More customer service -the SNCF-don't get me started.

This is just the beginning of what will be several posts, or one very long one.

I was just invited to the country this weekend -which would entail a drive from a place I know, an hour train out of Paris and a place I know how to find by looking at the 'Transilien'. It also brings me into my beloved Gare Montparnasse, a mere 5 minute jaunt home.

For this extra excursion however, I will have to take the train from Dieppe (a new departure city) to a different train station across Paris - the Gare St. Lazare. Paris has six train stations - Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, Gare du Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, Gare Montparnasse, and Gare St. Lazare. This is not counting the Gare d'Orsay, now a museum.

With the internet, this should be easy, right? You go to SNCF (whatever that means), type in the departure and arrival cities, and voila, right?

But nooooooo. You are meant to know which service you will be traveling on. And without a handy glossary. Is it a TER, a Transilien, the TGV ( I doubt that one), iDTGV ( a new way to travel, sounds scary enough), or FRET, if you want to travel in baggage? Are the French just born with this innate knowledge?

Since I am clueless, I figure the Voyages-SNCF link will do the trick. But it is a half an hour later and I still don't have the right departure city. I've sent an aggrieved email to my host begging for help.

And a lovely week-end in the country turns into more stress...