[STORY TIME] Stranded on the Eurostar and hounded by a Europe 1 journalist

On November 20, 2014, I’m doing a round trip between Paris and London in a single day for work. Even though the schedule isn’t exactly thrilling, back then my trips outside France were few and far between, so I’m pretty excited.

The workday goes well and it’s already time to head back. No time for a quick sightseeing stop, but I would have had a little time to wander around the city. Interesting, but frustrating not to stay longer.

We take the 7:01 PM Eurostar, which is due to arrive at Paris’s Gare du Nord at 10:17 PM.

The journey goes smoothly… until a double overhead line failure, an “extremely rare” event according to Eurostar’s spokesperson.

The wait is long, very long, but everything stays calm. I think we had dinner or at least snacked before departure, because I don’t remember feeling hungry.

To kill time, I send a few tweets describing what’s happening.

I remember taking the time to finish a presentation (I was giving an online talk the next morning…) and playing a video game. I had gone to the buffet car to recharge my batteries and managed to get a glass of water.

We finally arrive at Gare du Nord at 3:30 AM, over five hours late.

They hand out token meal boxes, and I quickly grab a taxi to make the most of the few hours of night left.

After just a few hours, I’m woken at 6 AM by our landline ringing insistently. That’s surprising, because in 2014, landline use had already dropped off and NOBODY calls us on it.

After 10 minutes, the phone is still ringing and it’s starting to worry Anh, so I get up to answer.

“Hello, I’m Mr. X, a journalist at Europe 1. I saw on Twitter that you were stranded on the Eurostar last night; would you be willing to give a live testimonial on our radio station?”

Lol! The guy had spotted my tweets (on which I appear with my real identity), looked up my phone number in the White Pages, and tried his luck.

I tell him it’s a bit inconsiderate to insist so early in the morning when he knows full well my night was very short.

Undeterred, he asks how the wait went. I reply that it was long, but everyone was calm and the staff did what they could. Clearly not satisfied with my answer, he starts asking leading questions against Eurostar and asks if I’m not angry.

I tell him I’m very angry at rude journalists who waste my precious minutes of sleep. I tell him to get lost and go back to bed for a bit.

A few hours later, I give my online talk, and I found the second slide 😀