Notes from Paris and the Perigord
Apr 1st, 2004, 10:24 AM
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Notes from Paris and the Perigord
Not a trip report, just some musings from yesterday's trip over to France.
And Word 2003, which is on my laptop, doesn't have the English International Keyboard option, which peeves me because I can't do accents, but I'm on vacation and will give it no further thought.
Security at Reagan was ratcheted up. Had to take off my shoes and belt and jacket. Had to take out laptop, umbrella, camera, cell phone, and film. Practically had to get dressed and packed all over again. Took more than an hour to get through, and the far side of the x-ray machines looked like a locker room with all these people re-dressing themselves.
USAir ? first time flying this airline inernationally. Plane was brand new, with new video technology. Liked the fact that you could watch a movie whenever you wanted to. Terrible movie selection, however. And drinks and headsets cost $5.00 (or 5 euros!). Completely full plane, landed exactly on time at 10:40 a.m. Only one person at Immigration, and someone without proper ID caused a huge and scary backup at the end of the people mover until people started yelling and the crowd moved out. Got through by 11:15.
Now the hard part. My TGV leaves at 12:15, exactly one hour to get to Gare Montparnasse. But if I take a later train I?ll arrive at the EuropCar office in Perigueux after it closes at 6 p.m. and will be stranded 25 miles from home. SO, race to the taxi stand at Gate 20 (terminal 1), and the polite young attendant ushers me to a Taxi Parisien van, all for me. The surreal adventure begins. Tell the driver I want to go the Gare Montparnasse. Then, without any sort of anxiety in my voice, casually ask if the peripherique is fluide this morning, as I have a train to catch ?in about an hour.? It?s not bad he tells me, but the minute we exit the airport, he goes into ORBIT. We are going 160, then 180, then 195 kph! In fact we are flying past a police van that?s in the far left lane with its sirens blaring and lights flashing. We are a huge broom sweeping down the peripherique sending cars into the middle lanes like dust bunnies. You couldn?t fit a pinkie between our front bumper and the rear bumpers of the cars we are sweeping pell mell into the next lane over. Meanwhile, Gangsta Jacques has turned on Eminem at full throttle on his CD player and starts singing along and bouncing right and left and banging the steering wheel with his elbows, and I find myself hurtling into Paris with a death- wish-bearing, tattooed, metal-poked ace du volant who?s screaming obscenities. That he doesn?t seem to even register that this could be odd, or upsetting, to a customer is beyond me. I am simply frozen clutching the door handle, eyes closed. When we get to the Gare Montparnasse (23 minutes after leaving the airport!), he jumps out, grabs and hands me my bag, takes his money (35 euros including a small, small tip), then shakes my hand and says sweetly ? Voila, Madame. Vous aurez meme une demi-heure pour un petit café. ? I?m so far beyond shocked and dazed that upon entering the station, I walk right instead of left and end up in the Gare Vaugirard and have to retrace my steps, but I still have time to go to the guichet and hand over my confirmation number and credit card and get my ticket, which I promptly forget to composte as I wander to the train reliving the last credulity-straining half-hour.
SNCF security is fierce, perhaps because this particular TGV is heading past Bordeaux into Basque country, but I think it?s been ramped up everywhere. It actually leaves 7 minutes late because it is so problematic for people to find a place to store their luggage. There are lines of people waiting to step up onto the train 5 minutes before departure time. I see one couple standing beside two huge suitcases; the woman is crying because she can?t fit the luggage on the train and the controlleur is simply saying too bad. She is still standing there when the train departs.
Besides the two controlleurs, there are two policemen on the train, with large, visible guns. They walk the length of the train and back during the entire ride. They follow people to the restrooms and watch when they come out. They question people who change seats. There are also a number of soldiers on board, two or three groups of them. I can?t tell if that has anything to do with security or whether they are just traveling somewhere. And finally ? and I?ve seen this a few times before ? there are several prisoners on board, each with two or three policemen guarding them. Can?t they DRIVE them?
A group of a dozen or so men are sitting in the seats in front of me, on their way home after meetings in Paris. I?ve been traveling for about 18 hours now and am in a fog, but as I doze I listen to their chatter ? and the French do love to chatter. Their topics of conversation go from lunch to security to terrorism to politics to restaurants to books to DVD players to wine to daube de boeuf????not a single mention of sports, I?m thinking.
When I change trains in Bordeaux ? a classic example of a train station where you don?t want to have heavy luggage, by the way (saw an American couple standing side by side at the bottom of a stairway with all four hands on a suitcase the size of Rhode Island ? husband says ?OK, Irene, when I say push just throw all your weight on it. We can do it.? Sailed right past those two) ? a bevy of SNCF folks meet me at the quai and ask to inspect my ticket. Assured I?m going where I purport to be going, they let me board. There are the usual small luggage compartments available on the pokey TER to Perigueux, but let?s face it, who would go to the trouble of blowing up seven people headed for Perigueux?
My car?s a nifty new gray Clio with that hair trigger clutch the French so love - putt putt, lurch, VROOM!. Luckily, it?s *rush hour* in Perigueux, so I?m used to it by the time I?m out of town and headed for Le Bugue. Beautiful, balmy evening with pillowy Perigord clouds and a nice breeze, and I?ve got that gaga slap-happy sh** I?m back in France jetlagged feeling. Stop at the Intermarche for some provisions ? GASP! They don?t LABEL the contents of food in France! I won?t know how many carbs I?m consuming (and this is a BAD thing?). Then to St-Cirq, where I stop to chat with my neighbor. It?s very clear I can?t speak any language known to mankind at this stage of my travels, however, so we keep it brief and soon I?m on up the hill and in front of the lovely fire she?s made for me. Call home. Devour a Petite Suisse and an entire barquette of died-and-gone-to-France Maras strawberries ? I?m afraid I?m going to wake up red tomorrow. Bubble bath, glass of wine?ok, two?.out like a light. In fact, SO out, I left the light on.
And Word 2003, which is on my laptop, doesn't have the English International Keyboard option, which peeves me because I can't do accents, but I'm on vacation and will give it no further thought.
Security at Reagan was ratcheted up. Had to take off my shoes and belt and jacket. Had to take out laptop, umbrella, camera, cell phone, and film. Practically had to get dressed and packed all over again. Took more than an hour to get through, and the far side of the x-ray machines looked like a locker room with all these people re-dressing themselves.
USAir ? first time flying this airline inernationally. Plane was brand new, with new video technology. Liked the fact that you could watch a movie whenever you wanted to. Terrible movie selection, however. And drinks and headsets cost $5.00 (or 5 euros!). Completely full plane, landed exactly on time at 10:40 a.m. Only one person at Immigration, and someone without proper ID caused a huge and scary backup at the end of the people mover until people started yelling and the crowd moved out. Got through by 11:15.
Now the hard part. My TGV leaves at 12:15, exactly one hour to get to Gare Montparnasse. But if I take a later train I?ll arrive at the EuropCar office in Perigueux after it closes at 6 p.m. and will be stranded 25 miles from home. SO, race to the taxi stand at Gate 20 (terminal 1), and the polite young attendant ushers me to a Taxi Parisien van, all for me. The surreal adventure begins. Tell the driver I want to go the Gare Montparnasse. Then, without any sort of anxiety in my voice, casually ask if the peripherique is fluide this morning, as I have a train to catch ?in about an hour.? It?s not bad he tells me, but the minute we exit the airport, he goes into ORBIT. We are going 160, then 180, then 195 kph! In fact we are flying past a police van that?s in the far left lane with its sirens blaring and lights flashing. We are a huge broom sweeping down the peripherique sending cars into the middle lanes like dust bunnies. You couldn?t fit a pinkie between our front bumper and the rear bumpers of the cars we are sweeping pell mell into the next lane over. Meanwhile, Gangsta Jacques has turned on Eminem at full throttle on his CD player and starts singing along and bouncing right and left and banging the steering wheel with his elbows, and I find myself hurtling into Paris with a death- wish-bearing, tattooed, metal-poked ace du volant who?s screaming obscenities. That he doesn?t seem to even register that this could be odd, or upsetting, to a customer is beyond me. I am simply frozen clutching the door handle, eyes closed. When we get to the Gare Montparnasse (23 minutes after leaving the airport!), he jumps out, grabs and hands me my bag, takes his money (35 euros including a small, small tip), then shakes my hand and says sweetly ? Voila, Madame. Vous aurez meme une demi-heure pour un petit café. ? I?m so far beyond shocked and dazed that upon entering the station, I walk right instead of left and end up in the Gare Vaugirard and have to retrace my steps, but I still have time to go to the guichet and hand over my confirmation number and credit card and get my ticket, which I promptly forget to composte as I wander to the train reliving the last credulity-straining half-hour.
SNCF security is fierce, perhaps because this particular TGV is heading past Bordeaux into Basque country, but I think it?s been ramped up everywhere. It actually leaves 7 minutes late because it is so problematic for people to find a place to store their luggage. There are lines of people waiting to step up onto the train 5 minutes before departure time. I see one couple standing beside two huge suitcases; the woman is crying because she can?t fit the luggage on the train and the controlleur is simply saying too bad. She is still standing there when the train departs.
Besides the two controlleurs, there are two policemen on the train, with large, visible guns. They walk the length of the train and back during the entire ride. They follow people to the restrooms and watch when they come out. They question people who change seats. There are also a number of soldiers on board, two or three groups of them. I can?t tell if that has anything to do with security or whether they are just traveling somewhere. And finally ? and I?ve seen this a few times before ? there are several prisoners on board, each with two or three policemen guarding them. Can?t they DRIVE them?
A group of a dozen or so men are sitting in the seats in front of me, on their way home after meetings in Paris. I?ve been traveling for about 18 hours now and am in a fog, but as I doze I listen to their chatter ? and the French do love to chatter. Their topics of conversation go from lunch to security to terrorism to politics to restaurants to books to DVD players to wine to daube de boeuf????not a single mention of sports, I?m thinking.
When I change trains in Bordeaux ? a classic example of a train station where you don?t want to have heavy luggage, by the way (saw an American couple standing side by side at the bottom of a stairway with all four hands on a suitcase the size of Rhode Island ? husband says ?OK, Irene, when I say push just throw all your weight on it. We can do it.? Sailed right past those two) ? a bevy of SNCF folks meet me at the quai and ask to inspect my ticket. Assured I?m going where I purport to be going, they let me board. There are the usual small luggage compartments available on the pokey TER to Perigueux, but let?s face it, who would go to the trouble of blowing up seven people headed for Perigueux?
My car?s a nifty new gray Clio with that hair trigger clutch the French so love - putt putt, lurch, VROOM!. Luckily, it?s *rush hour* in Perigueux, so I?m used to it by the time I?m out of town and headed for Le Bugue. Beautiful, balmy evening with pillowy Perigord clouds and a nice breeze, and I?ve got that gaga slap-happy sh** I?m back in France jetlagged feeling. Stop at the Intermarche for some provisions ? GASP! They don?t LABEL the contents of food in France! I won?t know how many carbs I?m consuming (and this is a BAD thing?). Then to St-Cirq, where I stop to chat with my neighbor. It?s very clear I can?t speak any language known to mankind at this stage of my travels, however, so we keep it brief and soon I?m on up the hill and in front of the lovely fire she?s made for me. Call home. Devour a Petite Suisse and an entire barquette of died-and-gone-to-France Maras strawberries ? I?m afraid I?m going to wake up red tomorrow. Bubble bath, glass of wine?ok, two?.out like a light. In fact, SO out, I left the light on.
Apr 1st, 2004, 10:41 AM
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ACK! Sorry about all the question marks. Fodor's really needs to work on this, as most people posting from abroad are cutting and pasting from Word, and the punctuation comes through as a question mark every time.Anyway..........thanks,Ira. Will check in again tomorrow with more exciting news. Right now...fire...wine...good book.
Apr 1st, 2004, 11:54 AM
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Thanks for the great story StCirq! I'm glad you made it safely.
Thanks for the baggage heads up. I'll be taking the train at the end of the month. I'm going to have to make sure I fit it all in a 19 inch rollerboard. I better start searching the threads for packing lighter tips.
The "smart quotes" option in Word replaces straight quotes with curly ones. The curly ones then translate into question marks on Fodors.
If you go to "Tools" then "AutoCorrect Options" then click on the "AutoFormat as You Type Tab" the first set of options "replace as you type" cause problems with Fodors. The replace straight quotes with smart quotes comes out as question marks. "Ordinals with superscript" and "replacing fractions with a character" all throw Fodors for a loop. You can un-check these items and type care free in Word.
Doing this instead of turning AutoCorrect all the way off allows you to still use other AutoCorrect functions like commonly transposed characters, etc.
Thanks for the baggage heads up. I'll be taking the train at the end of the month. I'm going to have to make sure I fit it all in a 19 inch rollerboard. I better start searching the threads for packing lighter tips.
The "smart quotes" option in Word replaces straight quotes with curly ones. The curly ones then translate into question marks on Fodors.
If you go to "Tools" then "AutoCorrect Options" then click on the "AutoFormat as You Type Tab" the first set of options "replace as you type" cause problems with Fodors. The replace straight quotes with smart quotes comes out as question marks. "Ordinals with superscript" and "replacing fractions with a character" all throw Fodors for a loop. You can un-check these items and type care free in Word.
Doing this instead of turning AutoCorrect all the way off allows you to still use other AutoCorrect functions like commonly transposed characters, etc.
Apr 1st, 2004, 12:50 PM
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StCirq...one of my heroines. You write beautifully.
Did you get that driver's card? Someday I'd like to hire him as my personal chauffeur... you know, when I've won the lottery and bought my little place in France. Saw an advert for 15th Century CASTLE in this month's "FRANCE" for only 800,000E's
a whole LOT bigger than 800,000E's buys in my US home town!
Happy Trails! or Trials... <GRIN>
Did you get that driver's card? Someday I'd like to hire him as my personal chauffeur... you know, when I've won the lottery and bought my little place in France. Saw an advert for 15th Century CASTLE in this month's "FRANCE" for only 800,000E's
a whole LOT bigger than 800,000E's buys in my US home town!
Happy Trails! or Trials... <GRIN>
Apr 1st, 2004, 02:31 PM
#14
Indytravel, thanks for clearing up the Word peculiarities. I just knew that when I turned everything off in autocorrect, it seemed to work. Now I can turn some things back on, if I ever think of it and want big brother typing over my shoulder. Now that I think of it, though...
Apr 1st, 2004, 03:52 PM
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Sounds like an exciting beginning to a wonderful trip! That cabbie was a piece of work...chillin' with a rappin' gangsta in Paris...just what you want to do after a long flight!
Check in with us when you get a chance. It is wonderful to hear your immediate impressions of the place we know that you love!
Check in with us when you get a chance. It is wonderful to hear your immediate impressions of the place we know that you love!
Apr 1st, 2004, 04:18 PM
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Welcome to France, St Cirq!! Getting there is part of the fun, no? I am happy to hear you are happily ensconced in the villa and do tell, is my grotto still for sale?
Has your heart rate gone back to normal yet~
Scarlett~
Has your heart rate gone back to normal yet~
Scarlett~
