Paris Day 3 - Missed our Train

Today was an unfortunate day for us. We didn’t visit any places since most of us were so tired, and our train’s departure time was 12pm. We slowly packed our stuff, and Eugene even helped to burst michelle’s blister on her feet. Before we left, the girls even bothered to write a thank-you note for the hotel staff. Everyone was so excited and happy that none kept track of the time.

It was already 11.30pm when we boarded the train from the metro, and when we reached the train station, it had left 5 minutes ago. The next earliest train available was at 9pm, but our hosts were meeting us at 6pm at Lyon train station. We had a hard time trying to contact Marie-France, the coordinator of the immersion, to tell her that we would be late. I even used the public phone, and it cost me 5 euros (10 SGD) though it was just a 3 minutes conversation.

the usual breakfast, notice that i took a lot of toasted bread, because i don't really like the other bread, which is quite hard to bite. We will have plenty of such bread in lyon.

michelle's blister

We were quite tired of staying at the metro station, so letch, sinhui and I went out to take a walk, while the other 3 looked after our luggage. We bought quiche from a nice shop selling pasteries, and peaches from another shop. (No photo, sigh) We also took a walk around the park nearby.

outside the train station

boulangerie

photos taken at the park near the train station

When we walked back to the train station, a french guy was obviously looking at letch when he walked past us. Then there was this road-cleaner who asked sinhui if i was her boyfriend, and then asked her to stay with him. Haha.

When it was mark, lynn and michelle’s turn to go for a look, they found a shop selling Chinese food. Being tired of bread, they bought fried rice for dinner, haha. It was quite strange because this was the first and last time we ever bought any Chinese food. In lyon, our hosts fed us so well that we didn’t miss food from Singapore at all.

It was our first time taking TGV, a high speed train, but it turned out to be disappointing because we could only see our reflections from the windows. Reaching Lyon, I was happy to see my host, who was a teacher teaching French in INSA. While driving me back home, she told me that there might be a strike tomorrow, and explained to me why there is a strike.

Tomorrow used to be a public holiday every year, but this year, the government declared that this year is not a public holiday, and the earnings for that day will be given to the elderly. However, the French people can still choose one day not to work(envious), and many might choose tomorrow. Thus many bus drivers could be on strike tomorrow.

inside the tgv

my room - it used to be her son's room