Traveling in France


I have had the chance of a brief contact with the French transportation system from Turin to Chambery and back, onboard a TGV going to Paris. The train itself is pretty cool, although it was a rather old TGV (but still a TGV). It did not go with its famous high speed, because it was traveling on normal tracks linking Italy to France. The carousels are simple layout 2+2 seats (just like on a bus), with seats facing each-other at the beginning, middle and end of the carousel. What was really annoying was the lack of power-plugs at each seat. I was told it only had them at the bathroom…

Railway stations in France are really clean (well, they look clean). Even near the Chambery station the restaurants were clean, people were civilized (as opposed to Italy, where this is not the case). The trains I saw were all punctual, our train even arrived at the very second it was supposed to. In all aspects, the system is very similar to the Italian system: it has the same yellow/white boards for departures/arrivals, the same ticket validating system, even the tickets are very similar. All of the similarities, however, seem to be… well… better. It is almost as if Italy copied the system from France, but never really got the hang of it…

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