This section is about my experiences whilst living in a small French town called Lannion. It is still under construction, but when finished it will include sections on advice for students moving abroad, some information about Lannion, my life here 'in pictures' and I'll probably include my placement report or extracts from it.

Whilst I'm still building this page, you can read about my journey to Lannion.

About a month before I was dew to leave for France I rang the national rail information line so that I could make plans for my journey. I found out that there was a train that would get me to Plymouth two hours before the ferry. Due to a lack of tickets left when I booked it about a week before I went, the ticket cost me sixty two pounds and was only second class.

On Sunday 30^th of August I caught the train and it left Manchester Picadily on time at about half past three. We were due to arrive in Plymouth at half past nine. The train arrived at Birmingham on time and changed to the Plymouth bound train. This train didn’t have a driver and every twenty minutes we were told that a driver was on his way, and would only be about twenty minutes. One and a half hours later we were put on the train behind it and I went to see the conductor. He told me that there wouldn’t be a problem because when we got to Plymouth they would get me a taxi straight to the ferry. This train was then itself delayed for twenty five minutes. I got to Plymouth knowing that I’d missed the ferry.

The station master at Plymouth showed me to a taxi and this took me to the Moat House. The Moat House is a four star hotel and I was given a room on the ninth floor. Virgin paid for the room and for my breakfast in the penthouse restaurant the following morning. The hotel was excellent, it had an en-suite bathroom a large double bed, TV, sofa etc. The breakfast also was excellent and I could’ve chosen anything I wanted. Unfortunately the receptionist told me that a ferry was leaving the port at half past eight so I just got a quick bowl of cereal and left for the port. My stay in the Moat House cost Virgin Trains seventy nine pounds but didn’t really make me feel much better, I was now fairly sure that I would miss my first day of work.

When I got to the port at eight o’clock I found out that the ferry was going to Spain and I would have to wait seven hours to catch the next ferry to France. I sat in the waiting room for all that time because I couldn’t walk into town with all my luggage. When at last I did get the ferry I started to wonder if I was doing the right thing as it pulled out of the port. The sea was fairly rough and I didn’t manage to eat anything. I was going to arrive at Roscoff at ten o’clock with no chance of getting to my accomodation in Lannion.

When I did arrive at Roscoff I went to a taxi driver and to my surprise he could speak very good English. He took me to a hotel in the village that was above a pub. For two hundred Francs, about twenty pounds, I was given a very basic double room but it had a shower, sink and toilet so I was fairly content. That night I didn’t get much more than a couple of hours of sleep.

In the morning I was due to start work at Alcatel, but I was sixty kilometers away and hadn’t sorted out my room in Lannion. I rang Martine Cleche, after having to have to buy a phone card, and she was fantastic. She said that I could start work the next day without any problem.

I was now feeling much better but that day I spent five hours waiting in stations and sitting on four trains before I eventually got to Lannion. The train journey was very cheap at only fifty something Francs (less than six pounds). When I did get to Lannion town centre I only had half an hour before the office closed at the university residences. An excellent bus driver went off his route and dropped me off in the university car park. When I got my room I was delighted to find out that I had other English speaking people as neighbours ; there was Aled, a Welsh student, Richie an Irish student and two Irish students, Aisling and Jacinta would arrive in a couple of weeks.

For all this trauma, Virgin Trains compensated me with a £16 rail voucher. I don't ever want to catch a Virgin train again. Whilst I've been in France I've heard endless complaints on the news about Virgin trains, yet in France I've never been on a train that's been late. Richard Branston should come to France to see how to run a business.