9 Hours on the Train ...

Spent almost the whole day today on high-speed trains ... first the TGV from Aix-en-Provence to Paris, then the Thalys from Paris to Amsterdam. A very comfortable way to travel. The trains, especially the TGV, were much more spacious, not to mention smoother, than planes. Plus they travel between (mostly) city-centre train stations instead of far-out airports.
The Aix TGV station was quite far out of the city centre ... about halfway between Aix and Marseille actually. Not terribly convenient. But at least that gave them the opportunity to build a relatively spacious dedicated high-speed rail station. The train was perfectly on time, and very, very fast as advertised. Grand vitesse indeed.

Spent the first leg of the journey reading Jean Giono's Second Harvest and looking out the window to see the scenery from time to time. The line was apparently built straight from Marseille to Paris without passing through any major urban areas in between (which explains why the Aix station is so far out); the passing scenery consisted mostly of hills, woods, fields of varying shades and small towns. The surrounding colours seemed to change gradually as the train headed north: starting with the sun-drenched sand and brown and yellow of the Mediterreanean coast, slowing conceding more to green, and eventually turning into the verdant green of the north.

The scenery was a most suitable foil to Second Harvest. The work was most vivid in its description of life in the villages of the mountains of Provence, and portrayed a way of life that was much more in contact, and in a harmony of sorts, with Nature than anything that the modern city-dweller like yours truly would ever experience ... although it does remind that ultimately, the farmer or hunter is in a struggle against Nature as well as working with her. Hard truths notwithstanding, the whole work had an air of optimism about it, as though the author, the storyteller, were palely smiling the whole time he was narrating the story ...
The TGV arrived at Paris Gare de Lyon around half past one. The train station(s) in Paris were a madhouse compared even to Marseille ... trains leaving every few minutes and huge flows people rushing in every direction. A short underground connecting journey brought us to the Gare du Nord. This was truly an international station, with trains heading to the UK and north to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. There was enough time for lunch and a bit of a wait before the second leg ...
... on board the Thalys. "The international train". The announcements were made in four languages ... and English was the last one. Many of the passengers seemed to be multilingual themselves and switched without much difficulty between Dutch, French and English. It was quite a smooth ride again ... except for some difficulty with the seating arrangements at the start, but that was settled by the time of departure. Got off at Antwerp to stretch my legs a little ... the platforms were underground and quite strikingly lit.
North of Antwerp the train started slowing down and wasn't travelling much faster than normal trains, probably because it had to share the rails with them. Reached Amsterdam past 7pm, but it was still bright as day. The daylight lingered till almost eleven. Even longer than in Provence.