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| Paris In Sites Newsletter Direct From France Edited by Linda Thalman Travel & Leisure Articles |
Sundown On the Zip Train to Poitiers Imaginary photo of going too fast to see the ducks - with blurry real pond and willows. Time for Wine, None for Sandwichesby Linda ThalmanParis:- Monday, 20. October 1997:- At the TGV Gare at Montparnasse in Paris I don't need to be as early as at Orly for a charter flight. Destination: Poitiers on the 18:50 TGV run. On the train, at 18:50 there's one buzz, the doors close and off we go. Ten minutes later and we're already 35 kms southwest of Paris - this is an hour's trip on the local suburban RER. Weaving down the aisle to the Bar Car - ten minutes on board and I haven't even ordered yet! - to the gentle sway of the train. The sunset approaches as we cross La Beauce where
My ticket cost 249 francs, for a reserved seat - on-the-aisle, smoking-section - which I ordered by Minitel and paid for by debit-card. The ticket itself was hand-delivered by the snailmail-man to Boullay-les-Troux - which means; 'Bully for the Holes' - earlier in the week. Blurry photo of real SNCF rails, with fake countryside.Finally, after three or four paragraphs, I reach the Bar Car and pay 27 francs for 25 centiliters of Bordeaux, Yvecourt Premium 1995; and receive a free plastic wineglass from a smiling hostess. Fluffy clouds dapple the rosy sky, as we pass blue-grey farm buildings. The blue-grey-suited SNCF 'controlleur' arrives and punches my ticket at 19:25. Before boarding I had punched - 'composted' - it in one of the orange pillar-boxes in the main hall at Gare Montparnasse, so this was the SNCF's routine double-punch. In my reserved space, there's room to spread out my paper, handbag, briefcase, pen, plastic glass, and mini wine bottle on the flip-down tablet and use the tablet of the empty seat beside me as well for the spill-over. An orange-yellow sun blinds my view to the west. I forgot my low-level prescription variable-density sunglasses again. Several seats in front of me a debate begins between a passenger and the ticket-puncher. Those of us close enough, eavesdrop. A ten-minute discussion leads to a pink form being filled in. The tone rises between the ticket-puncher and the passenger without a valid ticket. Will he get thrown off the train here? Or will they wait until it slows to below 300 kph? Pale-green, and fairly clean pleated curtains remain open, though most travelers are absorbed in reading. A few others gaze idly at the rapidly passing landscape of stunted corn fields and ocre-tinted tiled roofs. There's a slight decrease in speed, then a tunnel, which seems to suck the air out of the wagon. The slightly disgruntled passenger and the professionally cool ticket-puncher finish their 'conversation.' Calm recommences in the carriage. I've not brought a map and there are few - even speed-readable - signs along the way, but we've reached Saint-Pierre-des-Corps at Tours, where the train loiters for a leisurely 10 minutes. Gliding out on track one, the train begins its run to Poitiers. My driver is to meet me there at 20:32. Will he be on
time? He has to come from the Chateau de Ranton along the
'Roman Road,' some 65 kms-worth, south to Poitiers. As the
TGV crosses
Along the tracks there are weekend gardening plots, weeping willows, slate grey roofs. No billboards or neon signs are in sight. By phone, I talk to Pierre, my driver, who suggests I grab a sandwich as we need to hurry back to the castle for the end of the concert - there will be no time for a restaurant meal in Poitiers. I sway back to the Bar Car. Jean-Paul, a charming, smiling SNCF ticket- puncher tells me we were doing 300 kph between Tours and Paris, but the train has slowed down to two hundred and eighty - plus small change - for the approach to Poitiers. "No, you haven't missed your stop," he says. "We arrive in about two minutes." And we do: at exactly 20:32 on the dot. But no time to grab a sandwich either. My chauffeur, Pierre, pulls in just as I step out of the front of the station and off we go at half the speed of the TGV - up to 150 kms on the straight parts, but a little slower on the curves to avoid tipping my plastic wine glass - to the Chateau de Ranton to give guided tours during France's 'Heritage' weekend. Back in the 'heritage' days, this trip would have taken three weeks - but today's little zip - it was merely the duration of a 'Long Sundown.'
Linda Thalman©1997
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freshly
tilled fields are golden brown and village church spires
poke their heads up in the distance, just like on
postcards. We're on a seemingly straight track through
small woods, and rows of poplars are more or less a
blur.
the Loire, overhead ducks are in a 'V' and a
brilliant red sun sinks into the river water. Picture
postcard quality sundown - and I don't have a camera. I'll
have to remember it instead.
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