Coffee, trains and strikes

L'escale has started opening on Sundays for the isle st louis tourist crowd, and closing on Wednesdays to make up for it. So now once a week I have to take my coffee at the cafe louis IX (the island is named after king louis IX), a corner bar-brasserie in the centre of the island. Advantages: cafe richard coffee, better than the robusta-heavy lavazza served in l'escale. Disadvantages: small, a bit dark, less of a scene of regular customers.

The trains I get in the morning on the RER B have little four-digit code names that tell you where they are going and where they will stop. I can take the KJAR which stops everywhere on the way to Massy-Paliseau, or the SVIC which stops everywhere on the way to Robinson. I have to let the ULLE and UBAN go past (they only go as far as Laplace) and avoid the PLAN which doesn't stop at Bagneux, and is full of scientists on their way to Orsay and Saclay research centres. Some of the other lines have better names in my opinion - the RER A has a ZEUS and a VICK.


Talking of trains there's another strike planned for tomorrow. According to RATP:

la RATP prévoit un trafic normal ou quasi-normal sur l’ensemble des réseaux Bus, métro et RER à l’exception de la ligne B du RER, où circuleront 1 train sur 2 avec suspension de l’interconnexion SNCF RATP à Gare du Nord.

So everything will be running fine, except the line that I have to take. Wonderful.