Je déteste le RER

I knew it would happen.  I had yet another incident on the RER.   For those of you who don’t know, the RER is the commuter rail in Paris and the surrounding region.  It’s a little bit sketchy and a lot dirty, and it’s fairly easy to get on the wrong train if you’re not paying attention.  I left my apartment extra early, since whenever I have to use the RER, something always inevitably goes wrong.  Sure enough, after I descended into the depths of he-…the RER, I saw that the entire Luxembourg station was under construction.  There weren’t any information booths selling tickets, and the machines didn’t accept my bills or my credit cards.  Joy.  I had the brilliant idea of walking for 6 minutes to the other end of the station, thinking it would be logical for there to be information desks there.  Silly me, of course not!  Exasperated, and starting to worry about the time, I frantically asked a group of French teenagers where I could use cash to buy an RER ticket, and they told me outside the Luxembourg gardens, which is actually across the street from the station, above ground, and unmarked.

I sped-walked back, purchased enough tickets for me to get there and for both my brother and I to return, and then ran back downstairs just in time to catch one of the trains headed to CDG.

45 minutes later, I found my brother waiting at the arrivals gate with his bright red North Face and a goofy, exhausted grin on his face.

Moral of the story: the RER is the WORST and MY BROTHER IS OFFICIALLY IN PARIS!  We’re off to do fun and exciting things.  Toodaloo!