## 40 The Train

The train is coming back...OK, not really in France but I see big projects in Asia for then next decade. I have taken the train in many countries and it's always a different experience. I'm not far to have taken the train in every country I've visited in my life. And at least, I've seen many of them on TV documentaries. There are plenty of this. But I love to experiment myself. The best experience is not with the most luxurious, the fastest, the most beautiful. It's something linked to meeting people during travels. 

If I dream sometimes of the famous Orient Express, it's not for the beautiful old wagons with wood and gilding. It's more about the history and the countries I would travel with it. It's also about stories in novels. When I was young, I loved adventure novels and I still love it. But it was always difficult for me to take the night train. Four or six passenger in a small cabin, it's always too small...especially if you don't know this people around you when you are a shy boy. But I have memories of long train travels from Paris to the center of France. I had small comic books to spare time and board games to play during the day. It was not very different from now because the wagons are still the same. They only changed the inside. But it was not very confortable, the sheets were not very sweet and there were always people talking in the corridor or sometimes someone snoring in the cabin. But I liked to look at the landscape through the window, especially outside the cities because when you come in Paris and 
its suburbs, all is dirty and Grey. I took the train recently in France and it was the same pleasure to see that during 3 hours : fields, villages, woods, small mountains, rivers, people, a nuclear plant, wind turbines, .…

I had a different experience in other countries. It was a bit disappointing in Canada with a descent service in an old wagon not far from my souvenirs of childhood...30 years later. A kind of 1st class service in a third class cabin. But luxury is not what I like. I took inter cities trains in UK and Germany and it was nice...especially in Germany because the train was smooth and clean as you expect. But one of my best experience was in Vietnam because it had a taste of adventure. 10 years ago, it was still an old train to go from south to north. Some trains are taking 2 days to do this. It's slowly with old wagon. There are 3 classes and I remember that the ticket seller was very surprised that we took a 2nd class ticket when there are first class tickets for foreign tourists. A good travel in train is with local people. Train in Vietnam is still very popular because it's cheap. There were many families and we were very happy to share some snacks with our neighbors in the wagon. Of course, it was difficult 
to have a vegan food in the restaurant wagon because nothing was translated. But we did it and it was fresh food, cooked in a real kitchen inside the train. We also took another train to go in the mountains in the north, a night train. Less nice because we didn't see anything during the travel. But it was nice too, to sleep in a wagon with many people from different countries and from Vietnam. We shared also the snacks that everyone had and talked about our experiences in the country.

You can't do that in a plane and it's also different in a coach because you have only two seats. With cabins or four seats facing each other, it's more easy to talk. But I must admit that in France with French people, I'm sometimes more shy than with people from other countries or when I'm not in France. French tourists are often unbearable and that's the same inside France. Oh, that's not the only country like that, ha ha. But French are very famous for that. And sometimes, I'm doing «my French» and must apologize for that. Another famous fact about France is that our train are always late...or on strike. It's for good reasons for the strikes, for bad reasons for delays : an old problem, the maintenance of our trains and tracks. It's a very French problem, the lack of maintenance and service. So, I'm dreaming to take trains in Japan. I'm always very happy to travel with Japanese people and their trains are always on time. Perhaps one day, I'll take the Shinkansen, their high speed train. Talking about hig
h speed, I took many times the French TGV or the Eurostar. Another great experience to travel in 3 hours from Paris to Marseille and to be in the heart of the city, directly. Far more pleasant than plane for that. But now, train is too expensive compared to plane and many people can't buy tickets. Remember that it's not the case in Vietnam and other countries so it's also a problem with the lack of taxes on planes, compared to trains. Trains are so better for the planet, too.

That's why I hope that during the next 20 years, a great effort will be accomplished for train travel. I've seen many project like another «orient express» across southern Europe, for example or new high speed trains in USA and across south-eastern Asia. The only drawback with Train is that it's often longer than plane and when you have only two weeks in a country, it's not easy to find time to do a travel by train. But I'm sure that you will have a better memory of that travel than the same by plane.

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