We're batting along through the very rural countryside of eastern France. I don't know the speed because TGV don't have a display in the coach like the fast German trains, but it can't be far off 200mph. I paid a quite modest €18 extra for this spacious First Class seat for the seven hour journey from Paris to Milan, though amazingly it doesn't have a power point so I can't charge my iPhone. The weather has been very grey all day, with intermittent rain including when I went for short walk from Gare de Lyon to have a look at the Seine. No problem getting across Paris from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon on the RER, except that I chose the one ticket machine that appeared to work but wouldn't accept my coins; a kindly young French lady confirmed it was the machine at fault and not me.
SNCF waited until 10 minutes before departure before displaying the platform for the Milan train, and there was then a huge queue on the platform at what appeared to be an ad hoc passport check. We left six minutes late, with people still wandering around the train ten minutes later. I had to turn someone out of my seat, and soon afterwards was challenged by an unsmiling and unapologetic French woman who should have been in the same seat in the next coach. On the concourse at Gare de Lyon, a family going away with many cases and bags, a small obedient dog, and a cat in a cat basket taking great interest in the busy station.
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