Trains Trains and more Trains

Taking the train from Lewisham, South East London to Jarnac in South West France, just a normal commute? Well not really, but here is the story of the eight trains it takes to get me home for the weekend and back again on Monday morning.

I'm cheating a bit by saying eight trains as four of them are tubes, but they are trains none the less. On this particular journey I set off on a damp and drizzly Friday morning to catch the 6.05 from Lee to London Bridge, I think lot of people were taking the day off because I got a seat, which is rare, even in these economically challenged times. Having reached London Bridge on time I joined the dash down to the Jubilee Line to take the tube to Westminster, where I needed change to the District Line to bring bring me to my first destination of the day, Victoria. The jubilee line at 6:30 in the morning is full of the manual workers of London heading for the morning round of cleaning, or getting ready for another day on the building site, I bet they are glad this winter is behind them now. The trains on the District Line are equally full as the come from the outer lying areas of London, the Circle Line by contrast is almost empty, and I invariably get a carraige to myself. A quick jog up the stairs from the platform entitles me to pick up an egg and bacon roll from one of the Italian sandwich shops just outside the station, and then head off to the office to get a few hours work done before heading up to St Pancras to pick up the Eurostar to Paris.

Having not done any of the work I intended to do itis time to make my way back to Victoria station to continue my journey home to France, and this time we take the Victoria Line to Kings Cross St Pancras. There seems to have been building work going on for ever at Kings Cross St Pancras tube station but finally there looks to be a light at the end of the tunnel (could not resist that pun - sorry). A whole new set of tunnels linking the Victoria Line platforms with the main line stations are now open, and they have put the signs up so you know where you are going It is very light and airy not at all like the old underground, so well done one and all. I have one little niggle, its one hell of a rout march from the Victoria Line to St Pancras International, it felt like I had walked half way to Paris by the time I got there.

Since I can't use my Oyster card to get me to Paris yet, I went to one of the Eurostar automated collection machines and printed out my tickets, its a great system you buy your tickets from Rail Europe on the wibbly wobbly web at half the price Eurostar want to charge, and just by putting in your collection code you get your tickets, its great when technology works, that is progress.

Once through the airline style security screening and French passport control we are in the very nice departure lounge which has everything a traveller would need, shops toilets, seats, wifi, power for your laptop even French and Belgian tourist information, but no bins!! We have been through security, surely we can be trusted not to put explosive devices in the bins, or don't they trust their security systems to stop explosive devices being taken into the departure lounge in the first place. I must admit that at both ends of the line the Eurostar security is not as strong as at the airports which always strikes me as odd, given the tunnels track record so far.

Any way I digress, onto train number 5 of the day for the 12:30ish departure to Paris, and I appear to have been placed in a carriage full of people of a certain age, (OK pensioners - by the way aren't pensioners looking young these days) no doubt spending the kids inheritance. As soon as the wheels started turning, out came the foil packed sandwiches and flasks of tea, how did they get foil packs through security? For me and my travelling companion, for this part of the journey, it was out with the laptops and Blackberrys. One small problem here, there are so many tunnels and cuttings between St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel we keep loosing the wireless broadband connection. The arrival at Channel Tunnel signals the end of wireless broadband usage until a return to uk soil, it is still way too expensive to roam onto another network to use broadband in foreign country, thank heaven for wifi hotspots. We flew through the French coutryside towards Paris at a rapid rate of knots, the train line follows one of the main motorways from Calais to Paris and I once did try to keep up with the Eurostar, but not a chance in the car. I am sure the line from the Channel Tunnel to Paris must be one of the fastest in Europe. It always seems to me that the Eurostar travels faster than the TGV, but perhaps its just that the Eurostar makes more noise so feels faster than the better insulated TGV trains.

The Eurostar is a great way to travel between London and Paris, I just wish it wasn't so expensive, but I guess they have the pricing set correctly as the trains are always pretty full. It is nice when I can get a bargain ticket to travel in first class either via a Leisure Select or even Business Premiere ticket. You are served an aperitif a meal with wine, tea coffee and a digestif should you so wish, a very nice way to make your way from London to Paris. First class on the TGV though is a completely different kettle of fish. Apart from a bigger seat you don't get anything extra for your money, but then with the price only being €15 or €20 more than standard class you could not expect much for your money. I stick with travelling standard class on the TGV and take the option of first class on the Eurostar if there is a bargain to be had.

On arrival in Paris at the Gare du Nord I have plenty of time to get across the city to Gare Paris Montparnasse for my train to Angouleme, so I stroll down to the Metro (bought my carnet of tickets from the buffet/bar on the Eurostar to save queueing) which is only a 5 minute walk from the Eurostar platforms. I head for Line 4 and jump on the train. It always amazes me that the Paris metro trains have rubber tyres so the are relatively quiet compared to their London counterparts, and you can even use your mobile on the Metro, certainly the lines I use have been wired for mobile phones.

The Gare du Nord and Paris Montparnasse are two completely different stations, the Gare Du Nord has beautiful facade and looks like a station that is about 100 years old with bags of atmosphere and nostalgia about it, I always get the feeling of starting or ending a great journey there. Montparnasse on the other hand is great big brash modern station all bare concrete and angles, no real sense of nostalgia here, just the hustle and bustle of a very busymainline station serving the south of France.

There is a system at Montparnasse to getting on your TGV should you choose to paticipate in the ritual. The trains to Angouleme normally go from platforms 1,2,3 or 4 and so from about an hour before departure you stand opposite these platforms staring up at the huge indicator board waiting for the platform number to be announced, usually about 20 minutes before departure. Once the platform number is displayed you dash for the train, and why this ritual, firstly to bag your seat in case it is double booked, but mainly because you need to grab a space for your luggage. The French appear not to know the meaning of travelling light and as a consequence if you are last onto the train you will not have a place to put your luggage!! Having taken part in this ritual I found my seat on the 17:40 to Angouleme, settled back for the 2 hour 15 minute journey while the train filled up around me.

I managed to get one of the TGV's that run nonstop from Paris to Angouleme, and true to form all the French use the journey as a chance for some shuteye, or to catch up on their movie watching or missed TV shows. For me, as usual my laptop is out and I am wrting blogs, tweeting on my Blackberry or reading a book. This generally passes the time really quickly because by now all I want to do is get home, this was train number 7 and there is still one more to go after this to bring me to my journey's end. On arrival at Angouleme I need to buy a ticket for the last leg of my journey, if I had bought it from Rail Europe my entire journey would have cost me and extra £150.00, and the ticket is only €6.80. 15 minutes to buy a ticket and locate the train should not be a problem, and so it was at 8:10pm I walked to platform 11 to get on the eigth and final train to get me home, it was one of the old fashioned French local services, with the really deep comfy seats we used to ave in the 60s &70s in the UK, and so it was that at 8:45pm I finally arrived at Jarnac station happy to have got home for the weekend only to do a similar journey in reverse on Monday morning to get me back to work. Making this journey by train is more tiring than using the plane but I like to travel by train, as you certainly get to see a lot more and have much more of a sense that you have travelled somewhere, even if you do arrive tired, but never the less happy to have travelled.

Masterchef 2010

So how has it been for you

Mastershout 2010 (thanks @fannyingabout for the name), sorry Masterchef 2010, has come a long way from the days of Loyd Grossman and his deliberations and cogitations on the sofa with celebrity guests.

However like so many of these formula (or reality type) shows I think it is about to reach its sell by date. My view is that in an attempt to offer a new angle the show seems to be drifting towards what I would describe as an unhealthy emphasis on presentation first, flavour and ingredients second unless the dish has BIG FLAVOUR (sorry for shouting again), no subtlety here.

Then last night when I thought I had the formula worked out they turned it on its head, the contestant with the best presentation skills and a good grasp of flavours and cooking beats the cook with the same attributes but with no presentation skills. If I'm right and this was a blip in the formula, this person, who does great food, will not get much further.

In an earlier round they did not put any body through from one contest for a quarter final place, a good move as none were good enough, but then in another show 2 excellent cooks went home whilst a couple of mediocre cooks were able to compete for a quarter final.

I know it's a tough job that John and Greg have but I think sometimes they are some what wide of the mark when judging what is in front of them, unless there is something else that we are not seeing.

Then there are the contestants themselves, most, though not all, want to win Masterchef so that they can open their own restaurant, well WHY, oops sorry shouting again, do you have to win Masterchef before you do it, if you are any good and you want your restaurant half as much as winning Masterchef then you won't need the competition to achieve your aim.

So why go on Masterchef, that's a tough one, and I would like to do it, given the time to practice, for me it would be to push myself in all the different areas that you get to experience going through the rounds, you must also learn a lot from the top chefs and just to be in all those different cooking environments working with people at the top of their game, now that would be fun and challenging.

Talking of fun, and this is my point in all this, FOOD SHOULD BE FUN, sorry shouting again, food is something that brings people together, the biggest moments of our lives almost all involve food somewhere along the line and luckily most occasions are happy ones, with the food and drink helping people feel even better about that special event.

Yes food has to look good, but people don't really remember food by saying wow didn't that plate of food look good, no above all it has to taste good, then it stays in the memory, a bad tasting meal also has the same effect on the memory, good looking or not. So far this series there has only been one dish that has stuck in my mind that I want to try and that was John's lobster and crab omelette, and I have been ill every time I have eaten lobster so far in my life!

I have enjoyed, no loved, watching Masterchef over the years but I think the time is approaching where it is time to hang up the aprons, let John and Greg's vocal chords recover from all that shouting, and move on.

Good luck to all the semi finalists in 2010, you have done a great job getting where you have, you are way better than me at the moment, and deserve to be there. My wife and I love cooking, we cook for our guests in our B&B, and we have fun doing it, we hope the guests have fun eating it too because that is what it is all about, there is no better sound than the buzz of people talking and laughing and enjoying, good company, good food and good wine. We come from the Mitra (8th Semi finalist on masterchef 2010) school of presentation, put it onto the plate and let the food do the talking.

We are getting better with our presentation, however we care more about our ingredients, where they come from and how they taste, presentation is second to having a good time cooking with good local ingredients and enjoying eating with happy contented people around the table, THAT'S tops for us, THAT'S what we call Masterchef.

I could go on for ages but I'll stop now and sorry about the shouting

Cheers


Darren

Easter is coming!

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