TGV

That's deep, I know, especially if you're used to the bargain prices of a few years ago.

Rents have climbed toward lion levels since the TGV link opened.

And the cost of living is catching up, but it's mine.

And today, I decided to tackle the living room.

I paid with a single TBM ticket, the one euro and 90 cents fare that has remained frozen while everything else has crept up.

It is a small mercy, I suppose, in a city where rents have climbed toward Lyon levels and the cost of living is no longer the bargain it was before the TGV link reshaped everything.

I checked my email, looking for updates on the bank account opening, and found a confirmation from BNP Paribas near the Grand Theatre.

They want an appointment next week, which means I need to coordinate my schedule carefully, fitting the administrative errands between the vineyard visits.

These are less tangible things than I think the kind of security and trade deals they're talking about.

are more boring to me, frankly, than if we got the TGV, the French high-speed trains to build this Calgary-Edmonton rail.

We should be hiring people from...

TGV or JR.

One of those companies or railways out there.

As opposed to like, I just saw they're bringing in someone from like Metrolinx to work on Alto.

It cost about €1.50, which is standard for a loaf or pastry these days.

Bread prices have climbed since the TGV link to Paris changed everything, making Bordeaux less of a bargain and more of a destination for those with means.

But you still get good bread.

This one was flaky, buttery, and hot enough to burn my fingers.

I just sense, I don't get...

The other thing which I, if anybody who travels by train in France a lot, which I've been doing now for years, will say is that the, the non, the, the non-TGV lines in France have been tragically neglected.

Are, and are often served by extraordinarily few trains because all the money has been sucked into TGVs, and I, I don't, I think that's been a mistake and I think we should learn from that.

I think there's a kind of engineering fetishism.

Stay tuned

to Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on TGV.

A few days ago I was on YouTube and I mentioned in our office I was looking for a Karl Stefanovic video and I noticed there hadn't been one put up for a couple of weeks and then there was a news story that night coincidentally.

And it claimed that Carl's major sponsor of his podcast had ended their contract and therefore he wasn't posting new material.