Yesterday was what we refer to in the mental health business as A Bugger, thank you very much full moon. So I am blaming that for the incredible Nigel moment that I had.
As explained yesterday I am attempting …. attempting being the operative word… to get my parents from Zürich to Marne-la-Vallee Chessy (amongst other tasks but this took forever). On paper the train from Zürich arrives at Gare De l’Est and to get the train to Marne-la-Vallee Chessy one needs to get to the Les Halles Station (trust me, you do) and carry on to Disneyland Paris on the A4 line.
This is indeed lovely but, for the life of me, I could not work out how you got from Gare De l’Est to Les Halles. In fact, on paper, Gare De l’Est existed in a twilight zone part of Paris that wasnt connected to anything, despite it having a heavy internet presence and being one of THE major connection points in France.
I spent HOURS (accumatively between calls) trying to work out how this existed in relation to a station that on paper looked as though you could skip there. Take a look and you do better. A clue: it’s right next to Gare du Nord.
Not there is it.
Nope. Somehow my parents were arriving at a train station that Paris refused to acknowledge existed let alone connect them to something they could go and see Mickey Mouse on. I scoured the internet for AGES. AGES and AGES. And then the stunningly simple penny dropped.
There are two maps for two services.
It is no wonder everyone hates the French.*
*I don’t really. It is true what they say about French lovers.
Away For A Bit 
What do they say about French lovers? That they stink of Gauloise? Do tell.
Ohmygoodness Nicola you get the prize for the quickest comment ever. I literally posted that fifteen seconds before you replied.
The map you show is only the RER map . RER trains are a mixture between subway trains and suburban trains . There are : subway staions , RER stations, suburban trains stations and 6 real trains stations fir far away in Paris .
Not all trains stations have a RER station . All have suburban trains stations and a subway station .
Gare de l’est has no RER station, that’s why it isn’t on your RER map . To go from gare de l’est to les Halles, you have to take the subway .
When I travel abroad, I manage to get a guide book, and as soon as I can I buy a map of the city and a map of public transportation and I ask infos to anybody who wants to explain, in the airport itself .
This because I ‘ve been quite a lot into thirld world countries, where things are not so easy as in France . If you can’t manage in Paris, it would be fun to watch if you had to move inside Calcutta, Rio or Cairo .
Before bashing the French, you could remember how was New-York in 1979 when I got there . There was only ONE subway general map, in Grand Central, and I had to deal with this private junk system of the US : the only visible signs were “IND trains” and “IRT trains” . I happened to discover they were private companies names but this didn’t help me finding my way . In paris there are huge subway maps in every station, and maps of RER and suburban trains are plenty .
As you would have hopefully recieved from my email, I really appreciate your info on the various transport systems in Paris. And again, sorry if this post offended you. The humour was at my expense, not the French, I assure you.
Right, I answered you by mail man . I over-reacted because of you know why, and the first comment reminded me too many trolls .
No dramas buddy. No harm done. Good to see you hear and thanks for the help.
Well, I guess I need to chime in. I think there may have been something in the translation that Phildange lost. I thought you were being humorous and I also think Paris is up there with the top 3 public transit systems in the world – none of which are here in the USA!
And I know the French can be very witty and sarcastic in their humor. Look at Apple executive Bertrand Serlet as the keynote speaker for thew WWDC 2009. He eviscerated Windows and had the place laughing with tears!
Oh well, I am glad you boys made up.
no, As I have discussed previously, transport in the US is….. hmmmm… challenging, shall we say.
Ive been on the Metro systems in Paris, London, Sydney. Paris is astoundingly good.
My fave experience of the Paris system was this one section you travelled through and all the Parisians would, as one, take in a huge deep breath. All the idiot tourists had no idea why until we hit the most deadliest stench. No idea what it was, though it smelt like an abattoir. Disgusting.
That should have been on the map.
Yeah Nigel Vanstone is a good egg, even if his ancestors were convicts .