PART 1: À l’Est
The Bercy train station feels like jumping back in time 25 years. It comes from an era that screams, "Hey, we just discovered this technology called LEDs!" And so do its trains.
In nearly all the train stations in Paris, it’s purely luck that decides whether your train was built yesterday or in the 1990s. As this was my first time taking a train from Bercy, we might have just caught the one old train still hanging onto its tracks. In any case, that’s exactly what we were given. At first glance, it looked clean, sized somewhere between a subway car and the average cross-country railer. It had a handful of single-level cars, no overhead racks, and no bar car in sight. Upon closer inspection, and after walking up and down the aisle in search of a good seat (this particular train is open seating), we noticed most of the tables and floors were covered in a thin, sticky layer of what could best be described as old juice. The seats themselves were a bit worn through. No matter.
The Search Continues
It has been over a year since we began searching through listings and researching different regions of France, hunting for a shabby but charming countryside home. Something in need of love, but not too far gone.
We have pored over countless listings and gone on several home tours. We’ve even made an offer or two. Along the way we’ve learned some valuable lessons. Our criteria--and our list of questions--has grown longer and more detailed.
Lay of the Land
For those unfamiliar with Paris—or with how the city fits into the wider map of France—it helps to know about our layered public transit system, which is constantly being remodeled and expanded. The three main layers of rail travel here are the Paris Metro, the TER, and the TGV.
The Metro is without question the most iconic. Just saying the name conjures images of white-tiled tunnels with arched ads, and well-worn subway cars rattling through the dark while the Eiffel Tower’s spotlight swings its nightly arc over the city, keeping watch.
But the layer I want to focus on here is the TER—Transport Express Régional…