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.