[Read all of Deb’s Travel Diary here.]
Monday morning in Paris started out idyllically. My 6th floor hotel room at Le 20 Prieuré Hôtel (near the Republique Metro station) gave me a lovely view of the city waking up. I walked a few blocks to a bakery to get some croissants, because that’s what you do when. you’re in Paris, pretty much. After you have a freshly-baked, flaky, buttery croissant in France, you will be eternally appalled at those floppy things they call “croissants” at Costco in the States.
A few doors down from Boulangerie Pâtisserie Le Petit Mitron on Rue Oberkampf was Paname Coffee, a charming coffee shop, where I got a perfect flat white with 2 shots to go along with my croissant, and enjoyed the cafe’s blues music soundtrack. My train wasn’t until 12:40 pm, so I decided to savor the moment in Paris, and I’m glad I did.
Packed my bags and headed to the train station to catch my train to Avignon, in Southern France to get to Monteux for Recontres Internationals du Webtoon (International Webtoon Meetings), a B2B professional conference to discuss trends in Korean comics and webtoons publishing in Europe and beyond.
Here’s where i made a HUGE mistake. I arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord on Sunday. Blame it on jetlag, or just being spacey, but I didn’t look at my OUIGO train reservations closely, and assumed that my Monday trip would also be departing from Gare du Nord. But when i got to Gare du Nord, i discovered that my actual ticket was for a train departing from Gare de Lyon, a completely different station about a 30-minute drive away in Paris traffic.
After making this discovery, I grabbed a cab to try to get to Gare de Lyon. On the way, madly tried to make alternate plans to catch a later train, knowing that i’d forfeit the €55 for my original ticket and would likely have to pay even more for a same-day replacement ticket for a later train.
But by some miracle, my taxi arrived at Gare de Lyon at 12:30 and thanks to a helpful stranger, who managed to just barely get me & my heavy bags on board my 12:40 train just before the doors closed. Thus began my ill-fated relationship with the French rail system on this trip.
I got to Avignon on time, and originally thought I’d have to catch a taxi to Carpentras. But after getting off the train, I saw a commuter train on the next track that said its destination was Carpentras. So after trial and error on my phone, I figured out how to buy a ticket for this train, since I could NOT figure out how to do it from the ticket machines at the station. At €8,10 for a 1-way trip, I saved a bunch of money compared to catching a cab.
Arrived in Carpentras on a Monday, around 5 pm. Checked in my modest but good-enough-for-me hotel, then got a recommendation for a place for dinner, which wasn’t easy since most places within walking distance were closed on Monday evening.
Walked a few blocks to the center of Carpentras, which is mostly closed to car traffic. Most shops and restaurants, except the Carrefore City grocery store, were closed, so it was like walking around a ghost town.
In fact, there were some fabric ghosts hanging from trees, probably leftover from Halloween a few days ago. It was a little spooky, but I didnt feel like I was in much danger as a solo traveler walking around the nearly deserted streets.
If not for the international webtoon conference in nearby monteux, i probably would never bother coming to this town. But it has its charms.
My Monday night dinner was at Le Petit Fountaine (the little fountain), a small “semi-gastronomic” bistro specializing in dishes made with local meats and produce.
I got the foie gras appetizer (which the waiter said was all made in-house) served with crisp toasts, cherry sauce, flaky sea salt and pickled onions. So good!
The main course was braised pork with carrots, tomatoes, eggplant and potatoes, also very tender and tasty, followed by pistachio creme brûlée. Everything was complemented with locally produced wine, and was overall, pretty reasonably priced (around €50, no tip) for what I got.
A pretty decent ending for a stressful train travel day. Next up, visiting books and comics shops in Carpentras, and the start of the webtoon conference.
