French customer service not an oxymoron

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Aignan, Gers, Gascogny, France

A long day of travel can sometimes be uneventful and sometimes can be full of surprises, like yesterday, when the guard on the train came through and started asking everyone about their destinations and telling them in many cases they’d have to get off and change to a bus at Limoges because of a fire on the tracks or station at Perigueux. No trains running between Perigueux and Bordeaux, I guess. Our ticket said we were supposed to go straight through from Lyon to Bordeaux with no changes. So we didn’t understand what was happening and he didn’t take time to talk long with us, which left me feeling quite frustrated; but a helpful young Welshman who was fluent explained what was happening. So we loaded our stuff onto our backs and disembarked at Limoges along with many others, and then I showed the guard our ticket and our final destination and asked if it was possible we’d be still arrive at the same time to make our connection and he said in more French words, Stay on the train until Perigueux! I’ll talk to you more in a little bit! So back on the train we went.

Turns out there was not a hope of us catching our connection from Bordeaux to Mont de Marsan, since we had to take a bus instead of the train from Perigueux to Bordeaux, stopping at all the stations that the train would have instead of just cruising along at 110 km per hour on the motorway. It was a leisurely trip for 100 km through the beautiful evening light down many a winding road. We left around 7:30 and finally got to Bordeaux at 10 pm, just after sunset, after seeing so many picturesque little villages we started to feel there would be no end to them. Then, Bordeaux! Entering Bordeaux across the Garonne River on what is I believe the St. Emilion bridge, lit with lovely rococo streetlamps, and all the street lights on the strand and the massive yet delicate looking buildings reflecting in the water, well, it was tres jolie, to say the least. It was a much better view than I ever had when I visited the city 18 years ago and stayed at the auberge jeunesse/youth hostel. I was so glad we ended up on the bus at that point because we would have never gotten that incredible view if we’d come on the train. Even Reed was enchanted.

After leaving the Jura, we’d meandered slowly across the high elevation of the Massif Central, looping slowly from Lyon up to Roanne and Montlucon and then back down to Limoges. The northern Auvergne was beautiful and remote, but obviously just enjoying their spring. But when we got south to Perigueux and then down further to Bordeaux, you could just feel the warmth radiating from the earth, like the Jura was Canada and Gascony is Southern California.

Don’t let it be said that the French don’t understand customer service. Sometimes they may choose not to do it – maybe keeping their job doesn’t depend on their people skills - but when they do it they do it extremely well. Kind of like experiencing the affection of a cat as opposed to that of a dog. Because of the train delay we had to spend the night in Bordeaux. Arriving at 10 pm, we first schlepped our stuff across the street to the hotels we could see – all full. So when we returned to the train station information and help office and explained that we’d just come in on the bus because of the fire at Perigueux and therefore had missed our connection, not only did they immediately start looking for a room for us, they gave us some boxed lunches, bottles of water, and when they were unable to find a room at the usual places where the hotel will bill the railway, they apologetically asked if we would be willing to stay where we would pay up front but then be reimbursed by the railway. They also paid for the taxi to and from the hotel and the station. And they upgraded us to first class for the last leg of the journey.

Our room was in the non descript Accor Etap hotel but it was clean and comfortable and had a shower with hot water. Fortunately we had traveled with a great deal of food – leftover quiche and meatballs and fruit and a baguette BLT and so on – but the fresh bottles of water they gave us were very welcome, since the very slow train we were on most of the day had no beverages available and our 3 water bottles had been emptied much earlier in the evening. By the time we were in bed it was my birthday and I got kisses from both my boys in honor of the occasion.