After two days in Lyon and surrounding countryside, we had to take the speed train to Avignon. Now, a bit of good advice! When in France, do not get onto a train if you get to your platform five minutes before your train's departure, and a train is standing there, all ready to go! We found out the hard way that the French work according to their time schedules, and of course, coming from Africa where time means nothing nowadays, it took us by surprise!
After checking that we were on the right platform, and it by then being about three minutes to our departure time, we got onto this train, and found an elderly couple occupying our seats! So we pulled ourselves up straight, and demanded that they vacate our seats immediately! They were actually well settled in, and had their coffee mugs filled, and their sarmies and all kinds of meats laid out on the little table .
They were very upset, and with loud voices and a lot of handsigns, told us to get lost! By now the other passengers got involved also, and one man asked to see our tickets, and he got a strange look on his face, and my tummy turned! We were on the wrong train!
We grabbed our luggage and ran for the door to get off, but with a hiss and a sigh the doors closed, and off the train went, at one terrible speed!
We sat down on the little step at the door, waiting for the train to stop at the next station, but it didn't stop, just flew through the landscape like a demented worm!
When the conductor came, he could at least understand English, but he had bad news, as this train did not stop before it got to it's journey's end, and that was Limoges, in quite another direction! But he said, he would give us a note to get us back to Lyon, where we would have to start all over again for Avignon.
We had to wait the whole bally day for the train that would take us back to Lyon, but at least we walked around Limoges, and found it quite an interesting town!
The rest of our trip went without mishap, as I took over the map reading, Irma not at all good with that, and she organized trips to the different towns and villages!
Now we were on our way to Calais, where we would board the ferry back to England, and then onto the Western Flyer to Scotland.