Jammed in Paris

Our planned journey home: overnight ferry from Ajaccio to Marseilles; Sunday morning in Marseilles; TGV to Paris; Eurostar to Kings Cross St Pancras

Then the rail strike happened in France...

Actual journey: set off as early as the icy roads could permit (it snowed in Zicavo!); wore frowns as we had a quick chat with Eurostar ('we really recommend avoiding the TGV'); a quick gander at the BBC News Interweb via F's phone ('only 200 of the 700 TGVs are running'); a long chat with the AirFrance gentleman in Ajaccio as we tried to piece together a complicated jigsaw (it would cost 800 Euro to fly from Marseilles to London via British Airways!!); a coffee to discuss options; then, 10 minutes before the AirFrance desk closed for the day, we booked a flight from Ajaccio to Paris. One-and-a-half hours later, we were in the air. Paris was grid-locked. We walked from the airport bus to Gare du Nore and traffic stood still. The Metro also being down, people were roller-blading, walking and cycling. We saw a lot of the free bicycles that Paris have being used - whole convoys of people on them. It was encouraging to see. And no one wore a helmet. At Gare du Nord, we hopped on the last Eurostar of the day and arrived home in good time.

Phew!