We got off at the Paris Gare du Nord (and I discovered the battery had fallen out of my camera – so I started using my phone)…
…there was a long wiggly queue for taxis opposite a small gathering of people (a few of whom had brass instruments), we queued – while a trumpet was being intermittently played, some drumming started up, we had a quick chat to an English speaking woman who agreed this system was chaotic; some taxi drivers looked desperate, and one tried to tell us that the Gare De L’Est was only a few streets away and vaguely pointed his finger to the left; various Samu De Paris vehicles were around (I checked – Samu stands for ‘Service d’aide médicale urgente’); and at the station, the departures board seemed to be constantly changing it’s mind about things.
La Pain Quotidien (meaning The Daily Bread) said (in English) ‘because “good food” tastes even better in “good company”’ on the side of its stall, Mum purchased some sort of food and then walked off to the loo; I forced myself not to move an inch, she emerged (having had to queue in a very long queue and pay €1), I spotted her, and the departures board said a platform I forgot the number of because we dashed off towards it.
A double decker train was the one boarded; and once seated on the top floor, the salad-y substance purchased was found to contain odd sultanas (that were covered in salad dressing), some walnuts, balls of feta cheese and bits of apple. I tried to fathom my phones camera a bit more, a board said 311km/h was the trains current speed (and 3.39pm was the expected arrival time in Strasbourg) and that there was a nursery area available in coach 7; by 2.50pm we were somewhere between Sainte Menehould and Verdun, a lady across the aisle was sketching stuff in a small (A5) sketchbook – and 1 seemed to be titled ‘soupe d’agneau’; ‘L’hote etoiles’ was on the back of a fluorescent jacket worn by a man who walked through the carriage; a parc natural region des Vosges du Nord wasn’t far away at 3.15pm, neither was very dark cloud, then I realised I hadn’t put a full stop in a sentence for 2 pages, and was told James Joyce’s Ulysses (written in 1920) has no punctuation (it’s about everything done by a man in one day); and then we went in to a very dark tunnel and my ears popped.
I forgot when we came out because I was told to get moving; and down the stairs and stood by a door – I managed to stay upright, a ‘gel hydro-alcoolique’ canister revealed itself to be empty when a man tried to use it, and I could see a reflection of myself in a window covering a fire extinguisher (extincteur in French) and didn’t think my hair looked too bad.
It was 3.38pm when we disembarked (in bright sunshine) in Strasbourg, a shop called La Croissantarie was by the platform, tiny somethings I forgot were somewhere I forgot because one ticket machine got confusing, and it appeared that twisting a knob that didn’t look like a knob was a way of choosing options (we were helped by a nice English speaking woman); and back outside we got on a bus (that may’ve been a tram) to try and find the hotel: a couple of blokes gave up their seats for us, Mum was brave enough to ask the driver where our stop was – and he said ‘its back there’, so we got off at the next stop (called La Voisier) and got on the next bus going the other way.
Staying upright was tricky, graffiti was everywhere, we got off back at the station, a nice lady pointed at the map on the wall of the bus stop and said ‘two stops’ in French, so we got on and got off; and once off, I had my phone out and was trying to navigate via the blue blob on the vague map Google Maps provided without internet.
Another lady pointed us in the right direction, we continued wandering; and by 5pm we were in front of the cathedral (and its bells chimed), the hotel was spotted, and we made it there.
At the desk, we were told Alsatian is a dialect of German spoken here, a receptionist called Mariella showed us a map, mentioned a boat, and said we’d see everything in boat tour; a few more things I forgot were said, we got in a lift, and found our room. I briefly flopped on the bed (and a pigeon was outside the window), then got a bit of a grip on myself, put my phone on charge (as it was getting desperate)- and forgot when we left again, because the hotel cafe was found (in Place Du Château), the lady behind the bar spoke English, and pear and almond tart, chocolate torte, green tea, and bergamot, jasmine and vitamin tea (which I’d picked because I thought it sounded interesting) were consumed as very late tea.
The cathedral bells were ringing by 5.50pm, I was wondering if that was done by a mechanism or human bell ringers, seeing a tram going past caused that to be considered for tomorrow (and a small tram meant to look like a steam train went past – with several parent-accompanied little kids on), the bells stopped, I whimpered slightly due to the lack of a camera, and I forgot when the table was left again.
In the lift – a letter advertised a play called La Couronnement De Poppee (which I thought might be about the Pope); and then in room 6, we flopped, the TV was briefly turned on (it had a strange game show on it), the speed my phone was charging at made me nervous, and I went downstairs and asked the person at the desk – who got a 2 pinned plug with USB sockets out of a drawer and gave it to me. Back up in the room (and I wrote ‘roost hole’ rather than room due to feeling stoned and not concentrating) I stuck my phone on charge again and washed my face, and was asked if we could have a reading: I read out todays notes (approaching 6 pages of my notepad) – and was told it was a brilliant account of the day; it was decided we’d see when we woke up tomorrow; and then she went and cleaned her teeth and tried to sing ‘Let it be’, and I next went flop at 8.25pm.
