Le Train Bleu
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2004
1
14
34
Trip End
May 09, 2004
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Paris to Monaco,
France
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
We are excited in anticipation of this grand journey, which has cost us € 108.00 each. Although we are not expecting an Orient Express, we feel somewhat disappointed when we see the carriages stretching down the platform
01. Gare d'Austerlitz
. Nothing extraordinary, just grey and blue rolling stock looking a bit aged beside the sleek T.G.V. parked beside it. The T.G.V. would have whisked us to Monte Carlo in six hours. Le Train Bleu will take twelve hours. The guard checks out tickets with passports, and ushers us through to the platform. On locating our carriage we board the train and enter our compartment. We find that each small compartment contains six narrow bunks, three on each side of the compartment. The compartment already contains two other male passengers who will share the accommodation with the four of us for the rest of the night. Rocio, who purchased her ticket later, is two carriages down from us. The gentlemen have snagged an upper and lower bunk, leaving one upper, one lower and two middle bunks for us. We salute them with a "bon nuit", and their answer is about the only thing we hear from them for the rest of the trip. They are fast asleep long before the train leaves the station and are obviously regular passengers on this route. As a matter of interest, you are not expected to change into pajamas, you sleep fully clothed (with your shoes off, of course). We wonder how Rocio is getting on.
The accommodation is cramped. There is no where to sit and hardly anywhere to stand
02. Off to the Riviera.
. We explore the rest of the train hoping to find sustenance, or perhaps somewhere to sit before we turn in. There is no dining car, just a machine that serves coffee, sodas and packaged snacks. There is no seating at all on this train. You either lie in your bunk, or you stand in the corridor. We elected to stand to watch Paris drift by in the gathering darkness. We all used the toilet (one per carriage) before it got too abused, and finally settled in to sleep through France. It's rather strange sleeping in a train. On an aircraft, one sits upright attempting to accommodate ones body in an "L" shape. On a ship, it's smooth going in a cabin. In the car, one usually snoozes out of exhaustion. On this sleeper train I have a full length bunk with sheets, blankets and a pillow, but somehow the movement of the train won't allow me to drop off. It seems to be going awfully fast around the curves, and I have panicky thoughts about it jumping the tracks. The rest of the family and our companions seem deep in the land of nod, and I suppose I eventually arrive there too.
