Riding on the TGV Train No. 9321 to Brussels, Belgium

After celebrating May 1st with my cousins, we left in the evening to stay at a small Paris hotel near the Gare du Nord station. Our room in the Hotel Maubeuge was small, but clean, with a bizarre décor scheme. We were on the top floor and had a nice window where we could even see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. I took several pictures as the sun went down.

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I forgot to take a picture of our room but found another one on the hotel web site. We stayed in this hotel because it is walking distance to the station which made it easy the next morning to catch our train.

In the morning it rained for about 10 minutes, which was the only rain we experienced the whole time we were in Paris. We stopped at a café for a small breakfast. I had the best croissant – very fresh, crusty and authentic – yum! I think the café was called “Le Chalet du Nord.” We then walked to the Gare du Nord, which I found a lot cleaner than I remembered.



When I worked in Paris I stayed at my parents’ apartment but on the week-ends I would walk to the Gare du Nord and take the train to the suburban town where they lived named St-Leu-la-Forêt (20 kms from the center of Paris or 12.5 miles.) . Before that I also rode the train when I went to school in Paris after high school. Even before that, when I lived in St Leu, I rode the train to go to high school. The train station was about 15 minutes from home and luckily it was a walk downhill. I remember many mornings when I could hear the train approaching (it was a steam train then and made much noise and would also blow its whistle) and I would start a sprint to the station. I have a postcard of the station. It looked pretty much the same when I went to high school in the 50s as in this vintage card – well, almost. I found another picture of the station on the Net showing how it looks now.



My high school was in Enghien-les-Bains, another suburban town from Paris - about 12 kms from my home or 7.5 miles, but the train took about 20 minutes. It is a very pretty town, with a large lake and the only casino close to Paris. My high school was bordering the lake – I found a picture of my high school in winter.




The trains then were slow and used steam. I think they changed over to electric engines in the late 60s. Below are the types of trains I would ride then.


Previous to all these times, when I was a child, we would take the train at the Gare St Lazare in Paris to visit my grandparents in another little suburban town called Courbevoie. I have used trains for many a year. I do not have a picture of the Gare St Lazare but Claude Monet painted it.

La Gare St Lazare by Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926

When I would come back from my high school I sometimes would have to wait for a train to return home. I would look at all the beautiful posters lining the station and dreamed of those faraway places. Many posters said “Visitez…” which means “come and visit… “ Apart from Poland and the Czech Republic, I visited all those pictured below.

I also visited all those below and some, like Italy, several times.



The first time I went to England, when I was 13 (December 1953), I met a small group at the station in Paris where we took a train to Dieppe, then a ferry to Folkestone, then boarded an English train going to London. The English train had more comfortable seats, in velvet, and attendants would come and serve tea.

A English Southern Railway boat train (courtesy N.E. Norman)

There are several other stations in Paris. One of my favorites is the Gare de Lyon with trains going south. It is a classic station built in 1900 for the World Exposition.

Vintage postcard of the Gare de Lyon, Paris

Starting in 1957, I went to Italy four times on vacation during the month of August. I would catch the overnight train to Milan then connect with an Italian train going to the Adriatic Coast. I had to get my ticket and reservation a long time in advance because a huge number of Parisians took the train to points south around the 1st August. Sometimes I would get a “couchette” which was a bench where I could lay down. If not I was in a compartment with 6 other people. There was a small corridor outside of the compartment, as shown below. I would also go to the dining car for dinner, usually the second seating.

During the night we would be awaken when we went through Switzerland. The train would stop and the Customs Agents would get in. If we had time and I saw some vendors on the platform, I would run and buy some Swiss chocolate. It was a long trip then but now the SNCF, the French Railroad Company, has very fast trains which they call TGV. This stands for Train à Grande Vitesse, or literally 'train with a very fast speed.' We took a TGV to Marseille in November 2009 and it took only 3 hours from Paris. It is a distance of 489 miles, or 783 kms, which is a little more than the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio - in 3 hours!

French TGV train Marseille-Paris

To return to our trip on that Monday 2nd May, 2011, we reached the Gare du Nord with almost an hour to spare. Our train was listed on the sixth line below, 10:01 to Bruxelles-Midi, train 9321 (Brussels, Belgium, Midi station.)

We walked around the station, bought some magazines and I took pictures. My husband bought the New York Herald Tribune to read some news – it said that Osama Ben Laden had been found and killed, which we did not know.




But we finally boarded our train and sat in our comfortable red seats.



This TGV train was going quite fast. I tried to take some pictures but they did not come out sharp at all. We were going through fields and small towns. We passed several rivers and lakes.




We left Paris, France at 10:01 am and arrived at the Midi station in Brussels, Belgium at 11:20 am, or a trip of 1 hour and 20 minutes. If we had taken a flight, when you consider going to the airport in advance, boarding the plane, the flight, then deplaning, it would have taken much longer.



On an another note, we had been considering taking the train from Atlanta to New Orleans. I checked this week and found one train, called the Crescent, leaving Atlanta daily at 8:38 am and arriving in New Orleans at 7:38 pm, or a trip of 12 hours. The distance is about 469 miles – 754 kms – which is less than the distance Paris Marseille (489 M/783 kms) taking only 3 hours on the TGV. In addition, there are many trains going to either Brussels or Marseille during the day. There is only one train going to New Orleans in a southern direction and then back to Washington, DC and on to New York City going north. Just one train for a population in greater Atlanta of 5,475,213 (2009 census.) The whole country of New Zealand has a population of 4,315,000 and more than one train. There are no other trains in Atlanta going anywhere else, that's it.



In my next post I’ll explain why we went to Brussels and who we met there (we had a great time!)

Arriving at the Brussels train station

Eating Le Brie (cheese) while in La Brie (region) on May 1st

La Brie is a historic region of France close to Paris. It is a region just like Brittany, Normandy or Provence. My cousin has been living there all her life. We stayed with her and her husband when we arrived in France at the end of last April. She lives in a little town close to Melun, the larger town in the region. The region of Brie is about 50 kms (31 miles) from Paris between the rivers Seine and the Marne and covers about 5,000 square kilometers. The people are called “Briards” (masc) and “Briardes” (fem.)

Map showing the Brie region (from Wikipedia)

There is a feeling of being in the country there as the landscape still is an area of large fields, forests and small villages. There are beautiful castles close by too like Vaux-le-Vicomte.

Postcard of a watercolor by P. Riviere

I wrote a post in December 2009 about Vaux-le-Vicomte castle and took many pictures – you can see them here. I loved to go to visit my cousins when I was growing up as I felt we were going far away from Paris as we drove down little roads. Now there are freeways and the RER metro line and it is almost a suburb area for Paris. But the old farms are still there close to the fields.

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The name “Brie” is well known, not because of the area “La région de la Brie” but for its cheese, “le fromage le Brie.” It has a long history there – Emperor Charlemagne (742-814 AD) tasted the cheese in a small Brie village in 774 and this was duly noted. Later, Louis XVI’s (1754-1793) last wish before going to the guillotine was to get a final taste of Brie cheese. In 1814 the Prince of Talleyrand brought the cheese to the Congress of Vienna. This Brie de Meaux was awarded first prize and was declared “Le Roi des Fromages” (The King of Cheeses.) There are several Brie cheeses made in the Brie region – they take their names from the names of the cities where they are made. See below.




Now, all over the world different Brie cheeses are sold: light Brie, herbed varieties, double cream or made with other types of milk. The French government officially certified only two types of cheese to be sold under that name : Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun. This certification is called “Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC)” which means “controlled designation of origin.” This is not a brand or a registered trademark – it is a certification that the product has been produced under a rigorous set of defined standards – in a traditional manner with ingredients from specifically classified producers in a designated area. Under French law you cannot call a cheese “Brie” if it was not produced in that region. It is the same for wine – Champagnes are produced in the Champagne region, Bordeaux wines in the Bordeaux region and so on. Certainly you would not call a wine a “California” wine if it had been produced in Michigan. Brie cheeses produced in California or Canada are not genuine and don’t taste the same as the real thing (I know – I have tasted them all.) There are many other cheeses in France with this AOC certification, like Roquefort, Camembert, Port Salut, etc.

Postcard showing some of France's cheeses

Because of all these cheeses, a quote from General De Gaulle is well known: “How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese? “ (Charles de Gaulle.) That was then but now France produces more types of cheeses, between 350 and 400 or so. About 40 of them have the AOC certification. My cousin always has a great selection when we visit her.

The Sunday after watching The Wedding (see last post) it was May 1st. My cousin’s husband went to the florist early and surprised us with some lily of the valley to bring us happiness for the rest of the year – according to the French custom. (I wrote a post on this, see it here.) We went to the balcony so I could take a picture of it.




My cousin placed her lily of the valley in a little vase.




Then we went to the market to buy some fresh vegetables, fruits and cheeses bien sûr ! (of course.) Below is my cousin buying some cheese.



My cousin is a gourmet cook. The largest meal of the day at her home is lunch. The evening meal is very light. That Sunday we had some delicious scallops with fresh herbs on tender spaghetti for lunch, accompanied by a beautifully balanced rosé wine.




We ended the meal with the “plat de fromages“ an assortment of cheeses – she had at least 3 types of Brie – de Meaux, de Melun and de Provins – all this accompanied by a great Champagne (they usually go to the producer and buy a quantity of bottles.)




In the family it is well known that I like cheese. I have been brought up on cheese, really. I read in my mother’s memoirs where she said that while living in Provence with her parents soon after I was born (my father was in the war) she would sew dresses or make alterations to clothes for many farmers in the area. She was not paid but received each week a couple of eggs and some cheese to feed me. When she went away to another town to work my grandparents fed me mostly goat cheese that they obtained from the local shepherds.

My grandmother and me around 1942 in Vaison-la-Romaine

When I was about 3 or 4 I went back to Paris with my mother - food was scarce. The French were given ration books to obtain food, clothes and other necessities. Often even with the ration tickets food, like meat, was not available, and from 1940 to 1944 many ration tickets were left unused. I ate mostly cheese because everyone in the family gave my mother their cheese ration tickets to feed me. Below is a ration book and ration tickets.

The tickets above are for bread – 100 grams per day or approx 3.75 ounces – bread made from a mixture of corn, beans, rice and other grains and not tasty. For cheese the ration was 6 grams per day or 0.211 ounces. I rarely ate meat and when offered some could not eat it well. I read that France had ration books until 1948 (bread 1949.) So my eating cheese goes way back. After coming to the US in the 60s, I went back to France many times, about every other year at first, then every year and starting in 1984 when my mother became ill I flew to Paris about two or 3 times a year until 2002 – a total of perhaps 46 to 52 times till 2002 (Unfortunately I went back home not as a tourist so I rarely took pictures of Paris.) My mother, paralyzed, had the meals on wheels service so there was no cooking at home. I bought different cheeses, a baguette and a good bottle of wine - that was my dinner when I visited her.




For the evening meal of this 1st of May, we just had some “charcuterie” (paté and local sausages) and some cheese, too.

During the day the florist rang twice bringing flowers sent to my cousins from their daughters who live in other parts of France. The first bouquet was an assortment of lily of the valley with pink flowers – I don’t know their names.




The second bouquet was an assortment of pale roses and lily of the valley.




My cousin was pleased to display them in the dining room.



It certainly had been a happy 1st of May.

Postcard of a watercolor by Thierry Gaudry called Cidre Briard et Brie de Coulommiers

Arriving in France – with a detour

Many hours were spent planning our trip to France. We were flying United Airlines from Atlanta to Chicago then connecting with another flight to Paris. The savings on the special fare made up for the studio downtown Paris I had rented for the last week of our stay. We were leaving Atlanta on Tuesday 26 April to return home on May 19th. On Sunday April 24th I sent an email to the studio’s owner to fix a meeting time. On Monday they replied that the studio was no longer available. So a day prior to our leaving, Easter Monday which is a holiday in France, I had to spend hours trying to find another studio instead of packing our suitcases! But I found one and by 3 am Tuesday morning our suitcases were packed. We arrived at the Atlanta airport in plenty of time but unfortunately, because of bad storms and tornadoes up north, we deplaned in Chicago at 5:40 pm. We rushed to the other terminal hoping to reach our connecting flight in time which was to depart at 6:00 PM.

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We arrived at the gate at 5:55 PM, the aircraft was still there but the door was closed – I am sure our seats had been given away. We watched as the plane backed off the ramp and slowly rolled away – without us. It was a terrible feeling.

(Internet picture - no author known)

There was a flight going to London at 9:00 PM we were told, then once in London we could connect to another flight to Paris. This is what we did. The plane had many groups of happy tourists on board flying to London to watch The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on Friday 29th, but this was not a detour we had anticipated. The 8 ½ hour flight went smoothly and as we approached Heathrow Airport the weather looked fine from my aircraft window.

We had time to catch our Air France flight to Paris so I tried to find some wedding souvenir at the airport shop. The choice was very limited as they were sold out of many items. I did buy some tea though.




When we arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, around 1:00 PM on Wednesday 27th, our luggage did not show up. We made a report then took the train to the little town – about 1 hour from Paris – where my cousins live. The next day we had to go back to Paris to make arrangements for the studio with the owners. We brushed our traveling clothes and went back to Paris – we had no report on our luggage. The new studio was in the Marais area of Paris which I know well since my mother had a flat there for several years. The studio looked OK but had no computer access. The owners invited us to their flat so I could send a quick email to our daughters. I enjoyed taking pictures of the view from their 5th floor apartment. We could even see the top of Notre Dame de Paris from their window.




By Friday 29th we were quite tired and happy to stay home with our cousins and watch TV. My cousin had prepared a special meal to celebrate – I thought it was for our arrival… no, it was to accompany the viewing of The Wedding on TV. We started with my cousin’s special cocktail.



Watching The Wedding had not been in my prepared plans, but then the detour to London had not been planned either. I decided to take many pictures since the television format in France is quite fine and pictures usually look pretty good. In 1942 the US decided to use the NTSC format (National Television Standards Committee) which has 525 lines of resolution. At that time this was good enough for black and white transmission. Europe, Australia and part of Asia selected the competing format called PAL, or Phase Alternating Line. This system was created after the advent of color broadcasting. It has 625 lines of resolution which give better picture quality and color signals truer to the original image. This is the reason that European videos cannot be seen on US televisions.



The pictures were very clear. We saw the ceremony better than if we had been sitting in Westminster Abbey really.




Actually while sipping my cocktail I now realize that I took over 250 pictures – way too many.



Below is a small selection.

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My cousin told me that Prince Albert of Monaco (the son of the former Grace Kelly) is to wed his South African swimmer girl-friend, Charlene Wittstock, this summer. Here they are below arriving at the Abbey.

I took another sip to wish them both good luck.



Then it was back to the pictures…




I caught “the kiss”



and English high fashion



“the end.”



Now it was time to call Air France to see if they had located our luggage – it had been 3 days already. They had located them… but in Los Angeles.



They finally arrived the following day, Saturday. This was not the end of our adventures though. Now I have to look at all my pictures and will talk about the rest of this trip in the coming weeks.