Here's an interesting thing that happened to us. On the way through Paris to Normandy, Jeanie misplaced her notebook with all her notes from the trip on it. She figured it was lost for good. However when Laurent, Solange's son, met us at Gare St. Lazare for our second visit to Paris, he said that we should go to the Lost and Found for it. We did, and there it was! It turned out that Jeanie had written the address for our blog on the first page, and the Railroad people looked at the blog and saw that we had visited someone in Paris. Solange's name and phone number were there. They called Solange, and left word that we could pick it up at the station. So, on the way through again when we came to visit Solange for the second time, there it was!! Wonders never cease!
Jeanie here:
When we were in Italy and wanted information about a train, I often stood in lines snaking around a room with 4 clerks on duty and sometimes unhappy passengers were yelling. Information booths were sometimes closed and maybe one lady at a stand with a long line of people waiting. We left something on the train and the Lost and Found was closed Sat, Sunday and almost any other time that was convenient for passengers. Our friends in Italy tried to call Milan to inquire about it, but were told that things things can never be found again.
It was completely different in France. In Gare St. Lazare in Paris there were 2 information stations where people just walked in, got an answer and walked out. There were also young people with badges to help you find your train and regular train people at the tracks. We were waiting in this station for 2 hours until our train arrived. During this time I frequently left John to watch the luggage and I checked the train-track board. Once I made a phone call to the hotel to tell them we wouldn't arrive until after 11PM. They said, no problem. Several hours later when we were packing up from our train ride, I noticed that my journal wasn't in my backpack. This was a problem because the journal had names and email addresses of people we had met. It had details of all the places we had been. It had receipts, ticket stubs, cards and other souvenirs. John also lost his U of W chemical engineering pen. So we felt subdued on our ride to Bayeux.
When we returned to Paris, Laurent was there to meet us because my pen pal, Solange, had gone to Nice as her old mother had fallen and was hospitalized. Laurent said, did I lose something. Yes, but before I could explain exactly what I had lost he took us to a building outside the station and disappeared. I thought he was going to start inquiries and he wouldn't know exactly what was missing. Instead he came back with the notebook in his hand! He said when the person turned the notebook in, they had started the paperwork and now he had to answer a lot of questions including his mother's name. I was surprised to be reunited with my journal. I am so proud of the French railway system. I am just amazed!
