The Itinerary For The Trip To Bilbao
I’ve now firmed up my trip to Bilbao and home.
Sunday, December 8th
I fly out on the easyJet flight, EZY3325, which leaves at 18:25.
I have booked into the Silken Gran Dominie by the Guggenheim Museum for two nights.
Monday, December 9th
Tuesday, December 10th
I travel by train to Hendaye from where I get a train to Biarritz.
Bilbao-Hendaye – 6:40 to 11:28, 9:15 to 13:51
I have booked the Radisson Blu for two nights.
Wednesday, December 11th
I shall find a very good restaurant on this day, as it will be six years since C died.
Thursday, December 12th
I travel by train to Bordeaux, where I’m booked into the Le Boutique Hotel for one night.
Friday, December 13th
I take the TGV to Paris and then the 20:13 Eurostar to London.
Off To Bilbao
I think, I might be flying off to Bilbao on Sunday. I’ve found a nice hotel by the Guggenheim Museum and then it will be home by train, staying nights in Biarritz, Bordeaux and possibly,Paris.
Who Was Germaine Necker?
This blue plaque was on the back wall of the old Dickins and Jones building in Regent Street.
Who Was Germaine Necker?
So who was she? Wikipedia shows she was a very unusual lady for her time. Here is an except.
She was one of Napoleon’s principal opponents. Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism.
Interesting!
French Think About Beach Smoking Ban
The French Minister for health has said, that she might like to ban smoking on beaches. It’s reported here on the BBC. This is the first paragraph.
A call by France’s health minister for local authorities to ban smoking in parks and on beaches has sparked debate as a heat wave grips the country.
Marisol Touraine told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper she wanted to see more tobacco-free zones, to protect children’s health.
The Socialist minister said she hoped smoking would also be banned outside schools and on university campuses.
According to the article, there is actually a ban at La Ciotat near Marseilles, where they say it has been well-received.
In my view, anything that cuts smoking is a good idea.
How Not To Plan A High Speed Railway
The farce that is Fyra might have got a bit better as there are now going to be some extra Thalys trains on the line soon, as is reported here.
But this will only partially compensate for the loss of the Fyra V250 trains and capacity will be nowhere near that needed.
It will also do nothing to get round one of the major design faults of the line; the lack of a branch to the Dutch capital, The Hague. A city incidentally, which doesn’t have an airport well-connected to the city centre, unless you count Schipol.
In some ways the design of the line, would be like the UK, creating a high speed line to Scotland, that bypassed Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.
The Dutch also have a problem in that their tracks aren’t to the European standard of trains on the left, electrified to 25,000 volts AC, so it makes it difficult for high speed trains to run on secondary lines, as they do in most other European countries, The suburban Class 395 run in rural Kent and on HS1. Like the Thalys, they have a multi-voltage capability.
Another problem is that there aren’t enough Thalys trains and you can’t just rustle up some new ones quickly. In fact I suspect there is a large shortage of rolling stock across Europe and I suppose the real problem, is that because every country seems to work to different standards and local politics, manufacturers rely too much on living on the scraps politicians give them. So say if we need say some extra stock on the East Coast Main Line, we can’t generally borrow from the Germans. Saying that though, but for a few years Regional Eurostar trains did run to Leeds. But then that train was designed to run in the UK, France and Belgium.
We also complain in this country about orders for trains going to foreign manufacturers, but this is a Europe wide problem.
What we need is standards for railways that apply across most of Europe. When you have travelled on trains as much as I have you realise what a disconnected design it all is.
Is It Potters Bar All Over Again?
When I first read the reports of the French train crash at Bretigny-sur-Orge, it struck me there were some similarities between the crash that happened at Potters Bar in the UK in 2002.
In that accident faulty points were the cause of the train coming off the track just before Potters Bar station, with one coach getting wedged on the platform.
Now this morning the BBC is carrying a report, which says that in France, there are reports saying that a loose rail connector caused the crash.
Poor track checking and maintenance was definitely a cause of the crash at Potter Bar and it is stated in the BBC report, that this could be the cause in France. The BBC quotes this from the respected French newspaper; Le Figaro.
Bertille Bayart in Le Figaro says the accident, which comes days after the government announced investments in the railways, will spark controversy over infrastructure that is “characterised by ‘serious degradation’, in the words of the transport minister”.
I think the moral is that you cut down on checking and maintenance on the railways at your peril.
But just as at Potters Bar, the French train managed to protect a lot of the passengers despite the extremely violent crash. Trains are a lot stronger than you might think.
Hollande In Cloud-Cuckoo Land
This story from the BBC is entitled, “Euro crisis is over, says France’s Francois Hollande”
I can hear Bud Flanagan singing a new version of the Dad’s Army theme song call “Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hollande?”
It might be true to say that the crisis with the Euro is over, But the crisis with some of the countries in the Euro-zone certainly isn’t!
The French Get Touchy About Language
The French can get very touchy, when English encroaches on territory, they think is reserved for French.
But this row, reported here on the BBC is totally of their own making, Here’s the introduction.
The French parliament is debating a new road map for French universities, which includes the proposal of allowing courses to be taught in English. For some, this amounts to a betrayal of the national language and, more specifically, of a particular way at looking at the world – for others it’s just accepting the inevitable.
The English-speaking world has nothing to do with it.
My French is such, that I can get by as a tourist. I also successfully used the language, when I was at ICI, as it was quicker to read scientific reports from the Belgian company, Solvay, in French, rather than wait for a translation.
On the other hand, when I was in Montreal, a few years ago, I was totally baffled, as Canadian French, is more different to French, than American is to English.
When we developed Artemis, we sold in quite a few European countries, but didn’t bother with French, as we thought they would be touchy, wanting everything in their own language.
In the late 1970s, Metier had installed an Artemis system, at Chrysler in Coventry. For various reasons, it hadn’t been upgraded, as much as it should. Soon after Peugeot-Citroen took over Chrysler in 1979, someone in Peugeot-Citroen decided to do a company wide survey of the various project management systems in use in the group. on one visit they went to Coventry and because they were impressed with what they saw, they came straight down the M1 to see us in our offices in Hayes.
Peugeot-Citroen then decided to buy a system for Paris. We told them it was only in English, but they said not to matter, as all their engineers knew the language. They did ask us to get some proper sales flyers in French.
The rest as they say is history, in that Peugeot-Citroen introduced Artemis to a lot of their friends.
Another story I remember, which illustrates the French and their language, happened a few years later. In the 1980s, I owned a company that made hand-tools. One tool, was exported to France and the United States. Our American agent asked if we could produce an English/French version for Canada. But a straight combination of what we already had was unacceptable and we had to get a special French Canadian translation at great expense. Eventually, the Canadians excepted it.
A couple of years afterwards, we had an urgent order from France, but unfortunately we were out of French leaflets. So we faxed over the French Canadian one to ask if that would be acceptable. The response was, that it will do, but that the French would have a bit of a laugh about the language.
Make of that, what you will!
I should say, that I once travelled to the States with a secretary from the New Zealand embassy in Ottawa. She told me, that some Canadians got very upset, if she sent them a letter with some American English spelling.
Not Very Correct French
French Railways or SNCF has just introduced a budget low-cost TGV service . They’ve called it Ouigo, which I assumed is pronounced “we go”.
I thought the French had laws against the language of the dreaded rosbifs!
But it is a concept that might just have enough to succeed.
Would I use it?
Probably not, as it seems to be tied into French mobile phones and post codes. But I had read that the web site was only in French, but it’s now also in English. So I suspect that in a few months, it’ll be as easy to use as easyJet or Ryanair.
I shall certainly try it on one of my trips back from somewhere in Southern Europe.
Food At Last
It was a short walk from the Gare de Paris Est station to the Gare du Nord and the 11:07 Eurostar for London.
I made it easily and an hour or so later, I was having lunch.
Food At Last
It was actually tofu, which I’ve never had before. But it was good to have a meal I could trust. The tea was very good too.
What I always think, is why if Eurostar can do gluten free food so well, why can’t other train companies?
The Anonymous Widower 