Bikes on a train

From Ypres, we rode across the border into France, stopping at Lille to camp. We didn't do much in Lille other than plan our train journey to Cherbourg. The trip from Lille to Cherbourg was our first time moving our bikes and panniers a long distance by train, and it proved to be an interesting experience. The bike ride into Lille was less stressful than expected given the city's size, but once into the train station the fun got started quickly. First of all, no one had the same story about when and how bikes could go on the train, leading to a great deal of confusion. The person making the reservation assured us that our bikes would be fine on the TGV (she booked us a spot on one with a bike car), but upon double checking with a station attendent David ran into some trouble. The attendent was surly, combative and rude, and told David that there was no guarantee that there would be space on the train for our bikes, and that he had the right to refuse us entry to the train if he wanted to. He also made fun of David's french language abilities (which are actually very good!). This put David in an understandably bad mood (his comments at the time were, "I hate that man, and I don't hate very many people"). He had two more heated conversations with the attendant, one based on his misinformation and another after we discovered there was absolutely no problem getting our bikes on the assigned train. (David speaking here: I did my best to chew him out for being wrong as well as exceptionally rude, but since he denied speaking English, I had to do my best in French. And we didn't learn a lot of combative words back in school, so I think it came out sounding something like, "You, good sir, are not as nice as would be expected under the circumstances. Please oblige me by being nicer. Why aren't you nice? Pardon me, do you have any grey poupon?"

Even with all that, things REALLY got started when we reached Paris. In order to connect for our train to Cherbourg, we had to move from the Gare de Nord to the St. Lazare station in about 45 minutes. Normally this could be easily accomplished by a short trip on the Metro, but because of our bikes this wasn't possible. The only option was to ride the (we thought short) distance from one station to the other. However, nothing is as easy as it seems when it comes to bikes and trains. First of all, the directions given by the station information did not match what we'd planned as the best route on the map. We took the directions given by the info woman, assuming that we could use the GPS (global positioning system - it marks our position overlayed on a detailed street map anywhere in Europe - very cool!) as a supplement. However, once we became slightly lost, David realized the the GPS would not reveal the site of the train station we were heading to (the only time it has failed us). Through comparing various maps I figured out the right general direction, and we spent the next 20 frantic minutes biking/walking/running through the busy sidestreets and sidewalks of Paris, to the terror of the many pedestrians and cafe-clientele. Once we finally arrived at the station we discovered it was under construction and had no elevator, so we had to haul our bikes (bags still attached) up about 30 stairs to the platform (David admittedly had to help me, thanks David). Once we arrived at the platform the attendents told us the train we needed to get on did not take bikes. Our sweaty faces and frantic expressions must have been persuasive, because the caved and told us to put our bikes on the last car of the forty-car train. We ran down the platform, threw our bags into the car, hauled our bikes in, and the train departed. We afterwards realized that we had arrived at the station about 3 minutes before the train was set to depart. Needless to say, our arrival in Cherbourg felt like quite an accomplishment.