19 May 2016

Traveling these days

An Egyptian airplane disappeared in the skies over the Mediterranean Sea overnight. It had taken off from Paris late Wednesday evening. I'm so sorry things like this keep happening — it's horrible to imagine... I would have been a nervous wreck if it had happened 24 hours earlier, with Walt in the air. The last two or three times I've flown across the Atlantic there have been similarly horrible events during my travels. A pilot crashed a plane full of people into a mountain in the south of France, for example. The Paris terrorist attacks in which more than 100 people were killed in a theater and several cafés happened just two days before I flew back from Atlanta to Paris. And so on. I'm not sure travel is worth it any more. For a long time, flying was fun. Then over the past 20 years it has become an ordeal because of security and planes that are more and more crowded and cramped. Now it's just too stressful, I think.


So Walt got back with absolutely no trouble. I left home at 1:00 p.m. in the Citroën, filled up the tank at a local gas station (at Intermarché), and drove little back roads up to Blois. It took me about an hour to get there. I was early, and I had time to take some photos. Walt's train pulled into the Gare de Blois-Chambord shortly before 2:30, right on time. We drove back home to Saint-Aignan and arrived by 3:30. We had champagne. We had a late lunch. Walt told me more details of his trip and of friends and family that he saw. He hadn't been to the U.S. in four years; I've been over there three times since March 2015.


The two photos here show you the Gare de Blois, now known as Blois-Chambord. Blois is a small city of maybe 75,000, and Chambord, one of the most famous Loire Valley Renaissance chateaus, is less than half an hour away by car. It was lucky that one of the trains running yesterday, despite the strikes, was the 12:59 out of Paris Austerlitz station to Orléans, Blois, Amboise, and Tours — direct. In other words, no need to change trains at any point and wait around in some other train station. And no need to haul a heavy suitcase off one train and back onto another. It's much easier and less expensive to take the train to and from Paris rather than drive your own car. As you can see, the station at Blois is not what you would call mobbed.

12 comments:

  1. All is well that ends well! Glad everything was so smooth for Walt after a long overnight flight. I hope he was able to sleep a little. That helps!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Despite the publicized and troubling disasters, air travel keeps getting safer. But it also keeps getting more stressful. Glad his trip was uneventful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So glad that Walt is home safe and sound. We are on our honeymoon in SE Asia for the month of May and as expected we are taking several flights. That part of our trip is not fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've never enjoyed air travel and it is a whole lot worse now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How terrible about the Egyptian flight. Of course, good news, though, that all went smoothly for Walt's return :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. so glad Walt got home safe! i agree about travel. i remember Before when you could greet people...and say goodbye to them.. at the gate. now it's awful. my flight was so crowded when i went to AZ in january. i'm a small person and i was overwhelmed by how little space there was. now... geez. maybe you and Walt will take to overseas travel and cruise over next time?
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I still love traveling on planes, trains, cars and boats. The smart phones and tablets make planning and navigation much easier.
    I also love seeing photos of train stations and traveling on trains in Europe. Maybe my next trip will involve going to Blois/Chambord- I can dream...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad it went well for Walt. The Gare de Blois is an attractive building from the outside.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess most train stations in France were built in the mid to late 19th century. The Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est, not very far from each other, in Paris look very much alike. Of course, some stations have been modernized.

      Delete
  9. You're right, the process of arranging travel is easier but the actual travelling is rarely any fun these days. It has to be worth it to go to all the hassle.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I know what you mean. I rarely fret about the potential dangers of terrorism, disaster and the like, but the whole experience of air travel, at least at either end, is increasingly tedious. It may be advancing years or something like, but these days I look to go to where I can travel by train, not that that's exempt from terrorism and disaster, of course - but the experience tends to be more comfortable.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Everyone said what I wanted to say, so I'll just add that it's nice that Walt is home.

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?