3rd July 1999, 1500hrs, Saturday. Between Avignon and Marseille. HOT.
On Thursday we got a lift down to Monestier with the local event organiser, that day wearing his poster-distributing hat. After stopping off in St. Guillame, and St. Paul les Monestiers, we got to Monestier de Clermont in good time for a Croque-Monsieur in the park and the train into Grenoble. Second time around, Grenoble seemed a lot busier. We caught the bus down Cours Jean Jaurès to the Youth Hostel.
1825hrs Nice - train station
We’ve just arrived to discover that all the couchettes for our night train to Verona are booked up. To make matters worse, we can’t reserve seats, so all we can do is get on the train early and try and bag some unreserved spots. As if in an ironic turn on my ‘not enough early mornings’ tirade, it arrives at 0501hrs tomorrow morning. Mmm, nice.
Anyway, the youth hostel was done out with French cartoon characters painted on the walls, and looked a really nice place. There was a bar, (with 25cl. Kronenbourg the cheapest we’ve found at 10F – generous 25’s, as well...) TV room, and breakfast was included in the price.
We had dinner in the supermarket cafeteria – lots of food, very cheaply! After that we headed back to the hostel, (tired) met two Australian girls, Rowena and Kate, and a Canadian bloke, Aaron. We all got on really well, and stayed in the bar until about 11.
Next day (yesterday) Gemma, Aaron and I took the train out to St.Georges-de-Commiers (on the way back to Monestier) to catch, of all things, on this rail-dominated trip, a sightseeing train- ‘Le Chemin de Fer de la Mure’. It was expensive at 87F each, but I really enjoyed myself –there were views of the mountains, and of a series of lakes and dams...we stopped off in ‘La Mure’ and had an ice-cream (strawberry and vanilla) before coming back, this time in an open carriage. The whole trip took about four hours. We took the bus back into Grenoble, ate again in the ‘Casino’ cafeteria with Aaron, before heading back to the Hostel bar before bed at 11ish. This morning over breakfast outside the hostel with the view of the mountains over the hostel grounds, we discovered that Rowena and Kate were heading to Nice. Aaron hadn’t decided where he was going next, so we talked him into coming also.
Aaron cracked Gemma and I up without prompt or either of us using the word before in his presence, by coming out with the phrase 'Maybe you could pull with those Australian girls'. After we'd calmed down I told him that would be very nice.
We have just had a really fun and enjoyable six hour train journey (oxymoron, possibly...), talking over different slang, exchanging travel recommendations and stories. We also played ‘psychiatrist’ which was hilarious. We said goodbye when we got here, and Gemma’s just gone for some food.
