Bus adventure

Armistice day is a national holiday in France. However, contrary to what you might expect from a country of people with a severe distaste for work, most places were "exceptionellement" open and ready for business. It's actually quite logical. You see, the French might as well work on a holiday that only comes once a year--who wants to make a habit of taking days off that arrive that infrequently? But, Sunday and Monday, those days happen EVERY WEEK!

For my holiday yesterday I was treated to a tour of "hidden Angouleme apartment complexes" for the low, low price of 3 euros (or three separate bus fares) and the better part of my day. Megan from Manitoba and I decided to find the Carrefour, located somewhere in a suburb called Soyaux. Incidentally, there were 3 cars burned in this suburb just a few nights ago--and a bike. Something tells me those kids just don't quite get it. Because I work a brisk 5 minute walk from where I live, I rarely take the bus and haven't even considered getting a pass. Megan, however, takes the bus every day and even went to Carrefour on the bus 3 days ago. So, who do you think should be the leader of this expedition? Apparently, it should have been me. After arriving downtown, we just missed the bus to Soyaux, so we had an hour to kill before the next one came. Luckily, this is never hard to do when there are cafes around. Getting on the bus a second time, we rode for over 45 minutes, past all kinds of picturesque suburban scenery and strip malls. At one point, Megan even said, "Oh yeah, this is where I got off and started walking to the Carrefour." Suddenly the bus stops and the driver turns the engine off. He looks at us (now the only ones on the bus) and asks just where we think we're going. Turns out, we took the right bus line, but in the WRONG direction! So, we waited 15 minutes for the driver to start up the bus again, and then went ALL the way back through the city and across to the other side! Next time, I'm wrangling that bus map out of Megan's hands and charting our course.