Rainy Paris, lunch with friends, and then...supprimé

We woke to clouds in the sky and knew that today we would see Paris in the rain. Often, Paris during a storm is beautiful, but this time there was something else happening. Traffic and construction ruined the mood a bit. But first, we arrived and met up with a distant relative, Alain, that Mom has been communicating with via a genealogy website. It was fun to hear about his life in Paris and the history of his family in Angers, where some of our relatives are also from. He was a kind man, quiet, and eager to hear about our life in America. He was an exchange student in Iowa many years ago, but did get to travel a bit in the US. We also had questions about living in France. He has a daughter in University in Bordeaux. Our discussion happened at a cafe table under a canopy while rain poured and poured. 

Next, we summoned an Uber, and managed to find our driver amidst a sea of cars all trying to go somewhere and all failing. Apparently, Paris will be hosting the 2024 summer Olympics, and to prepare, pretty much every street has construction occurring. I've never seen Paris so congested with traffic and so very much in shambles, hopefully to emerge spik and span for 2024. Good luck with all that, Paris. I'll see you again after all these shenanigans are done. 

We finally made it to our destination, the home of Simone and Catherine, our Parisian friends and hosts for the afternoon. Yesterday, I purchased a nice bottle of wine (or so I was told by the man at the wine shop). We were worried that we'd forget to bring it on the train with us to Paris, so we placed it in front of the door, unable to leave without taking it with us. I faithfully carried it on the train and to our meet up with Alain and parked it right next to me. And then, of course, I left it at the cafe, only discovering this fact while in the Uber heading away in the rain. I really hope someone enjoys that nice wine picked out by that nice man in the nice wine shop. It would have been a nice gift.

What was a fantastic gift, though, was time spent with friends. Mom met Simone many years ago through a women’s travel forum and now she and her partner Catherine are now family. As per usual, we ate very well during our time with them. Organic everything, vegetarian everything, French everything, delectable everything. The talk around our feast table was at points serious, discussing the troubles in America, and also hilarious, as we all told stories of mishaps and adventures. We were able to see their garden, which is a one foot by 3 foot section of space on their Paris street. It was lovely and made me wish for a tiny city garden of my own. Too soon, it was time to leave and we said our au voirs and kissed on both cheeks.

Our Uber back to the train station wasn't as bad as our initial trip, so we arrived earlier than expected. As we waited for our train, we cracked jokes about what we'd do if there was a strike and we were not able to get a train back to Lille. Well, we should have known better. Shortly afterwards, I checked on our train to locate the track number and instead found this word: supprimé. What did that mean? Google shortly told me that in French, supprimé means deleted. Our train was deleted? That sounded bad. And it was. The train was canceled and there was a line of hundreds of people trying to rebook. We had to make it back to Lille because tonight we pack and tomorrow at 7 AM we train to Rouen, France. Or not, depending on how all of this nonsense worked out. I stood in the horror line for about an hour, and as I waited I also used the very poor cell reception to try and find another way home. AND I DID. I booked two of the last few seats on the train leaving the following hour and pushed through several minutes of buffering on my phone to finally see them appear. We were saved. This train was quite late in departing due to all the hullabaloo. I am happy to report that we are now back in Lille, where we found hundreds more people stranded at the station on that side as well. I Googled to find out what happened and it turns out that the high speed railway, running in both directions, was out of commission due to what was called an "accident of person". Yikes! I hope all is well with that person. You know who isn't well? Mom. She almost choked to death eating a melon at dinner. She didn't choke on the melon, but inhaled the juice and then in trying to catch her breath, almost inhaled the melon. Lots of melon action. Don't worry. She's fine. The melon? Well not so much.

And now to pack. We'll be in Rouen for our next adventure. I'm sure the train ride will go smoothly in the morning....right?