Spoiler: We made it! But I guess you figured we would, but we weren’t too sure!
The public transportation in Europe is so reliable and extensive that protesters are able to use it as a powerful way to get the attention of the government. I knew this on a personal level and it’s in my post from when Katie and I were staying at her friend’s house in Valenciennes France in 2018. She and I were leaving for Amsterdam and the trains were scheduled to be on strike. Like now, it was quite a scramble. We booked a BlahBlah car from the downtown Valenciennes to the bus station in Lille. I’m not making up the name–it’s a way that people carpool during strikes. But we couldn’t get a cab to downtown….. So it’s deja’ vu for me and I’m kinda mad at myself for not thinking to check it out before Mike happened to see it on the news–it would have been a giant hassle if he hadn’t.
Nice was excellent but we were really ready to go somewhere new. Our friend from France had given us a list of amazing places in southern France, and with everywhere else on our list still in the 30’s, we charted a course for Avignon France. We made all the arrangements we could and now just had to hope for the best with getting there.
Poor Mike didn’t sleep well for worrying about the train situation. He reasoned that trains on Monday could be extra packed and we might not be able to get a ticket. So at 7 a.m. we walked to the train station to see about tickets for our 11:25 a.m. train.
The machines really are trickier than in Italy with much less English. We went very slowly through the screens. We knew we had to take two trains, changing in Marseilles, but the machine let us buy a ticket to Avignon all at once with just one purchase. Yay!
We had one last amazing breakfast at our favorite hotel in Nice and said Au Revoir to the incredible staff. We got to the train station early and they posted our platform–C. Shortly we found a really pretty train there with comfy clean cloth seats and plenty of room, so we got all settled in. After a few minutes, a women asked in an accent, Does anyone here speak English? Yesssss……Do you know if we can sit here? This car says Class 1………..and she pointed to a sign. She was right of course and what did we know except we definitely bought the cheapest tickets. So Mike headed down the train to find Class 2. One woman told him, oh nooooo, they did away with that years ago, said it was illegal to have separate classes….. Hmmmm
Mike was worried about getting kicked out of our car and then there being no Class 2 seats, so we got all our stuff together and starting walking down the train. The original lady kept apologizing, assuming she was wrong and shouldn’t have said anything. We kept assuring her we were glad she did! Another lady said she definitely paid for Class 1 tickets.
So now we got settled in again in Class 2. Still nice but no cloth seats, more like vinyl and a little less room, but many available seats to Marseilles which was a relief because it was a 3 hour ride. Phew, we were on the way!
Marseilles is also on the Cote d’Azur, so our smooth train sped along the coast. Periodically you could see yachts and resorts. We passed through Antibes and Cannes, places we thought of visiting but now only got flashes.
The color of the rocks and dirt changed to the most vivid pumpkin color I’ve ever seen. Not the flashy orange you see in Georgia, but a deep rust color on the sides of cliffs that looked like pictures I’ve seen of Utah.
As we relaxed in our comfy train I thought how much I simultaneously love and fret over our travel days. On the one hand, it’s when you get to be still for a few hours and see all these new places, the farms and small communities where the average people live. On the other hand, the days are intense, often nerve-wracking and exhausting.
Most times they check your tickets while on the train, so we were used to that in Italy. This time, however, the ticket girl said, “Do you speak English? You were supposed to get this validated in the yellow machine by the entry gate.” Oh. She wrote something on our tickets and said it was ok this time……and we were really glad we were not also mistakenly in Class 1, because when I read about that online during our train ride, there were definitely 2 classes!
I remembered sandwiches and water this time, thinking of Katie saying always take snacks, you never know….
And it was a goooooooood thing too! We got to Marseilles. We only had a half hour so we immediately looked on the Departures board. It said “I” …… okkkkkk, is that a #1, or a capital I, or a lower case L…….The trains on some tracks were going in a different direction, heading north, where we were going. One platform said “i”……and it said it was going to Lyon, north. YES! That’s our train!
We got in line for the gate where they were scanning tickets before getting on the train this time. Nope, the lady said, those tickets are for regional trains, on this train you must have a reservation……We stepped to the side and showed another lady that our ticket did in fact say Avignon TGV station, which was where this train to Lyon was stopping. I know, she said, but you have to take another regional train to Avignon Central station, it’s on Platform K.
Rejected, we hustled to Platform K. The sign said Avignon Central in 20 minutes. We saw those yellow validating machines but we decided to ignore them for fear of I don’t know what, and got on the new train north. 8 stops. I texted the AirBnb host and said we would be late. No problem.
This train was like riding an AmTrak, bumpy and a little jerky. We moved along quickly though; now there were flat beautiful farms, with acres of apple orchards with tiny little pink blooms. There were cows, sheep, horses and a huge port and railroad with dozens of fuel tanks.
When the ticket guy came around, Mike started to explain but he just shrugged and beeped our ticket–probably gets it all the time. I try never to complain about lack of English in a foreign country, but it really wasn’t clear.
We got to Avignon, albeit to the wrong station, at 4;30 pm. The map showed our AirBnb even closer than the other station, so Mike said, unless they closed the gates to the city, haha, we should be fine. And so we were. Our new host met us here and greeted us warmly! She said when she realized about us arriving Tuesday she felt like she should have mentioned the strike–believe me everyone knows about it.
There was still enough daylight to explore a little bit. We stopped in a Fromaggerie–a cheese store! We sampled a slice of gouda with cumin–very interesting!
We have seen places that sell candied fruit, which I’m determined to try while we are here. It looks like jewels on display!
I’ve mentioned the cigarette smoking here; it’s way more than we are used to and really bothers Mike. But last night we found a place that had a non-smoking porch and enjoyed a glass of wine outside. The restaurant, Le Forum, is in a large square that I’m sure soon will be fillllllllled with tourists! The building across from us had lovely church bells and a sign that when translated said Avignon stands with the people from Ukraine. The country is so close it’s very real to the people of Europe.
As we came by the cathedral near our apartment, the sun was setting and glowed upon the steeple.
The protesters are really trying to cause disruption now since the on/off strike that started in January has not had the effect they want. On the news today they are talking about flight cancelations, trash collection issues, school closures, and fuel problems. So we have 3 days to figure out if we need to abandon France or head to our next city. I think we will allow one day to relax and discover Avignon first!
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