on the middle of the staircase while he read his friggin’ phone, effectively blocking all traffic.  I should have hit him with the heavy suitcase.  A broken leg would have smarten’ him up.

We stayed in the Radisson Blu.  It was an average hotel.  The restaurant was good but the room’s air conditioning was not working.  The hotel is in the middle of nowhere. There is a small village about twenty minutes away from here, but it doesn't even appear to have a restaurant.

We still have no word on the status of our flight to Toronto.  French air traffic controllers are going on strike tomorrow and it could be at least a week before we leave France.