La Salle d'Attente

I arrived at Lille railway station early, in fact two hours early which then became five hours when I learnt that my train was cancelled. What to do when you have a heavy suitcase and no storage facility in this era of security? You go to the waiting room. Fortunately Lille station waiting room is clean and under steady use. People were coming and going and not of particular attention. But a wait of five hours made me seek distractions other than reading Le Monde and writing.

I began to notice a woman speaking almost continuously in muted tones to a man whose only response was also a muted "eh" of acknowledgement. There is nothing special about such an engagement except the duration. It went on for most of the time I was in the waiting room. The man appeared to be "of the cloth" judging from the gold edged book in his hand. He was extremely attentive to the woman's tale and her distress. Eventually after such a long period of listening he appeared to give his judgement. As they eventually left I could only speculate on the purpose and effectiveness of this consultation and on the patience of some.

My other longterm co-occupants of the waiting room were a vagrant man whose stench was as pervasive as it was overpowering and an old woman whose tirade to some expressionless travellers was as intense as it was incomprehensible to me and, I speculate, to them.

Such a long wait needed to be punctuated by a search for food and the toilet. In Gare du Lille the toilet was hard to find and privatised. At first I pretended to ignore, as an ignorant foreigner, the many signs for a toll for my brief and efficient male toiletry. However, as I went to leave, a formidable looking woman made such a strong blocking movement that surrender to this outrageous brigandry was my only option. After paying I left, thankful for my life but with some residual resentment over the need to pay for basic human needs.

The train to Le Tourquet sur la plage eventually arrived and I had the pretty French landscape to entertain and distract me from Le Monde and writing.

Right now I bet you are hoping I can improve on this drivel. However, waiting is one aspect of travel so be prepared for such boring stories: