The train station

I studied in Paris for a year, but I didn´t actually live there.

I lived in Rotterdam, The Netherlands at the time. It was a 2-and-a-half-hour train ride to Paris from there. I took the train and stayed a few days in Paris for my lessons, then went back home.

In Paris, I always arrived and departed from the same station: Gare du Nord (North station).

Once, when I was going back home, my train was canceled and I had to go to the office to exchange my ticket so I could hop on the next one.

There was a medium-sized cue, but a customer was taking a long time asking questions to the office clerk while buying her tickets.

The lady in front of me in the cue was not pleased about this and started getting very impatient. She started talking (to herself I guess) in a loud voice: “Why is she taking so long? Doesn´t she consider us at all? I´ve got a train to catch! She should´ve bought her tickets online if she had such complicated routes… now she´s holding us all up! I can´t believe this! People are so inconsiderate…”

She went on and on.

Finally, after a while, it was her turn.

She started asking a million questions to the clerk and took even longer than the lady before her…

…and I missed the next train.

I´ve got many stories from my time in Paris and also specifically from Gare du Nord station. I´ll tell you a few, perhaps some other time.

Yesterday I released a piece for bandoneon: Gare du Nord. Click here to listen to it.

The sheet music of the piece is available here.

Have a great day!

Claudio.