Strikes

I forgot to tell a fun story about leaving France. We couldn't really communicate with the nice B&B lady most of the trip because we don't speak French and she didn't really speak English. Well, on the last day I found out she spoke Spanish and so does Chuck so finally we could really talk to her! We were going to leave earlier for the airport, but ended up talking to Esperanza.

When we got to our tram stop everyone got off the tram, we got on, then someone was saying something in French and everyone got back off. How odd. It already seemed weird that the whole tram had emptied there, so I turned to someone and asked if they spoke English (which was quite hard to find down there!). She did, thank goodness, and explained that the trams were striking here and to go to the Place de la Comedie to pick up a tram.

So Chuck and I hauled our luggage up many flights of stairs to run through a lovely park and past the 50-100 student demonstrators and caught the next tram. Sadly we didn't have time to buy a ticket. Not a good idea. Did you know you can go to jail in France for riding without a ticket? I didn't know either!

Ok, we didn't get caught, don't worry. We just made it in time to catch the bus shuttle to the airport. We also met some nice Germans on the way there. Actually, we met all sorts and nice and interesting people on the trip.

The part I found most amusing was that you always here of the French striking, and then I really got to see it! So my stereotypes were definitely reinforced. Baguettes, berets (though not so many), strikes, and little to no English. lol. It was great.