Train Travel (and Toilet Paper) in France

To get to Ales from Cannes, I needed to change trains twice. For the first leg, from Cannes to Marseille, I caught the TGV InOui — it’s new, fast, and clean, with footrests and tray tables and power outlets, just like the one I came in on last week from Paris. But the next leg, the train from Marseille to Arles, was an older model, very much like the trains I used to take when I lived here in the 80s — right down to the scratchy pink toilet paper in the bathroom!

(Side note: I never did understand why the French, who routinely have bidets in their homes and invest heavily in fancy undergarments, always had such awful toilet paper. I have been surprised and a bit relieved on this trip to notice that the toilet paper is now much higher quality, and generally white. This train appears to be a throwback.)

Unlike the newer trains (which are typically open plan, with some groups of four seats together), the old trains, like this one, have compartments. The compartments used to force people to talk with each other: back in the 80s I made friends with my seat-mates on two different long haul compartment trains - once in Germany and once in Italy -- but today I don’t know if that would happen, as we are all on our phones now -- it’s a new time, and a new culture. But even with the phones, I do think on a longer trip the compartments would foster dialogue.

Regardless of the style of train, I absolutely love that trains in Europe go just about everywhere. You might have to make two or three connections, but I’ve never had to wait more than 20-30 minutes for my next train. People here like to complain about the trains (which do seem to run a little late in France), and it’s true that the online system for reserving seats is arcane and totally  user-unfriendly… but still. Wow. What a fantastic way to get around.

How amazing would it be to have a train system like this back home?!?