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Email from Linda Thalman, via the Internet: Monday, 22. March 1999:-

Exciting Sailing Weekend In Brittany

LindaThalm
2005-12-02 17:23:02

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Paris:- Monday, 15. June 1998:- The prospect last Friday: a weekend in Brittany sailing... ah, sea, sand, sun and a bit of relaxation. Little did I know we'd go faster in the harbor than in the Atlantic!

Never mind that I got 'roped' into participating in the annual regatta of a large international organization because they needed any extra bodies to have a full complements of six 'sailors' on each of the nine rented sailing boats.

The reality: Paris: Saturday, the Montparnasse Train Station at 7:45 on the dot. The doors close on the TGV to Lorient and off we speed westwards though only at the normal 300 hundred kilometres an hour for the first 150 kms; then it was onto 'old' tracks and down to a more sedate speed.

A damaged rail about 20 kms from our destination left us high and dry for one hour and 45 minutes, waiting for the repairs. So much for 'average' speed.
But First Some Tips About the TGV

Tip One: True Story department: be sure to have your portable phone with you when your train decides to take a coffee break for over an hour.

It means you can call your best friend and get her to turn on the television and report the half-timephoto: pool tiles score of the France-South Africa match and announce it to a cheering crowd of 100 people in your section of your train.

Tip Two: Any trip further than 100 kms that has more than a 30-minute delay entitles you to a reimbursement of an unnamed amount.
This is what a 'safe' sea bottom looks like: tiled and one metre deep.

So about 800 people dutifully collected their pre-stamped envelopes in Lorient as we emerged exactly 90 seconds before the end of the 'Football Game of the Last Decade' and we were able to hear the cheers from the Bar Terminus. Good news: France crushes opponents by three to nothing.

This was not to be only one ...