The journey’s the thing

As Robert Louis Stevenson said in 1881:

“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive..”

The journey can be its own reward – unless you’ve ever endured an overnight bus journey in Asia – and I admit, I was very much looking forward to today’s 11-hour multi-rail trip. Here was the route:

Bournville-Birmingham New Street-London Euston-St Pancras International-Paris Gard du Nord-Paris Bercy-Clermont-Ferrand.

I didn’t go by rail for any amazing views, though there were some to be had, but I badly needed the chance to watch the world go by for a few hours and just catch up on ‘stuff’. There is also something of the romance of travel in the variety of rail stations you pass through – something you don’t get with modern airports.

The other thing that fascinates about ground travel is that everything is looked at afresh, eagerly and vividly – from the continuous line of graffiti on the approach to Paris to patterns in the paving stones in historic Clermont. I didn’t manage to snap the unexpected tropical garden, complete with palm trees, beside the No 14 line from Gare de Lyon (update: got it on the return journey) but I snapped all else that caught my eye today.

Below is the story of the journey in pictures and there are more in the full set of lo-fi phone pics is on Flickr.

Bournville, 8am

Birmingham New Street 8.30am

St Pancras International, 11am

Graffiti on the train line, Paris suburbs, 2.30pm

Paris Nord, 2.50pm

Gare de Paris Bercy, 3.45pm

Industrial smoke in the French countryside, 4.45pm

Sunset from the SNCF, 5.30pm

Place de Jaude, 8.45pm

The Gothic Cathedral, Clermont-Ferrand, 10.15pm

Street graffiti, Clermont-Ferrand, 10.20pm

Empty streets, Clermont-Ferrand, 10.30pm

And tomorrow I’ll wake up to see the city in daylight – and, with luck if the weather holds, the sleeping volcanoes that surround it.