August 12, 2011
Nantes: A very strange train trip
It was lucky that they had been unable to book us on an earlier train as Ken made what to him was an exciting discovery - there was an Agriculural Museum in town with a collection of old and rare tractors. Needless to say I wasn't quite as excited. So we were at their door when they opened at 9.00 and Ken had a lovely time seeing equipment used by his father and grandfather and delighting to see tractors he had only read about.
Our check out was at midday and we were at the gare shortly after for our 1,30 train. Rather unsure how bikes on trains worked we observed things carefully. Chartres is a small station so it all seemed reasonably straightforward. But then our first minor problem we needed to go down some steep steps and up the same number to get to our platform. Going down wasn't too bad especially when I thought to use the brakes to stop the headlong rush to the bottom. Getting up with fully laden bikes was a different story We got our bikes aboard and felt very smug. Our next challenge was the change we had to make at Le Mans to the TGV - we had 10minutes to find where it went from, it shouldn't be a problem. Le Mans is a huge station but we found our platform in record time and it had ramps rather than steps. Then the fun began, the train came in, I started running up and down the platform like a headless chicken looking for our carriage, Ken went in the opposite direction. We found it! As we did the train slowly pulled away leaving us and our bikes watching it. The nearby guard came to our rescue and said 'this is your lucky day this train here is also going to Nantes'. It seemed completely full but we unloaded the bikes completely and dragged them up the steps. One managed to more or less fit in the cycle storage the other we just had to hold it the entrance. It was lucky that we saw the panniers still on the platform before the train pulled out. About half an hour before the journey's end a young woman with two babies came along and wanted her pram out. I clambered over assorted bikes and bags and hauled it out. Ken was pinned to the wall behind our other bike. Seeing what I think he assumed was a railway employee a Turkish gentleman dealing with luggage he demanded I get his bags out as he needed to be the first one off the train. He kept telling me in his very small amount of English (he appeared to have no French) that they were very heavy and I would have to try harder. Eventually all was done to his satisfaction but now I was completely trapped in with the bikes where I had to spend the rest of the trip.
It was easy to find the very nice hotel I had booked, good old GPS, and I felt that we had left Mr Bean on the train.
The coffee for the day was at a bar on the way to the tractors. It was a large cup well flavoured but not quite strong enough for me 2,5 Euros
Today's ride: 4 km (2 miles)
Total: 154 km (96 miles)
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