Vocal Voices

I'd made it through Paris CDG OK Friday night. I did hear the announcements about the left bag but I'm used to that (I actually understood the French version which is a first for me), so I wasn't worrying too much. Flight smack on time, passports nobody in the queue, trailed downstairs to exit customs after the baggage claim and ran smack into a huge crowd of people.

Great, the bag which was left, was left right next to the customs exit. They closed the exit and cleared the terminal around it and there we stood. Well I just found a seat and sat, for 20 minutes whilst they removed it and destroyed it....

This time I'd hired a car so there would be no mad maniacal dash to the train station only to find myself stuck in Paris for the night.

Here's the fun bit. It took 20 minutes to get the paperwork done then another 20 minutes to rearrange the C4 Picasso seats, mirrors etc, in the dark, then change the language on the dash display so I could see what it was saying I had to do when I pressed the start button..... God help the people who aren't technically aware, I was half way home before I found the dial which switched all the right hand dash functions...

I missed the A3 turnoff because I was still faffing with the onboard settings, trying to link my phone and get some music. I decided to go straight down the A1 to the peripherique and once I got on it I found there was a 20 minute delay for the person who had managed to smash their Peugeot 205 into the barrier, spin it round and have the whole front end crunched by two different trucks, closing 2 of the 3 lanes.

I got home at 2am.... Oh and I was flashed by a speed camera... Which, of course, I will not get fined for as it was a French car....

Ah well. A drive the equivalent of London to Newcastle coming up right now as I leave for Paris.

Have a good day..

Suff wrote:

I got home at 2am.... Oh and I was flashed by a speed camera... Which, of course, I will not get fined for as it was a French car....

Oh dear Suff. Won't the speeding fine go to the hire company and then they will just charge the fine to your card…….or did you pay cash?

Paid by card Molly. They didn't see anything wrong with the wheel so it will just be the fine.

Suff surely if things went smoothly and uneventfully--you'd be bored ? lol

Ah, memories of the peripherique like a puncture in the boat trailer, nearly running out of petrol, last splutter in the only petrol station on it, missing the right exit and losing the brakes with only the hand one left.

Boredom in travel is the desired result. Things used to work better. There were more flights, more trains, faster connections.

Things have become worse, less available travel, tighter connection times, reported landing times which do not include 15 minutes taxi and airstair connection...

I've enjoyed being bored over the last two decades. I most certainly hate it when it becomes "exciting". Usually I can just deal with it, but when it starts becoming like this every time I travel, I get pretty annoyed...