thedailychannel.com — adventure

On the train to ???

The great thing about travelling in a foreign country is this: you can have an adventure whether you get off the train, or stay on it. As we shall see.

Last October, having arrived in Calais, bound for Paris, we were fortunate enough to obtain tickets to a faster train, tickets unavailable to others less fluent in French, the lingua franca of France.

There's always the chance of something getting lost in translation, of course, but it seemed that we had ten minutes to change trains in Verthun. That should be plenty of time.

We said farewell to our fellow Dover ferry passengers who had been unable to get the ticket salesmen even to the existence of the train we were soon to board, and went down to the trackside.

Soon the train arrived, we got on board, and got comfortable, stowing our various suitcases and duffels in the overhead bin so thoughtfully provided, then sat down to watch the French countryside go rolling by.

Soon, all too soon, it seemed, in fact, in about ten minutes, we arrived at a station marked Calais-Verthun. Processing slowly but processing nonetheless, we cottoned onto the fact that indeed THIS WAS OUR STOP!

The suitcases cascaded from the overhead rack. We wrestled them quickly to the doors and... the doors remained closed. Soon they would open? I looked frantically for a method of opening. A handle? A button? Quickly a young boy Joe had befriended came over and began pushing the button frantically, as the train lurched into motion, carrying us safely and reliably to the next stop, which was, to us, not known.

to be continued...