We decided to bring an extra piece of luggage back with us full of all our Christmas goodies and much needed new clothes. Our ticket said that our first checked-in bag could only be 50 lbs but that the second checked in bag, costing around an extra $75, could be 70 lbs. When we got to the front to check-in, the man informed us it was overweight at 66 lbs so we would have to pay double that. We showed him the ticket saying 70 lbs. The ticket is from an outside company that Jeremy's company uses to buy tickets through and the man insisted that it was a typo and that company's fault so I suppose we have to try and get our money back from them.
After that, during security, my carry-on got selected for a "random" search. They pull you over and tell you such, even though right behind them is the x-ray image of your bag with areas of concern highlighted in red. Why bother lying about it being random? So they pull almost everything out of my bag and take this piece of paper with some kind of film on it that reacts to certain chemicals and rub it all over the inside of my bag. The paper starts beeping, because apparently paper can beep, and all of a sudden people start swarming around me. One goes to further check the contents of my bag, another brings bins, a woman comes, and the original inspector tells me to take off my shoes and coat, put them in the bins, and that a female will be inspecting me and if I would like a private inspection. My boots and coat get taken for further inspection and the woman approaches me and explains how she will search me. Man, did she search me. She even stretched out my pants and looked down them!
Both her and the original bag inspector were very nice and vocal the whole time, explaining everything that they were going to do and that I had to do, but it was still nerve racking! By the time we were done and relatively ruffled, it was time to see if we could catch up with Jeremy's sister, Becky. You see, Becky had an international flight leaving 40 minutes before ours so we should have had enough time to hang out for a while. Unfortunately, her gate was already boarding and she wasn't anywhere in site so we headed to our gate. Our gate was absolutely packed and no two seats next to one another were available due to the fact that we were running a little behind plus the fact that people pile all their coats and carry-ons onto the seats next to them instead of their lap or the floor to make room for actual people. The gate across the hall was pretty empty so we headed on over there to wait. Turns out it was heading to Cancun so we got to listen to the antics of a group of frat boys but they weren't too obnoxious.
While keeping an eye on our gate across the hall, I saw a girl that looked like Becky from behind. Turns out it was Becky! She and her friend had been at the bar, we must have just seen the early boarders getting on. We got to chat for a few minutes before they had to leave, so at least we had a pleasant surprise to offset our not so pleasant ones. The boarding and plane ride was uneventful. As I said, no one stopped to check my carry-on. I'm honestly a little disappointed. My bag looked no different from the outside because the handle is covered by a flap of cloth when not in use and I was ready to be able to prove my bag was perfectly sized. Our plane ride was uneventful as well and we actually landed almost an hour earlier than anticipated.
We got to the train station, taking a taxi this time since we had so much luggage, and unfortunately did not pay attention to the fact that a train heading to our town was departing soon since we were there an hour earlier than planned. We noticed only 5 minutes beforehand and tried desperately to make it, but it was parked too far down the platform to make it in time so we had to hunker down in the cold, open-air train station for another 2 1/2 hours. We finally bit the bullet after a little over an hour and bought pastries and drinks at a café so we could sit inside their heated room.
The train is the TGV, a high-speed train that spans much of France. They consist of multiple cars, typically 7 or 8, with two floors. There is a first class and second class, and you can purchase your assigned seat up to 3-4 months ahead of time. The price is much cheaper the earlier you purchase it. For instance, if I wanted to go from Besançon to Paris tomorrow, it would cost me $68 one way second class. However, if I were to purchase a ticket for May 1st today (January 26th), it would cost $21 one way. You can save a lot of money by booking far ahead in Europe, as they do the same for many transportation and hotel options.
Upon boarding the train we found that there were people sitting in our spots. This happens a lot, as (typically) younger people decide to go somewhere last minute but since it's last minute there are no seats left next to one another so they sit together anyway hoping that person or people will just sit elsewhere. There are also people who haven't paid and just take a random seat in hopes that inspectors don't feel like doing their job and inspecting tickets. It bugs me to no end as it is so selfish. First of all, why pick two random seats? The train has two rows of two, why not pick one of your assigned seats and the one next to it. Then you can at least assume the other person may be a solo rider and won't mind taking your friend's assigned seat. Another option would be to sit in your assigned seats and then wait for the train to fill up and see if there are any empty seats or strangers who wouldn't mind being separated which is what Jeremy and I did the one time his company waited too long and had to buy us separate seats. If you're by yourself just trying to get a free ride, just stay standing until the train starts moving and then sit in an empty seat. It just bothers me a lot, which bothers Jeremy a lot because he doesn't think it's a big deal.
Once we finally arrived in Besançon, we realized we hadn't given ourselves a way to get back into our apartment since we had two different people watching our pets and only two sets of keys. Luckily JN, our one pet-sitter, was home and gave us our keys. Our other option was I had kept one of the mailbox keys and told Séverine to put her set of keys in the mailbox when she was done. So we could have went to our apartment and either waited until someone opened the door or pressed every single buzzer in hopes that someone would let us in the main door.
We got through the door, actually I made Jeremy carry me over the threshold since we were married, and the pets were so excited to see us albeit confused as to why daddy was carrying mommy. There's not much better than having an animal be excited to see you. I heated up some soup I had prepared and froze and then promptly slept for about 14 hours.