The Western End of Route 66

Jellyfish tank at the Santa Monica Aquarium

I picked up a cold in LA - probably due to jet-lag, and so decided to take it easy today as I was planning on going to Disney on Monday. At this point I regretted not using my LA City Pass the day before as most of the easy-going stuff I felt like doing was closed or had restricted hours on Sundays, or you had to book in advance.

Santa Monica Beach & Pier - view from Palisades Park

So I decided to go to the beach!

Santa Monica is really beautiful, albeit a bit touristy. There's a very famous pier called the Santa Monica pier which is the last point on the Route 66 trail.

By Santa Monica beach there is also Palisades park - just a stretch of grassy tree area as far as I could tell - and the Santa Monica Aquarium. Apparently there is also the original Muscle Beach here too but I didn't see that (or have any interest to).

The Santa Monica Pier as the sun was starting to drop in  the sky...

Entry to the Aquarium was included on the LA City Pass - it's only $5 (or Free for kids under 12) but I'm not sure I would have bothered if it wasn't included. It's run by "Heal The Bay" - a not-for-profit environmental group who also run bay clean-ups and educational workshops. The Aquarium is great if you're interested in rocks, bones, shells, and fish eggs - not so much if you want to sit and watch fishies and other sea creatures swimming about as there's not really very many to look at. They do have interactive activities like touching seaweed or doing shell rubbings though so probably worth it if you're being accompanied by small people.

Ferris Wheel at Santa Monica Pier

Historic Route 66: The End of the Trail
A little ironic that this is where I started my journey...
One day I intend to drive along the whole thing.

On the pier there is a fun fair - rides all day are also included in the City Pass; again, not a massive save, and something I wouldn't have paid to do separately, but I had a nice time going on the Ferris Wheel and some spinning cups etc.

There are also lots of shops - beach ones selling buckets and spades, touristy ones selling postcards and souvenirs, and then a few stalls with people selling handmade jewellery or driftwood carvings. Plus all the typical fun-fair food stands with hot dogs, churros and candy-floss. Towards land, there are also some restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Just like everywhere in LA (and probably any major tourist destination or city), there are loads of buskers.

Santa Monica is Beautiful

Overall, I'd recommend visiting. Even if you're like me and completely adverse to all things sand, the views are spectacular!

"You can still see it from there"

- Quote from Jenny, the Warner Bros Tour Guide about the WB Water Tower...

After I left Warner Bros Studios, I waited nearly 45 minutes for an every 10 minutes bus... I wasn't very impressed given that it was around midday and even in the shade it was very hot!

"Krustyland" - The Simpsons Ride

I finally arrived at Universal Studios at around 1:30-2pm. The buses take you to the main road and then you get a little train car up the (very steep) hill to Universal.

A house used in Desperate Housewives

Probably one of the cooler staff
outfits at Universal Studios
#Shrek

With a 3+ Day LA City Pass, Universal is included, which is excellent as tickets are around $95 (nearly £70) separately! I got in the queue (which had no shade) and was stood there for nearly 30 minutes before reaching the front - thankfully it wasn't that long, as not many people seem to go in at lunchtime, but the people in the ticket booths were rather slow... When I finally got to the front of the queue, they then told me that because I had the City Pass, I actually needed to be in the "Special Tickets" queue. I was so cross that they didn't have a sign saying that somewhere?! So off I went to the "Special Tickets" queue, only to have to wait for another 20 minutes with the other 3 people in the queue because there was only one booth open, and the woman at the front was asking some really complicated questions that took forever!

We can just blow up a few
planes for a movie, right?

I think I finally made it in there sometime around 3pm, so I was pretty annoyed as that left me with much less time to do things. I asked the Info desk what the best order to do things in was, and was advised to start with the Studio Tour, as that closes first.

More queuing followed - although that queue had shade for some parts of it, and the water sprayer things on the ceiling which helped, but the shade made it stuffy and there were a lot of hot, bothered, stroppy children both in front and behind me...

Before...

...After

Mum thought I'd love the Studio Tour more than anything - probably because she did back in the 80's - but most of it wasn't that great. They drive you around some of the Film/TV sets, and then you see some of their special effects 'studios'. Some of them were great, like one where they flooded a town in about 30 seconds, and one where they threw a load of train carriages around an underground station and made the roof collapse, but there were lots of really cheesy bits that were just a bit ridiculous and overly American... For example, a lake with a dummy diver in there, the tour guide shouts "This is our diver friend, Steve. Hey Steve", next a Shark appears in the lake behind the diver suit, and the tour guide starts screaming "Ahh, Steve look out behind you" as the shark gets closer and appears to pull the dummy below the water... "Noooo, Steve! Steeeeveee!!", she screams....

10:04pm, 12th November 1955
(Back to the Future)

They had some special "new" 3D bits too - the King Kong and Fast & Furious rides. These are pretty clever as they drive into a garage and display 3D screens on the walls around you, and the floor moves too so you feel like you're being bashed about by a T-Rex and falling off rope bridges and being caught by the King of the Jungle...

After that, I checked out the Shrek ride, as it had a short-ish wait time (around 15 minutes). That was a 3D film in one of those cinemas where the chairs shake and they spray you with water and air etc. It was a spooky, halloween kind of ride which I wasn't so into, but it was quite clever.

At this point, it was probably coming up to 5:30pm. I wanted to see the Waterworld Show at 6:30pm, but wanted to go on some more rides in the meantime. The Jurassic World ride (and a Mummy ride) is on the lower level of Universal, which takes around 10 minutes to get to as it's basically at the bottom of the very steep hill again (although on another side) and so you have to spend ages going up and down escalators to get between the two areas of the theme park.

They are building 

"The Wizarding World
of Harry Potter" 

but it's not open until
April 2016 *sob*

At the top of the very long escalator bit, I asked some Universal staff if I'd have enough time to get down there, go on the Jurassic ride and get back over to the Waterworld show in an hour. "Urrm, maybe not but just wait right here a mo", says one of the (very LA) Universal staff. A minute later, he came back with a Fast-track Queue Jump ticket for one ride. I sprinted down the several sets of escalators/stairs, and shoved my stuff in a locker (it's a wet ride), only to find out that Jurassic has a "Single Riders Line" which, very conveniently, was practically empty.

This was a fun ride. You go on a little boat trip along a river with the Jurassic Park music playing and dinosaurs moving about. Then, you go into a garage sort of thing, and have the T-Rex roar above you, right as you hurtle down a very steep waterfall and splash in the bottom.

I had loaaads of time left, plus my Fast-track ticket, so went for the Simpson's ride too. I waited in a queue for rather a long time (wasn't happy as I was told "it'll be less than 2 minutes"). This one is not suitable for anyone with pretty much any medical conditions whatsoever as it's a "Very Violent" ride - which they weren't joking about. This one you get lined up for ages in a Simpson's themed room before getting directed into your separate rooms with up to 5 other people in your queue. Then you hop into a little car which later on raises up on a pole and very forcefully pushed forwards, backwards, and from side of side while you watch a 3D video of a Simpson's rollercoaster ride with Sideshow Bob...

Waterworld Show

After that ordeal, I ran over to the Waterworld Show which from memory was due to start at 6:30pm (I had about 5 minutes to get across the whole park to get over there), thinking I was going to miss it. I thought it was a bit of a miracle there was any seats left - the only ones available were the non-wet-zone seats (no complaints from me). This was one of those generic shows involving giant spray hoses, jet skis and pyromaniacs supposedly along the theme of the Waterworld film (which I have yet to watch - IMDb only gives it a 6.1/10... I may never get around to it).

Waterworld Pyrotechnics...

Huge American
Hot Dog!

Overall, I'd recommend Universal Studios, but I'm not sure I'd go there more than once (that's a lie, I'll go there again for Harry Potter World, but that's all!). It's just rather overpriced, and it was just so soo hot in August!!

Une Excursion en Normandie

Watermill on River Aure, Bayeux

So today Allison and I decided to go to Bayeux and the surrounding sites (well, I decided I was going and invited Allison).

I made us a timed Itinerary for the day which, naturally, got largely ignored before we even set off. We were supposed to be leaving at around 9:30am, but didn't actually leave until about 10:15am! We were only 45 mins later leaving than planned though... only.

It was just over an hours drive there and we had to rush as the late leaving meant that we were only just going to get to the Bayeux Tapestry Museum before reception closed for lunch at 11:45am.

Bayeux Day Trip Itinerary

There is a large free car park at Parc d'Ornano in Bayeux, just a few minutes walk from most of the main attractions. We pulled up in Parc d'Ornano car park at 11:40am so had to walk quite quickly to get to the Tapestry museum by 11:45am, but we made it!

Because we had arrived so late, the exibition part of the Tapestry museum was closed for lunch and we had to go back later for that. We were able to wander around the Tapestry though.

More on the Tapestry Museum here...

When we got kicked out of the Tapestry Museum at 12pm, we thought we'd walk over to Bayeux Cathedral, have a quick wander around and get lunch, and then be back over to see the exibition at 2pm when it re-opened after lunch.

More on Bayeux Cathedral here...

However, we spent much longer in the Cathedral than planned and didn't actually find anywhere for lunch until close to 2pm, by which point most places had stopped serving or were closed.

We found somewhere opposite the Cathedral called 'La Pomme d'Aure' which looked like a nice little Café.

Quiche Lorraine in Bayeux

We were looking at the menu outside the door when the owner came out and asked us (in French) 'do you want quiche lorraine, croque monseiur or [insert 2 other similar options here]?' and then sat us up to a table. We were a bit confused as she'd only said a few things but we had just been looking at a complete menu on the wall... She brought us out mini menus with 4 choices.

At this point we were starving, so just both ordered Quiche Lorraine with chips and salad. Allison had no idea what a Quiche was but she said it sounded good when I described it so she ordered it too.

When discussing this later with Fran, she told me that we probably had missed lunch (they apparently expect everyone to be sat in the restaurant by 12:15pm, to have ordered by 12:30pm and to stay there until 1:50pm when they have to go back to work...) and that they could only do some simple 'reheat' style things because the cook had likely gone home. It would explain why the town seemed completely desserted! Very strange, especially for a Saturday!

The Poppy Shop, Bayeux

After lunch, we went back to the Tapestry museum to finish looking at the Exhibition. We had planned for this to only take 15-30 mins but then realised that we were there in time for the 3:15pm showing of the 16min English film which delayed us.

Near the Tapestry and Cathedral, there was a lovely little shop called the Poppy shop (which we would have gone into if it was open) and it had a watermill behind it on the River Aure. Very pretty.

I think we finally left that part of Bayeux at about 3:45pm and arrived at the Musée de la Bataille du Normandie (Normandy Battle Museum) just before 4pm. We'd had enough of Museums by this point though so decided to skip it and walk straight over to the British Military Cemetery instead (which is pretty much just across the road.

Information about the River Aure in Bayeux

More on the British Military Museum to follow...

It was probably around 4:30pm when we were back in the car and ready to head over to Colleville-sur-Mer (the town next to Omaha Beach). We decided to skip Omaha Beach museum as it was last entry at 5:15pm and we wanted to go to the American Military Cemetery.

It took a little longer to get to Omaha Beach than expected, and at the time we didn't realise that the American Military Cemetery closed so early (at just 5pm) or even that it had a set closing time (the British one I'm pretty sure you can just walk into any time) so unfortunately we ended up arriving at the American Military Cemetery at about 5:15pm, 15 mins after it had closed.

More on Omaha Beach to follow...

We pulled over and debated whether it was worth trying to go somewhere else. We'd just missed the last entry time for the Omaha Beach museum, so Allison looked up the closing time of the German Cemetery on her phone. Turned out that this closes at 5:30pm, and being a 15 minute drive away in La Cambe, we weren't going to make it.

Me at the watermill, River Aure, Bayeux

I'd not done much research about Pointe du Hoc (a rocky cliff that a few hundred Allied soldiers scaled so that they could take over the German fort at the top) but as it was on the way back, thought perhaps it was worth driving past and having a look at if possible.

We arrived at about 5:45pm in a car park. I wasn't sure exactly where Pointe du Hoc was from here, but we got out to have a look anyway. There was a big building (which we think was a museum, although it was closed), and then signed explaining how to get to the points of interest nearby. There were a few other cars arriving at the same time so we thought it wouldn't be a problem, but then realised when looking at one of the signs that the actual 'Pointe' was about a 30 min walk away and you couldn't drive any closer. After all the walking we'd done, (and considering how dark it was) we decided to just put this on the list for next time.

We're planning on going to the American Military Cemetery, Point du Hoc, and the German Military Cemetery, and maybe Omaha Beach museum and the Arromanches 360° (Circular Cinema) next week.

Les Cinq Premiers Sites de Paris

I love Paris. I may even love it more than London, and that's saying something!

I hadn't thought much about what I was going to do for my two days in Paris. As I'd been before (Trip with the St. Brendan's Honour Students in 2010 to attend a conference about the future of young people), Fran told me I could skip the top 5 because I'd no doubt have already done them, the top 5 being...

1. Eiffel Tower (obviously)
2. The Louvre
3. Arc de Triomphe
4. Champ-Élysées



I got a bit snap-happy until we got on the metro.
I have about 15 photos just of this station.
Then there's nothing til the Conciergerie... 

5. Notre Dame

I'd done all of these before, except for Notre Dame. Fran was shocked, 'What?! It's a must-see! Do that right now!' (more on that in the next post).

After a lot of faff with parking meters in a nearby street (Charly hadn't actually realised it was Pay and Display the other 100 or so times he had done it!), we hopped on the metro at Le Vésinet - Le Pecq station aiming for Hauvre-Caumartin. Fran tried to buy me a 'Billet Jeune Week-end' (a 2 day weekend ticket for under 25's in Zone 1/2) but the machine wouldn't let her. She tried asking the bitchy woman at the information desk, you know, where you're supposed to be able to get 'information' but she just snapped 'on the machine' and wouldn't say anything else. Helpful!

All about Gare Le Vésinet-Le Pecq

The Conciergerie

They were going to Printemps (giant department store a bit like John Lewis/House of Fraser, right in the centre, 2 min walk from Saint-Lazare and Auber stations) so I tagged along. Fran wanted to get a new Kenwood mixer and as they still have money left over from their wedding registry at Printemps, that was the place to go. Apparently Printemps do an amazing thing where you can sign up for gifts for your wedding gift list, and then rather than getting the actual stuff people pay for, you get an account with the money, and a list of the things you chose originally. You can then pick and choose what you really want afterwards, or change your mind about the brand/type of hoover you want for example. You even have the option to pick loads of sensible stuff like dining sets and bedding, and then go all out on a flat screen tv and home gym if you really want, but without the guilt (that is, until Grandma comes to visit to see the set of hand-painted china dishes she paid 300euros for, and then you're screwed).

Lovely view across the Seine

I broke free just after we reached the Kitchen Aid/Breadmaker section (not that it wasn't fun but...) and headed back towards Auber metro station.

I'd downloaded the 'Visit Paris by Metro' and 'Paris TripAdvisor' apps before we left Cherbourg which made wandering around Paris a breeze.

Even in the centre of Paris I couldn't seem to buy one of those young people weekend metro tickets so I gave up and bought the next best thing - Mobilis - an adult day pass. I wasn't able to buy this for just zone 1, so got zone 1 and 2. It cost nearly 7euro though which I was a bit annoyed about (especially when it later transpired I only did one journey and could have just got the 1.70euro zone 1 single journey ticket instead!!)

I went from Auber to Cité, coming out just round the corner from the Conciergerie (a 14th Century Royal Prison and Palace) which I should have gone in as I was there, but didn't. Perhaps because of the ominous looking guards at the gate. Maybe next time...

I wandered over to the Notre Dame - turns out there was a much more direct route than the crazy river view route I took along Quai de la Corse and Quai aux Fleurs. Feet were already killing me when I got there!

View of l'Hôtel de ville from across the River

De l'est à l'ouest, par le Train

Éloyes Station (I think)

So, my journey to Cherbourg continued...

As I said in the last post, I had to get replacement bus from Remiremont to Epinal and then change to train for Paris. Helene had told me that there were no stops in between the two stations but she was very wrong - we stopped at Saint-Nabord, Éloyes and Arches. It was a nice scenic route and I was very glad to be getting further and further away!

At Epinal, I got off the bus and went to find the train! The French 'composte' their tickets before they board on trains - basically involves sticking your ticket into a yellow scanner which stamps your ticket with the location, date and time. I'm still not sure why you're supposed to do this though... Seems a bit superfluous to me!

It took me a little while to find the right platform and train. It wasn't too difficult but as I didn't want to drag my suitcases up stairs I got the lift, but I got in the wrong one twice as it didn't say on the lifts which platforms they went up to. Helpful!

I boarded the train after a little while searching. Helene had freaked me out with her constant telling me that sometimes trains split, check lots of times that its the right train because it might not be etc. so I walked up and down the platform about 3 times until I was convinced it was the right train. Thanks to getting the earlier bus there was plenty of time to wander.

Pretty Church in Arches

The train from Epinal to Paris was very relaxing. It left at 16:27 and was due to arrive in Paris at 18:46. The bus had been boiling so I had a freshen up in the loo, and then listening to Lana Del Ray's new album while watching the French countryside out of the window. It was a TGV train (fast train) so it didn't stop very many times, maybe only 3-4 times at the most. At Nancy lots of people got on but no one sat next to me so I still got to spread out.

Epinal Station

We were a little early arriving in Paris, at Gare de Paris-Est . I didn't mind too much. I had two hours wait in Paris and get the Metro west to Gare Saint-Lazare. Helene had given me a child ticket for the Metro that she happened to have but Frances told me not to risk it because they'll just fine you lots of money on the spot so better to just spend an extra 1.70euros on a new one. I had a bit of difficulty getting through the barriers with all my luggage - they didn't seem to have them for people with luggage in some places so I got stuck a few times!

Helene also told me to go via Opéra on the metro but that was stupid because going from Paris Est to Saint Lazare via Gare du Nord meant one stop on the Metro line 4, a change onto RER E Magenta line (after a 5 min walk through Gare du Nord), one more stop and you're there! Would have been able to do it in about 20 mins if I'd run/worked it out a bit faster/not gone on the Magenta line in the wrong direction... I asked a french person if it was going to Saint-Lazare. He said yes, but I shouldn't have believed him as one stop later I was in Pantin... (two stops in the wrong direction). I didn't mind too much as I just hopped off, went up the steps and over the bridge to the other side and jumped back on! I met a very nice english guy (probably a student) on that train. He asked if I needed help (in English!) as I was translating something on my phone. I told him thanks very much, but I'd worked it out now, and explained about getting on in the wrong direction. He told me to 'Never ask a French person anything. They really do not care!' Very good advice!

When I got to Saint-Lazare, I followed the signs out towards the train station. It turned out that the Metro was about 100m from the Station, and not just in the same building like Gare du Nord was. I had around an hour to kill at this point so took my time getting into the station. I worked out the general area where trains to Cherbourg went from and went to hang around there while waiting for the Platform to be announced. I was just considering going to get a burger when an english girl and her mother walked past, talking in english, and I think I blurted out 'Are you english?'

Nancy Station

They were very nice and happy to see an english person too! They told me all about their ordeal getting from Gare du Nord to their hotel, not too far from Saint-Lazare. Apparently they weren't sure about how easy it would be so just booked a taxi which originally quoted about 25euros but charged them over 50! I told them that I'd just come from Gare du Nord and explained how easy (and cheap) it was. They then told me that they were in Paris as a holiday before Charlotte (the girl) restarted her A Levels in September. She told me all about how she wanted to be an actress and was taking Drama but had struggled with the theory side of her A levels, although had got top marks on all practical sides of things. I told them about how I was going to be an au pair and had been in the mountains etc.

They stayed talking to me for almost half an hour and at about 8:30pm I told them I should probably go and find my train as the platform was now on the boards - platform 25. It wasn't far so I headed over, and waited. Just as I got there the boards flashed 'Retard 5 min'. I wasn't too worried by this so just sat at the end of the platform waiting for the train to turn up. I remembered about the silly composte thing so moved over to scan my ticket at about 20:40. A few seconds later a station guard (what do you call them?!) came up to me and asked me what train I was waiting for and where I was going. I told her Cherbourg and showed her my ticket. She then told me that the train had moved (she'd worked out I was english and was thankfully speaking english for me!) and that it was now on Platform 23. It didn't say that on the boards - they still said Plat 25, delayed 5 mins! She said she'd show me and ran me over there. She pointed at the train and said 'quick, the train leaves in 3 minutes!' I hurriedly said thank you very much for letting me know and rushed over to the train to get backs and things on. This train was a non-reserved seating one so thankfully I didn't need to hunt for the correct carriage and seat and just jumped on. I put my suitcase on the racks and then found a seat. Less than a minute later the train left.

I'm so glad that she came and told me, and that she guessed I was waiting in the wrong place! I would have had no idea otherwise and would have missed the train completely!!

The journey was mostly uninteresting. The only thing that happened was some strange drunk french/eastern european guy was asking people if they had a phone charger he could use. I had my laptop out with my phone plugged into it and if I'd realised that's what he wanted earlier, I would have hidden it! He came along and asked, when I said no, he leaned over and took my charger out of my phone and tried to fit it into his phone! I tried saying it was a different phone and didn't work but when it did he told me thank you and then sat down and made himself comfortable! He told me he'd just be 2 mins but then made a long, loud phone call and kept trying to pass the phone over to me to get me to speak to his friend. I kept saying 'Non merci, Je regrette, je ne comprends pas' but he didn't get it. After a couple of minutes the train stopped at another station and everyone else in the carriage got off! At this point, I started to feel pretty uncomfortable so packed away my laptop and everything else, took my charger from him, and told him I needed to go to the toilet. He tried getting me to leave my laptop and charger etc. all there while I went but I told him it all needed to come with me. I picked up my bag, went to get my suitcase from the rack and planned to go into the next carriage where there were more people. The guy insisted on helping me carry my bags and then stood blocking the way into the next carriage next to the loo. I actually did need the toilet so took all my stuff into the toilet and took a good 10 minutes. By this point it was about 12am so I knew we only had a couple more minutes until we reached Cherbourg. I came out of the toilet and headed straight into the next carriage. Thankfully he'd disappeared, probably to bug someone else for a phone charger!

Finally arrived in Cherbourg at 00:05. Charly was there to meet me at the station and we were only about 10 mins drive from the house where I finally felt like I could relax again!

More about Cherbourg next...

Mon Évasion de Vosges

Getting out of there was pretty stressful. Despite agreeing to me leaving on Friday 29th August in the original emails, Helene was very reluctant to let me leave as planned. The closer we got to the day it was planned for me to leave, the more worried I got. Helene had refused to let me buy a train ticket saying that she didn't know when we would finish, and that I couldn't leave until we had. As I hadn't actually been anywhere outside of the house where I would have been able to find internet or a train ticket boutique either, I was starting to feel more and more trapped!

The Monday of the week I was due to leave, my Cherbourg family tried to contact me. Limited signal made this pretty tricky so I arranged to call them back the next day, and in the mean time try to get a definitive answer about time/day I would be able to leave from Helene.

I called Fran and Charly on Tuesday evening. I'd had no luck getting a clear answer from Helene but she definitely didn't want me to leave until at least Saturday. I tried explaining that she had agreed for me to leave on Friday but to no avail - she just told me I had definitely said the 30th (now I have internet again, I checked the emails. They confirm that she agreed to me leaving on Friday 29th!). Helene had offered, should it happen to coincide with the day/time I planned to go, to drop me off 'somewhere near Paris' on her way back home to Laval, but she was very vague about this and so I wasn't sure about taking my chances with that.

After a chat about train times with Fran, it was agreed that the train I had originally planned to get on (11:04am from Epinal on Friday 29th) would be best however Helene wasn't being clear about whether she would take me to the train station. Not only that, but she also said that we were an hour away from Epinal and that it would be very inconvenient for her. Fran asked me to find out where Helene had planned to drop me off in Paris to see if they would be able to arrange to pick me up/have a friend collect me/something similar. However when I went to ask Helene she continued to be vague and wouldn't give a clear answer, or a time that she would be able to drop me off. Fran decided that Helene was actually being really difficult and said that they'd speak to her instead.

I put Helene on the phone with Charly who spoke to her in French. I didn't get much from the conversation other than Helene's "She is a big girl" and "That's a big problem for me". After a couple of minutes she snapped 'Au revoir' and hung up (I was pretty annoyed about that, I still had another 25 minutes left on the call without needing to pay more but hanging up meant I'd have to pay to call again to finish the conversation!)

Helene was very annoyed after this. She told me that it was the strangest conversation she'd ever had and that Charly was a scary man that had used the word 'summon' which she'd never heard in conversation before, had talked about me like I wasn't a person and that she thought I wouldn't be able to cope with him in Cherbourg because he was a very hard and strict man. I found all of that pretty hard to believe. I'd spoken to Charly a few times and certainly wasn't scary! She talked about how scary and authoritarian he was, how his wife must be really repressed etc. for about half an hour, but still had refused to agree on a date and time for me to leave.

After calling them back they told me that she'd just told them that it wasn't possible to agree a time because she hadn't finished the work she needed to complete yet and that she needed to keep me until it was complete. Charly was quite angry about how rude she was to them and about the way she'd been treating me and agreed to see if he could find a way of buying me a ticket for the Friday so that she had no choice but to put me on it, however given that the house had no address and it was coming up to 2 days before the train he didn't think that it would be possible. Before saying goodbye they told me not to worry, if I needed to leave earlier than planned, or even late at night, that they would be able to pick me up or find me somewhere to stay in Paris at short notice, assuming I could get there. Very kind of them!

Charly had told me he would call her the next day to try and get an answer from her so the next day her phone rang and she ran off to answer it. She came back 5 mins later to tell me that it was another strange conversation with 'your french man in Cherbourg'. She told me that never before had someone called just to apologise and that it was very odd behaviour. I asked if he'd said anything else but she said that he hadn't, that he just wanted to apologise. (When I spoke to Charly he told me that he'd just been trying a different approach, eg. "I'm sorry for getting annoyed in our phone conversation last night but we really do need to have a set time for Cate's arrival?? *Hint Hint*", but naturally she'd missed the hints and just seen it as an apology. Ridiculous)

On Wednesday night, I couldn't sleep because I was feeling so worried about the fact that I hadn't bought a ticket, or even had Helene agree to a specific train yet! I was supposed to be leaving in less than two days time! In an attempt to calm myself down a bit I decided to pack up all my things so that I would at least know I'd be ready to leave whenever Helene finally agreed to it.

The next morning, after very little sleep I came down to tell Helene about my lack of sleep caused by worry. She couldn't understand what I could possibly be worried about, unless it was 'your scary french man in Cherbourg', which it obviously wasn't. I tried to explain that I hadn't bought a ticket yet, or even got a day or time confirmed from her. I was concerned about the price going up, not being able to reserve a seat, not being able to get on a train etc. but she told me that I was being childish and worrying about silly things. Personally, I thought I was being an adult for actually caring about being organised and wanting to make sure that I kept the commitment I'd previously made to Fran and Charly in Cherbourg but she didn't see it that way.

The lack of sleep, stress, worry and now Helene's ignorance and failure to understand, or to even listen to me, drove me to tears at which point Helene told me I was a baby and that 'I'll just drive you to the train station so you can buy a ticket right now then, just so we can work'. This seemed a bit extreme so I said that I was happy to just buy one using the internet on her phone so she didn't have to go out of her way, and that all I needed was for her to confirm a time so that I could actually do that, but she refused. I went upstairs to get my purse and coat and then came back downstairs. I repeated that it really wouldn't be a problem to just buy one on her phone given that it was about an hours drive to and from the station and I knew she wanted to work, I added that given the journey time to the station that it didn't make sense for her to go today and then again the next day to take me. Helene told me she didn't care, all that she wanted was to do work and I never ever wanted to work because I was such a baby, oh and that she was really cross. This was too much. I'd worked 14 hours a day for 8 days in a row at this point with barely any sleep in between and it was her that was hindering us getting started with work by having a strop and saying she'd drive to and from the station just to buy a ticket! Eventually she just said 'oh, so if everything is such a big problem for you then maybe you just want to leave today instead?'

I don't think she was expecting me to say 'Yes, ok. I will. I'll go and get my things'. She completely lost it at that point, knocking books onto the floor and stomping out, slamming the door and swearing continuously. I was pretty upset by this point. I think it was perfectly reasonable to want to buy a train ticket in advance so that I had a definitive day and time of departure from the mountains, and an arrival date and time to give Charly and Fran in Cherbourg!

I went upstairs to pack up my last few things - pretty much just had pyjamas, laptop and wash things to shove in the bag - and then called Fran to let them know what was going on. Fran completely understood and told me that it was no problem for me to arrive early, she'd just need to clear off my bed! She started telling me about the next available train times when the door bursts open and Helene stormed in through the door telling me I was being ridiculous and just needed to calm down. I told her I was on the phone, which she ignored, and then I eventually just ended up passing the phone over to her so that Helene could talk to Fran.

After about 15 mins, Helene passed the phone back to me. I had packed my things, brought them downstairs and was just filling up a water bottle for the journey by this point! Fran told me that Helene had told her I was having a huge panic attack and that she wasn't comfortable putting me on a train in my state because I would definitely get lost and she was very worried about me. Fran thought I definitely didn't sound like I was having a panic attack, but actually quite calm despite being a bit upset, and that the cause of my stress was clearly Helene. She'd told her that it was probably best to let me come to them today as they were fine with it and it sounded like I needed a break! Fran also told Helene that she'd need to pay me so that I would be able to buy a ticket (she hadn't paid me for 4 weeks!), and then told me the next train was at 16:27 from Epinal. It was about 11am at this point so I had quite a bit of time to wait, but I didn't care. It was supposed to take an hour to get to Epinal anyway so thought it was probably best that I had some more time to spare, in case Helene managed to be any more difficult, which it turned out she could!

I went to tell Helene about the train from Epinal. She told me I wouldn't be going from Epinal, but from Remiremont, a tiny little station only a little bigger than Yate (and that's just because it had somewhere to buy tickets from Humans and was located next to the bus station) because it was about 20 mins away rather than an hour. I discovered that I could get a connecting train at 15:27 so still had plenty of time, though I was a bit annoyed that she couldn't even be bothered to take me to the train station she had originally told me she'd take me to. She kept telling me that I could stay if I wanted to, that I could even stay in my room and not do any work all day if that would make me want to stay. I didn't want to stay there anymore, I'd only left that house 5 times in a month and was desperate for civilisation, the internet, shops etc.

When I told her what time the train was she said that we didn't have to leave immediately if I didn't want to and that we could go whenever I wanted, and that I should eat first. I told her that I would prefer to leave before 2pm to give me plenty of time to get there, get tickets, find out where I was going, and for her to go and find an ATM to pay me from! I took my time having something to eat, during which she kept shouting questions about English grammar and vocabulary as she was trying to add some last bits to her lessons. She then asked if, just before we left, I could check the paragraph she had just written. I didn't mind but then we ended up working for an hour and a half!?! So much for, 'you don't have to work today'.

At 2:00pm, I packed my suitcases in the car and at 2:30pm, we finally got to the train station. Helene asked the station person (what are they called?) about train tickets. I understood enough to hear her asking about trains tomorrow morning and saturday. I told her that I was adamant about leaving on the train at 15:27, and then she told me that it would be 79€ for that train, or 69€ if I got the one the following morning. "It's ok if you want to stay an extra night, it's 10€ cheaper so it might be better?"

I bought my tickets and then waited at the station for her to go and find a cash point. When she got back she told me that there wasn't a train, but it was actually a replacement coach instead, and that I could get the earlier one at 15:04 if I wanted to. I did so I said an awkward goodbye to Helene and the two younger children and hopped on.

And so my escape from the Vosges began!

A few pictures from Remiremont station...