How not to ride the train

To the untrained eye, this may look like an ordinary 16-euro refund receipt from SNCF (the French national train company). Ha!

When Pete and Lorraine visited us for a few days recently, we decided to travel to Blois on the train on Wednesday, the day the kids don't have school. We showed up at the train station around 11am to catch a 11:05 train to Blois (Mistake #1) Then, because the line at the ticket window was too long, Dave decided to try to use one of the little automatic ticket-selling kiosks in the lobby of the train station. Unfortunately, the 11:05 train was not shown as an option -- the earliest option according to the computer left after noon -- so Dave logged out and tried to start again (Mistake #2). At this point, Cricket ran over to tell Dave that the nice man from SNCF could help us with the tickets, so Dave rushed over to where Cricket and the rest of the gang were standing, near the train itself but not near a ticket window of any sort (Mistake #3).

Boy, these mistakes are really piling up, you might think, and you'd be correct. But here the story takes a turn for the better. We had read somewhere that the French love nothing better than to help people like us who need help, and this seemed to be a case in point. What the SNCF guy had offered was to come help Dave operate the kiosk. This in and of itself was no great aid, because the guy turned out to be no more knowledgeable than Dave about the thing. But he brought his walkie-talkie with him! So, while Dave frantically jabbed at the touch-screen -- and in the process garbled entering everyone's information in order to get the discount we had intended to get (Mistake #4) -- the helpful SNCF guy radioed his colleagues to hold the train (!) because we were going as fast as we could. This was especially important when the tickets started to print: There were 6 of us, buying a round trip, so when the screen came on saying "now printing number 1 of 12", both Dave and the SNCF guy let out audible groans and the latter started giving a play-by-play on his radio, just to let the people running the show to continue to hold ("trois sur douze" ... "cinq sur douze" ... "neuf sur douze"). Finally, Dave had all 12 tickets, and he and his new best friend rushed over to the train, where a whole group of SNCF workers that had gathered ushered him onto the train via the nearest open door. The other five were already on board, having been allowed on at the beginning of the Radio Report of the Printing of the Tickets.

Once on the train, we explained all of this to the conductor. She promptly got out her pen and wrote long notes on each of the four tickets for which the discount had not been properly applied, then told us to check with the ticket window. (By the way, the discount was because, with phenomenal foresight, we purchased a "Carte Enfant Plus" for Molly last August for around 60 euros, which entitles her and up to six companions to SNCF tickets discounted up to 50%. This thing has paid for itself many times over by now.)

And finally, the happy ending: Back in Orléans after a really nice day in Blois (described in another post), Dave went to the ticket window and started explaining everything to the guy there. He (Ticket-Window Guy) made two separate trips back to the back room to talk to the supervisor before finally returning and asking, skeptically, "but what train did you say you were on?" "The 11:05," Dave replied. "But," said TWG, "these tickets say they were printed at 11:07." Dave: "Yes, they held the train for us!" Immediately, TWG's expression changed completely and we got the refund.