Interrail trip in France 2009

Everything started with an Interrailtrip in France 2009. Because I have the habit to write a diary while travelling, I will not keep back with my first experiences.

E. and I wanted to do an Interrail trip. We had only two weeks, so we decided to take only a ticket for one country. It was obvious for us to go to France. First of all it has got a border with Germany and was therefore easy to get there. And second we learned French in school and wanted to see how much we could use of that.

We started our travel on 15^th August in Strasbourg at the station. It was a bit confusing, because the platforms are only announced twenty minutes before the train is leaving. But of course, we didn’t know that. The platform for one train, leaving before ours, was already announced and we thought that it would we our platform than, too. So we went to search the number 30. It turned out that this platform was only for slow trains and not for our tgv direction Paris. We asked a conductor. Well, we tried. But the only thing we understood was “voie 1”. Because of that we went back and as a matter of fact our train was on the platform number 1.

Without any stopovers we arrived in Paris Est. From there we had to take the metro to Paris Montparnasse, because our TGV to Quimper was leaving from there. We had one hour and thought that this wouldn’t be any problem. So we went down to the metro and got confused by the ticket machine. Finally we decided to take one of the tickets but then the turnstiles did not work. Because all the other people just passed, we did the same. As we stood in our metro got a bit scared that a conductor would check on us, because we didn’t know how to explain in French.  When we arrived at Montparnasse we were shocked that the station is that big. We started to run and only arrived two minutes before the departure of our train.

When we arrived in Quimper we were stumped again. In fact we had a reservation at a youth hostel, but no clue which direction to go. We went to an information desk at the station to ask. At that moment a senior couple passed by and heard our question. They told us that they have to go the same direction and that they would accompany us. It was so nice of them. Walking through the city they also told us a lot about the history and stuff like that. Unfortunately we understood only half of it. 

Did you know that youth hostels are always somehow off the beaten track? In Quimper we were walking like for one hour. And this experience shouldn’t remain the only one. We arrived finally, but one hour before check-in, so we were not allowed to enter. Sitting outside on a bench a guy from Australia kept our company, telling us the wildest stories about his life.

In the evening we went for a walk through the city.

The next day we explored the rest of the city before we took a train to Camaret-sur-mer. It was quite a long distance, but the bus was only 1,50€. Unbelievable cheap. You are probably asking yourself how we came up with the idea of visiting such a small village. Well, some years before we went to Camaret with our French class to meet some french people. It was in March and very cold, but we fell in love with this small village. That’s why we wanted to go back there in summer.

We had a reservation in the same hostel, were we have been with school, too. So we talked a bit with the German manager, that we knew already. Then we went to the beach where we planned the next part of our trip.

Because we wanted to stay a bit longer in Camaret, but we considered the hostel as to expensive, we moved the next morning (17th August) to a campground. The rest of the day we spent hiking to pen-hir, a land tongue close to the village.

The day after was relaxing, too. We enjoyed the sun at the beach and went to buy some travelling fare.

On the 19^th August we continued our travel. Because the bus back to Quimper was leaving very early, we woke up at around five o’clock in the morning and put down our tent in the dawn. But in return we got to see a nice sun rise at the harbor while waiting for the bus. From Quimper we took a train to St. Malo.

In St. Malo we went first to the youth hostel, but it was overcrowded. But the guy in the office was very helpful and did some phone calls to see if there is space at a campground. So, we went there. In the evening we were sitting at the beach again to plan. 

Before going to sleep we did a walk and watched amazed all the old buildings.
The next morning we woke up from the honking of the baker who was coming every morning to the campground. After our breakfast that consisted of fresh baguettes we walked to the old city. 

First of all we went to the tourist information and asked them for calling the next youth hostels we wanted to go to and do a reservation in our names. Outside we met some German girls who did a language course in St. Malo. We asked them what we have to see and they replied Chateau Malo. We were thinking about that before. In our mind was the picture of a beautiful castle. So, we took a bus there in the afternoon. We were a bit astonished by the empty bus because we thought the castle would be a overcrowded tourist attraction. Well, when we left the bus, there was kind of nothing. No noise, no one, no birds. Just a silent village, which was kind of scary. On a street-map we saw the chataeu, so we decided to walk there. But in the end we stood just in front of a huge hedge. We walked around the chateau, but the only think we saw was that there was a house behind the hedge. It felt like in a horror movie, the only thing missing was a creaky empty swing in the wind. So obviously we took the next bus back to the city.

Some free concerts took place in the evening. It was a nice atmosphere listening to Amélie-les-crayons and others next to the city walls. We didn’t sleep that well this night because it was very windy and our neighbors got drunk.

It was time to put down our tent again, because we wanted to continue our travels and go to Pontorson. But we missed the bus and had to wait five hours for the next one…

Finally we arrived in Pontorson. On our way to the youth hostel we stopped at a super market. In the cue, an old fisher man was waiting behind us. When he saw our backpacks he asked the son of the owner of the shop to accompany us to the hostel or at least bring us some horses. After a bit of small talk, we left alone. We shared our room with a Canadian couple that was on their honeymoon and a French mother with her daughter, all very nice.

The best thing on the next morning was that they had other things to eat for breakfast than baguette. Very spontaneously we decided to stay one more night in Pontorson. Than we took a bus to Mon St. Michel.   

Mon St. Michel is an abbey on a small island in the middle of the sea or rather in the mud flat. Years ago you just were able to go there twice a day. But they built the street a bit higher, so that you can go there now anytime you want. The abbey is really nice but crowded with tourists. Well, we were not allowed to complain, because we went there as tourists, too. Anyway…

We want to enter the abbey then. For European people up to 25 the entry is for free, so queued up. But the sales girl explained us very friendly that underage people are not allowed to enter with a parent or guardian. The reason for that? If something would have happened to us, the abbey would have been guilty. We already wanted to leave disappointed as we saw the French mum and her daughter in the queue next to us. With hands and feet we explained them our problem and she took us as wither her inside. You never know what your room mates are good for!

On the 23th august we took a bus back to St. Malo and from there a train to Rennes. Our hostel warden told us, that there is nothing to see. That is why we did just a stopover there and continued our travel to Le Mans. At the station we met backpacker from Stuttgart. He thought that we are French, but was glad then that we understood german. Although he was making fun about my dialect. Until Nantes where he left us we knew everything about his life.

Some hours later we arrived clueless in Le Mans, without any idea where our youth hostel was. We asked a woman waiting in front of the station. She didn’t know it either. But she asked some people passing by because she realized that we would have some problems with our French. But no one knew. Eventually she entered a bakery and the baker explained us the way. The woman who was asking everyone for us accompanied us to the youth hostel. Just like that.

Our plan was to go to Orleans the next day. But we couldn’t find a place to sleep, neither a hostel nor a campground. So we had to cross out Orleans from our travel route. That’s why we decided to stay another night in Le Mans. But our hostel warden was very helpful and told us that we should visit instead Tours. He reserved us a hostel right away. But that was not all. This day really reduced us to despair. First we wanted to reserve a TGV from Paris to Straßbourg, because otherwise we were not allowed to travel with our ticket with the TGV. However all the TGVs were booked up. We were running several times to the ticket office, always trying a new connection. In the end when we didn’t know what to do anymore the salesperson told us to take a connection with local traffic. Finally good news after some hours… Well, this day was also the only raining one in our whole travel. And of course we didn’t have umbrellas with us and we were soaked to skin. Soaking wet like that we walked around the old town of Le Mans, which is actually a really nice city.

The 25^th August we left Le Mans very early and went ahead to Tours. We were a bit disappointed by the hostel. It was not nice at all and really expensive. We had our dinner in bed, paying so much, we didn’t care about making dirt or not. Tours has got a nice cathedral and town hall.

Our last stop was Paris. This time - what a wonder - we found our hostel right away. But they didn’t book our reservation. So they offered us to call other hostels or that we could sleep the first night in separate rooms. We were not in mood to walk to another hostel and stayed. In return we didn’t have to pay that much.

We left the hostel right away to see something of the city. Notre Dame. Tour Montparnasse. Eiffeltour. First we didn’t want to go up because there was such a long queue in front oft he elevators. But we saw the stairs and decided that we would have to climb the 700 stairs if we are already in Paris.

Afterwards we went to Arc de trimuphe. We arrived after 6 o’clock and they lightened already the flame on the tomb of the unknown soldier.

At the end of day we did a boat tour on the Seine to see Paris at night.

The next morning we started with the Louvre museum.

Then we went to Centre Pompidou because there was a text about it in our French books in school.

The opera of Paris.

After having dinner in the hostel we went to see Sacre Coeur. It was really nice to sit there with the city at our feet. Some bands made music and people dance. We completed the day with a walk at the waterside of the Sein.

On the 28^th August we were heading back home after a walk through our quarter - the quartier latin.