Brrr. We’re cold. Life in Spain was lived in the balmy low 20s, though our few days staing with friends where we used to live in France saw us getting up in the morning to temperatures of 3 degrees. It’s better here, but …. brrr all the same.
Our last day, spent on two trains in France, one that went from France to England, and one in England, was … interesting. Or at least the Paris leg was. We had to travel from Paris Montparnasse on the metro to Pais Gare du Nord on the metro. Here is Paris Montparnasse.
It’s immense, so they help you on your way by providing travellators getting on for a kilometre long …
And once on our metro train, we were helped on our way even more. Four stations en route were closed by order of the Préfecture de Police: presumably because five unions had joined a day of action demanding more money for wages and public services.
The left-wing CGT union put the number of people taking part in Thursday’s mobilisation at 1.57 million and hailed the figure as ‘a level unmatched’ since 2023, citing big protests in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux and Lille. The only one of those cities we didn’t pass through yesterday was Marseille.
Arriving at Eurostar, staff were happy to bundle us onto an earlier train, presumably to release seats later for passenegers who’d been delayed by the civil action. So we arrived in London just as we should have been leaving Paris. A good result, especially for the friend meeting us from Northallerton station who’d expected to be on duty at 11.00 p.m. and was instead waiting for us before 8.00 p.m.
More travellers’ tales to come …
