...at high speedThis is the TGV station in Avignon as it looked in 2001. TGV means train à grande vitesse. On the day I took these photos, I was taking the train to Paris and on to Rouen to see friends there. Walt and Sue were staying a few more days in Provence before driving back to Paris for our return flight to San Francisco. Ten years earlier, Walt and I were in Paris for a couple of weeks. Walt was working with a professor at Berkeley on a high-speed train plan for California. The professor and Walt were having meetings with their French counterparts, and they asked him if he'd like to take a ride on a TGV in the driver's cabin to see what the experience was like. Walt asked if he could bring a friend: me. They said yes. So we rode in a TGV train from Paris to Nantes at 300+ k.p.h. — nearly 200 m.p.h. It was an amazing experience.
Wow I would loved to have done that! Here we are in 2023 and a car is still necessary in CA. Why can't we have nice things?
ReplyDeleteThe plan, or should I say study, for high speed rail in California never got past the study stage. It's too bad.
DeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great memory!
ReplyDeleteEvelyn
Wow - I was in Avignon in December of 2021 and there was a little tiny station outside of Avignon - nothing I remember like this? I took a navet into the town to meet my daughter. I came from CDG .
ReplyDeleteThis is so strange...I just researched and that new station opened in June of 2021. It was dark and I was very tired from traveling early in the morning from Oregon (and I took the TGV- but now I have to ask my daughter? Strange.
ReplyDeleteBut, thanks for showing me what I missed!
My photos of the TGV station in Avignon are some I took in 2001. If I remember correctly, there were two train stations in Avignon, one for local trains and a different one for high-speed trains.
DeleteI had traveled on the TGV CHG - Avignon.
DeleteWhat a cool station! And what a cool opportunity! I love the trains :)
ReplyDelete