TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Train Strike in Paris

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Train Strike in Paris - Day 1 in #ParisFrance

I made it to Paris, dear Readers, and am recuperating in my hotel room. First there was a 5-plus-hour flight from LAX to Montreal, followed by a 6-hour flight from Montreal to Paris. There was a harrowing moment when the plane in Montreal was delayed docking or parking because of something or other. When the plane finally opened its doors, a whole group of connecting passengers flew out of there. It wasn't just a matter of going to another gate either because you had to go through some kind of border control, which added to the delay. Fortunately, my connecting plane waited for us.

At the Charles de Gaulle airport, I made my way to the train station, which is within the airport complex. I bought my ticket to get to the city, but the woman at the counter didn't tell me that train workers are striking right now and the train schedules are askew. Instead of the train going all the way to my metro stop, it stopped at Garre du Nord, which meant I had to transfer to another train. The problem was that because of the schedule changes, even the people who worked there had no idea which trains were running. Fnally I got on the right train and made it to my hotel.

This isn't the first strike I've experienced in France Years ago, while my husband and I were doing a driving tour of France, there was a gas strike. Quite suddenly we couldn't buy gas for our rental car, and we barely had enough gasoline to get to the car rental place to return the car and transfer to a train instead.

I am not sure if this train strike will impact my stay here. Will I find myself in strange places and not find connecting trains? Hmmm ... not a pretty thought.

The picture above was taken before I left for the airport, and the photo below was taken at the metro from the airport.

Stay tuned, dear Readers!

Read also

This is all for now,
Cecilia

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.