Monday 9 January - Disneyland Not

The holidays are now fully over and many streets have abandoned Christmas trees lying on the sidewalks while the special areas set aside are filled with trees waiting to be shredded into mulch. The bakeries still have galettes du roi but the demand has now dropped off allowing the bakers to produce a wider selection of patisseries again.

While Mary was laundering the bedclothes I made myself scarce by taking the RER out to Marne la Vallee the site of Disneyland.  It is at the end of line A4 and came fully up to my expectations.

The SNCF station has been designed to fit in with the Disney theme

There is a station for high speed trains from all parts of France and occasionally from London.  A large crowd was coming up the escalator including a large family speaking in an East London accent. The father was trying to keep track of all the kids and their paraphernalia - the only things missing were buckets and spades. The mother was large in all directions and it looked as if her make up had been put on with a trowel. "If you don't stop cryi'n this minit I'm gonna belt yer one."  It was going to be a fun day.

This is the main entrance - actually it is the security checkpoint. I decided to go no further.

I took the RER back to the Gare de Lyon and after a snack went on to Bercy.

The Gare de Lyon arrivals side was stuffed full of TGVs.

On the other hand the Gare de Bercy is mainly locomotive hauled trains

Both pantographs were raised on the locomotives.

There was a multiple unit train built by Bombardier

This train was about to leave for Nevers.  I asked the driver why both pantographs were raised.  He said it was to smooth the high current draw when the train was starting off under load.  After abut the first fifty meters he dropped the front pantograph.

Outdide the Gare de Bercy is the SNCF bus station where long distance SNCF buses compete with the railway.

The station piano was given a vigorous but not very good work out

I took Metro line 14 back to Saint-Lazare where I was surprised to see a train to Cherbourg about to leave with two locomotives on the rear. Only the one furthest from the rear had the pantograph up so the rear one might have been dragged dead.