Day 3 in Paris - Good by Paris Hello Train Ticket Shenanigans

Question  of the day: how many times do I need to pay for the same ticket to get to Lyon? Answer - depends on if I can remember departure times! 😡👎🥲😂

So about that…..I pre purchased the tickets to Lyon and of course forgot the time of departure (in my defense I nailed the arrival). It was for 1700 and in my head stuck 7pm. Yeah no. We arrived at the train station around 5:20 thinking we were way early….

But as soon as I saw the departure board……

Whammy! 

So had to do a quick reschedule for a later train which ironically gets to Lyon when I originally thought we would arrive. Oh yeah! We went to information desk and the nice helper helped herself to my credit card for another payment for the new tickets. But wait it gets better. Now, new depart is 18:42 so we really have time. The board says Rail 2 so we go over there. Brienna got in some shopping!

After that, we had a quick bio break - fyi you have to pay 1 Euro to use the toillette. Then Matthew bought a ridiculous amount of snacks from a vending machine and Brienna nabbed some snacks from a vendor. Now we return to Rail 2. Except train on board shows a letter from Rail 1 so we have to quickly go back there. 

We make it with 15 min to spare and go through the turnstiles with our passes.

Or so we thought! 🤨 The conductor asked why we did not have seats and my response…..

Well that didn’t work, so he quickly assigned us some seats (very nice fellow) and we got on board. 

You think it’s over, but no! 

The train conductor asks where are our passes. (See earlier response with same result). He tells me I need the app. I show him the app. He says there is nothing in the app. I agreed. He said I need something in the app. I agreed. He backed away: LOL. I retrieved my printed receipt (shocking technology - paper 🙀). It contained everything I needed and he agrees and left. I added my pass to the app. I asked the kids if they wanted to put their passes on their phones. 

I added their passes to my app. Then I had to book all three of our trips on the app - you know the trip on the train that we are now riding on. 😬 Success! I got everything done. I wanted to celebrate with Brienna and Matthew but….

🫤

The conductor eventually returned and was very happy!


Très bien, mon excellent ami. Profitez de votre voyage.

Next stop Lyon…we can only hope 😂













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