EuroTrip Day 11 – Nimes->Paris->Ulm

Mainly a travel day for Vero and I. We didn’t know if we wanted to tour a little more around Nimes, but we had until the early afternoon to get on a train so we decided to at least check out some of the sights.

We were pleasantly surprised at the ‘other’ side of Nimes! We had always stuck to the path that took us towards the train station. But there’s a little more life to the place if you venture West of the giant church! Here we found a lot of restaurants, a shopping mall (where I managed to snag the PJ20 soundtrack) and this amazing, amazing market that Uncle Gerry had indicated on a map but we had never bothered to seek it out thinking it was a typical farmer’s market like in Ottawa. Au contraire! This place was incredible and I even managed to buy a bag of olives to munch on for the rest of the walk.

I believe we ended up in les Jardins de la Fontaine which was a nice park with some fountains and some Roman ruins which were interesting. We also witnessed some teenagers smoking something in back of those ruins. I’m sure that happened for many years since it’s creation!

With some time on our hands, we decided to hike up the hill to the Tour Magne which was supposedly a tower overlooking the area. On the map, it seemed like it would be a day trip so we had never bothered, but we had another few hours and I didn’t think it would be too far. Sure enough, twenty minutes later, we witness the breathtaking view of Nimes in all its glory and see the Tour Magne up close. We didn’t bother paying the six Euro to go inside. It was nice enough outside.

One thought that remains with me is the crushed stone that you walk on in the park. Parks are definitely different than in Canada where it’s all about walking on the grass.

All in all, we thought Nimes was so-so during our stay until I witnessed the new side of Nimes…beautiful fountains, a lively centre-ville…so I have changed my view on the place and think it would be a fun place to live in. I hope Uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko feel that way as well!

Once again, special thanks go out to Uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko for allowing us to stay at their homestead. It was comforting to go to a place where we could relax after a long day’s travel.

We headed back, grabbed our bags and headed to the train station. All was good in the world. We were boarding the train, spending a few hours on it, having a good 1.5 hour layover in Paris and then hopping on a night train (sleeper train) to go to Germany. What could go wrong?

We must have great karma because something nearly did go wrong as soon as we arrived in Paris. I had been looking at the train tickets and made an offhand comment to Vero that I thought it was weird that they mentioned the Gare de Lyon on the ticket where we were arriving, but they mentioned Gare l’Est on the other ticket. I just assumed it meant that it was the East wing of the Gare de Lyon, right? Because every city only has one train station, right? (I can hear some of you screaming at me: NO!)

So with the thought of grabbing a nice relaxing meal at a restaurant and maybe a beer or two, we also thought that we should go to the ticket counter just to make sure we were on the right track (ha! Train station joke there). We really had no worries.

But then the guy tells us that there are MANY train stations in Paris and sure enough, we have to get to the East Train Station to catch our night train to Germany. OH LORD! Even though there was a sense of slight panic, we knew that we had time to get there on the metro. I must say that it was convenient that we had been accustomed to the Metro in Paris or else it would have taken a bit more time. We did spend a bit of hectic time trying to figure out what tickets to buy (since we were coming back to Paris AGAIN a few days later and wanted to know if we could buy all the tickets then) but in the end, we decided to deal with that bridge when we got to it.

Scrambling through the heated halls, we managed to get to the Gare L’Est, scarf down some food (we actually switched our food as Vero thought her pad thai was extremely salty) and I picked up an electrical adapter for the train as I think I have lost my own back in Barcelona.

I was quite excited when the time came to board the night train. First time on a sleeper train! I had visions of the Orient Express…of the romanticism of ‘From Russia with Love’ where James Bond eats in a dining car, sips on a drink, and spends the night in an awesome cabin.

It was exactly like that unfortunately. We did manage to find our cabin which is a neat piece of engineering. From the sink, to the folding down beds, to the buttons on the wall to toggle light switches, set alarms, etc. I thought it was quite neat.

My faithful companion during Eurotrip 2011…Plants vs. Zombies!

But where was the dining car? No dining car on the night train unfortunately. But lots of travelers heading to Munchen (Munich) for Oktoberfest! You can see everyone getting antsy for a few beers. I didn’t think of bringing some for the trip, so we had to wait until everyone was settled in to go down the hall to the night clerk who would sell us some excellent Becks beer (see ya later shitty French beer!). I had no bottle opener on me so she supplied me with three open beers. Here’s to hoping I don’t spill them on the way back to the room!

Our fantastic sleeper car.

An attendant comes to your room to make sure you know how it operates, asks you what you want for breakfast the next day and asks when your wake up call should be. Fantastic! No worries on this train!

The sink.

We settled in, read a bit, played some Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad, and then propped the iPad up to watch some episodes from Les Invicibles, an excellent French tv series about four guys that decide to break up with their significant others at the same time. It’s quite hilarious.

Vero having a great time on the top bunk.

Popping in my earplugs, I was ready to get a night’s sleep on the Night Train and I managed to jam the door like James Bond does so no one can get in.