Yesterday we took the train to Paris from Alençon. Paris was divine, but the train was a true adventure. In France the rails lines are operated by La Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF). After spending far too much time trying to grasp the complexities of the SNCF web site, we concluded that we wanted travel from Alençon to Le Mans by a regular train, then to Paris on the high speed TGV, the Train à Grande Vitesse. Trust me, after trains that travel at some 275 kmh, VIA Rail looks pretty pathetic!
Now, how fast is 275 kmh? Wikipedia describes it as follows.
Confronted with the fact that train drivers would not be able to see signals along the track-side when trains reach full speed, engineers developed the TVM cab-signalling technology, which … allows for a train engaging in an emergency braking to request within seconds all following trains to reduce their speed; if a driver does not react within 1.5 km (0.93 mi), the system overrides the controls and reduces the train's speed automatically.
Yes, the TGV is too fast to be safely operated by humans!
Anyhow, we booked our train tickets, leaving in the morning, and returning at the end of the day, and arrived at the station in Alençon with minutes to spare. A helpful local pointed us to the train to Le Mans, and thirty-six minutes later we arrived, and proceeded to the gate for the second leg of our journey.
And discovered that the QR codes on our tickets refused to scan.
We were handed off to a very helpful, and on this occasion, thankfully bilingual, SNCF employee. We discovered that the tickets that we had booked were in fact not to Le Mans but to Surdon. We had just assumed that “Surdon” was the name of the train station in Le Mans. Wrong. Surdon is 35 km north of Alençon, whereas Le Mans is 58 km to the south.
Raphael, the lovely SNCF employee, scored us two free First Class tickets on the next train, and we were off. Wow, that train is fast!
At the end of the day we accepted the inevitable and boarded the return train from Paris to Surdon. We arrived here:
Which, at 21:47 at night was decidedly lacking in a train would take us the rest of the way to Alençon. What we found instead (thank you to another helpful fellow traveller) was a bus! And, since this was the last trip of the day, it was a fast bus - sort of an AGV, or Autobus à grande vitesse. I’ve driven large vehicles on twisty rural roads, and this guy was pushing it for all it was worth. It was a half-hour of either exciting or white-knuckle travel, depending on your capacity for thrills.
We’re not entirely sure why the SNCF website sent us on a wild goosechase to Surdon instead of Le Mans. It’s roughly an hour longer trip, depending on time of day, but we won’t make that mistake again.
We also learned a couple of important things: first class on the trains in France means a little wider seat - three a row instead four - but really nothing else, so if the ticket is costing 10 € more, go for it. If it’s priced at an extra 50€ don’t bother.
Second, the Le Mans station was our first encounter with a public washroom with a concierge, and 40 centime charge to use it.
And finally, we have no explanation how the SNCF employee (conductor?) on the morning train to Le Mans was able to scan our tickets to Surdon and not even comment…