The Pulse in Paris: Nefarious Nancy

Do you all remember that Baz Luhrman spoken word tone poem from the late 90’s “Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen?”  It starts “Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97, Wear sunscreenIf I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.”  Well my version, if I wrote it this week would read “Travellers and adventurer’s in the year of 2010, bring your passport.  If I could offer you only one tip for traveling (especially on the TGV from Paris to Nancy) passports would be it.”

The day started off fine, we rushed to the Gare d’l Est and found our train and packed all of our luggage on and that is where the real adventure started.  So it is true that in the clear bold print on the Eurail pass it says you should always have your passport on your person.  It is true also that that very morning as I finished packing my bag I placed my hand on my passport and thought “should I take this? Nah, it’ll be much safer here in the flat in Paris.”  And it is true that we got perhaps one of the bitchiest train agent’s this side of the Pacific.  I was alone at the seats when she asked for my tickets and she was having none of it.  I had to track down our French-speakers in the cafe car where they were dealing with their own adventure in the way of an odd-ball waiter.  Well after she consulted nearly ever member of the train personnel as well as the official French train passengers rule book (who the hell ever heard of such a thing) she let us avoid an international incident with a false accusation that we had tried to alter the dates on our ticket.  It is apparently one of those little cultural things that the French do when they can’t actually accuse you of something, they just make it up and you have to take it.  I guess you learn something new every day, even when you’re not stuck in a theater.  So trust me on the passport.

Unfortunately, the adventures didn’t stop there.  We had a nice smooth load in and two fairly smooth shows, they seem to just keep getting better, hopefully that means they’ll hit their stride on closing night in gay Paris.  Anyway, the troubles began to roll in on the first night of shows when I found the back of my knee throbbing with pain that lasted about 2 days.  Fortunately, by load out last night the pain had for the most part subsided, thought the knee doesn’t feel quite right, but we didn’t have time to deal with my pains.  As the rest of us were flourishing about packing away, our dear host Brigitte found a loose step on her way of the stage and when down screaming in agony.  I was certain she must have broken at least a few ribs, but she walked away (rather slowly but on her own) with just more than minor aches and pains which was quite fortunate.  Thankfully, once again the folks who support us over here were ready to step up in the clutch and everyone pitched in to help get her and her car and belongings safely home, these folks are really great.

I told Dave that I am ready to be done with our adventures for a while and am hoping for a wonderful and a (knock on wood) event free closing here in Paris this week.  The rest of the trip back was fairly uneventful as well and thankfully so since I think we had had our fill.  Here’s hoping that luck continues….but trust me on the passport.