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When I heard there would be a strike on Belgian trains on 9th October, I smiled. But when I arrived in the train station in Chambery this morning, I discovered there was a strike in France today (Thursday). I wasn’t sure whether to smile or to worry.

It worked out OK in the end as both my trains were running.

Those of you who never travel by public transport are missing out on something. Flying doesn’t count. You must travel by train or by bus. As I am writing, I am sitting in a TGV on my way home from Brussels.

The guy sitting accross from me has been looking at me suspiciously over his smartphone for part of the journey. I am not sure what bothers him. Is it my beret or the long beard? Or is it both? 

There is also a guy sitting on the other side of the alley. He is sleeping peacefully, listening very loudly to some meditation recording. I can’t hear every thing but it is hilarious.

Earlier today, from Brussels to Paris, and English lad was speaking loudly with a french girl about his adventures in China and Russia.

Yesterday, I travelled in a cramped train from Lyon to Brussels. There were people everywhere. I had reserved my seat so I was fine, but some were sitting on the floor in the corridor. Two ladies were speaking loudly about their travels also.

I love it. If you only ever drive rather than use public transport, you are missing out on something. You are missing out on many weird, funny, interesting people. You are missing out on life.

 Get out of your car. Take time to travel and get on that train or bus.

There is so much talk about migrants these days. No one can pretend they didn’t know. I don’t know what we can do about it. It would be easy to fall into xenophobia. This is part of our sinful inclination. But I remind myself that my ancestors also migrated to escape war and persecution.

On my father side, my grandmother escaped the spanish civil war when she was a teenager. Her father was a republican. He took his family to safety and went back to fight. He never saw his family again and died later in a refugee camp in the south of France near Carcassone.

On my mother side, our ancestors left France for Switzerland. I am not sure when exactly but sometime at the beginning of the 18th Century. We believe they escaped persecution some years after the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

It helps me to keep the balance.

There’s nothing new about migrations because of war and economic trouble. I am convinced many of us have an ancestor who migrated at some point in their lives and had to find safety in a foreign land.