Here's the deal. Last week France voted on a new constitution for the European Union, or the EU. It was all over the news. Oui, or non, yes or no. Guess what they voted? They voted non, or NO. What does that mean? Technically it means they don't like the wording of the new constituiton. However, in reality they are mad at their government and since French President Chirac was championing a "oui" vote, the "non" is really against the government and not entirely against the constutition. But for travelers it means the value of the Euro is dropping which means our US dollar goes further (which is good for us).

This is what happened today.

We slept fairly well on the boat last night, I just love sleeping on boats and Beth slept well because she took a sleeping pill because she has an aversion to any bed that isn't firmly planted to the ground.

This morning the wake up call comes over the PA system, it tells you to get out of your cabin cuz your trip is basically over. We head out and struggle to find the proper place to exit the boat. Turns out at the last minute they announce that all non-auto passengers will be walking out the garage deck because the tide is too low.

Then there are no cabs once we get out of the port building so we begin to walk thru Roscoff to the train station. It's about a half mile.

As we arrive at the small train depot there are these two older Irish ladies, very cute with thier little rolling bags and very shortly after us arrive two more American backpackers, Lauren Number 2 (our second Lauren in as many days), and Sarah "Behind her Head" because she has a patch sewn on her backpack that has her name and phone number (crazy) on it that is clearly visible right behind her head as you are talking to her. Turns out the two old ladies can read French and there is a white board in the door way of the train depot. The two things we don't want to see "gracé" and "Jun 2", which, when you fill in all the other parts, means, "We are on strike on June 2nd so the trains won't be running."

Sarah "Behind her Head" and Lauren Number 2 have no idea what was going on. Turns out they had not heard anything at all about the EU stuff but, Beth and I being news junkies were able to tell them all about it. They had actually noticed that the exchange rate was dropping but didn't know why.

In an eMail we had recieved before we left California, Marie-Christine had warned us that this may happen but of course, we were living under the "that always happens to the other guy" umbrella. Guess not!

CRAP, now what?

Stuck in Roscoff (still smiling) with Sarah "Behind her Head" and Lauren Number 2

Next step, call Paris, try to get a hold of my brother Kevin who lives there and see if he has an idea. Somewhere, way in the back of my mind I'm thinking... "is there a chance in hell he and Marie-Christine would just hop in a car and come and get us?" Even though my cell phone company had assured me that I would just have to "TURN ON MY PHONE AND DIAL" once I got to Europe, No such luck!

Hmmm, now this is starting to sound like a bad episode of Amazing Race! Immediatly I start running the options.

Stay the night, Call for help, Leave.

Stay the night, 50 feet from the train depot is a small hotel, I walk and check, 65 Euro, for both of us to stay the night, but we have reservations in Paris, hmm, not good.

Call for Help, tried that, Cingular Sucks.

Leave... yea, lets get the hell out of this little town.

What was suppose to happen was that we were going to get on a short local train to another station to go to a larger city-wide train station and get a big train to Paris. So I went back to the hotel and asked the dude who worked there using sign language if he could call me a cab. Apparently if you can find a private cab owner they are smart enough to actually work when people want to give you money. I've said it before and I'll say it again, your best bet is to hire "owner/operators", it's just the same as getting a camera guy who has his own kit (gear).

Turns out this Inn Keeper is a capitalist-socialists because he asks me for 1 Euro to make the call. When I gesture that I need to go to get the Euro out of my bag back at the train depot he gestures that it is ok not to worry about the 1 Euro, obviously he was just seeing what he could get out of me. I actaully did return with a 1 Euro coin and put it on the counter in front of him.

So I tell Sarah "Behind her Head" and Lauren Number 2 if the cab is big enough you are MORE then welcome to join us to Morlaix. They are happy. Here I go, being the dad again! Turns out it's like a mini station wagon and there is plenty of room in the back for all the backpacks and bags that Beth and I and Lauren 2 and Sarah "Behind her Head" have and then the scary part, I ask cab dude how much it's going to cost...

35 Euro!

Do-able, espcially since "the kids" (that's what Beth and I call anyone under the age of 30) have said that they would pay part, as they should but frankly the "protector in me" would have let them come for free had they been like the pour kids we met yesterday, by the way, we have NO IDEA where they disappeared to.

So we take the cab ride to Morlaix and of course that station is closed and the cab drive actually feels bad about leaving us behind because he knows that it is "impossib-lay" to catch a train but we keep nodding our heads and he drives off.

The four of us find a café at the station that is actually open and we get a quick bite and then the best news we could possibly hear comes by way of another family that we had seen at the last station who apparently followed our lead when we told him we were taking a private cab. The father of the family came to me and said, "the trains are back up and there is a 2:17 train to Paris..."

HOW COOL IS THAT?????

Lauren 2, & Sarah "Behind her Head"

The train ride was VERY crowded and no one was sitting in their actual seats which means, people were sitting in OUR seats and we eventually had to move out of the seats we WERE sitting in because some family actually asked US to get out of thier seats.

Chris about to loose it on the train.

Of course Beth was being very calm and being a lot smarter then me, encouraged me to calm down.

Lost it, and coming back down the other side, thanks to Beth.

Paris, we made it.

If you walk across the street the other direction and lean the right way you can see the Eiffel Tower and the front of this Resturant.

This is one way to avoid the "No Refills" problem.
I failed to ask how much it was... 12.50 EURO. ($15.62 US, yikes!)

The steak and fries on the other hand... 10.50 Euro, and it was good!

This couple was from South Africa, they were trying to take pictures of each other in front of the tower. For some reason I LOVE to help people take their photos. I told Beth that if I lived here I would just set up a camera and a sign that said, "Free photos with the Eiffel Tower, REALLY, Free!" and then eMail the photos to the people. it's so easy and people get so much pleasure from it later. Face it, most people take crap photos.

Here is an angle you don't see often?

Can you tell what this is?

This one almost looks fake.