The trip from Moscow to Paris by train (51 photos) Bashny.Net

Did you know that from Moscow to Paris, direct train? It is the longest trans-European rail route, which exists today. The route of the train passes through Belarus, Poland, Germany and France. At one of these trains rolled blogger Alexander and now in a hurry to share their experiences with you in your detailed photo essay. The train departs from the Belorussky railway station three times a day, early in the morning. I myself have not traveled by train far from the last time - in the winter of 2011 in Minsk with the same station.





A little dry facts: Train Moscow-Paris goes for about two years, but it is not promoted as his "colleague" next to Nice, that in fact was the reconstruction of the legendary and even pre-revolutionary train (but before he walked out of another capital from St. Petersburg ). Paris train makes three stops in the capital: Minsk, Warsaw, Berlin. Actually, almost all the passengers do not go to France, but somewhere along the way. It's not a magical tourist train and ordinary shuttle. There are also other international w / d routes from Russia. The train has two types of cars and three classes: luxury, first and second. I have traveled in the "very, very" and I had a separate compartment. As I wrote, it is rather a small hotel room, with all amenities.



Wardrobe with hangers, slippers and bathrobes. Radio - a handy thing, you can put your drive, listen to the radio or turn on the flash drive with the music or video, then you will see a movie on TV.



Sofa turns into a semi-comfortable bed. Buying a ticket to the "luxury" car, you pay for the room, that is, you can go to the second man is almost the same price. And yet the child is up to ten years. Fit the whole family: the parents on the "big" bed child on the top shelf. Single occupancy, as well as in hotels, will be slightly more expensive. By the way, pensioners and passengers between 12 and 26 years put 30% discount.



I noticed the door to the compartment? It leads to a personal bathroom. Toilet - bio, do not need to endure a last effort before the train stops at the station. Crane with a sensor, it is much more convenient than with one hand to hold the button, and the other to try something out there to wash. Only one I wondering how to fit in the car so much water? For toilets in each compartment and another general there.



Shower. This is probably one of the most enjoyable moments in the train. Vodicka warm, flowing gracefully.



Paper towels and disposable,



You choose when to turn off or turn on the light. What is most annoying even in Soviet compartment carriages is the lack of a full dimming. There are three modes of brightness, has a personal nightlight. And the call button wire.



Compartment door locked. Again, what a contrast with the old cars come from the USSR. Personal locks are not only in the suite, but in ordinary cars.



Includes a total of four compartments, the rest of the car takes a bar. As part of the Moscow-Paris these two cars, sometimes hitch a third.



While I spent a tour of the car, we are sufficiently far from Moscow and were in the Smolensk region. The first stop - the city of Vyazma.



You see the difference between the cars? Before Brest us follow trailed, all acquaintances, they are a little higher. "Paris" - a European-style and "shorter».



Vyazma long stop for half an hour. Why is it necessary for such a small station? We need to change locomotive. From Moscow we pulled this one blue, and red, in the background, already puffing ... .oy, this is not a locomotive! But still chugging along!



Why change a locomotive? Usually two reasons: the difference of voltage or "home port". Total for the route we dragged five locomotives from Moscow to Vyazma from Vyazma to Brest, on the Polish "head" to Berlin, then the Germans to Strasbourg, and then took the baton already Frenchmen.



Locomotive crews changed more often. I do not even know how many drivers changed, but much, twice more than the trains. They work "turnover", run to some conditional border and transplanted to another train, lead him in the opposite direction. Do not go so far away from home.



And we continue the movement.



"Ordinary" car, where passengers traveling first and second class. With the exception of luxury, all the rest - such. And the ticket is much cheaper here. You can meet the 10-12 thousand rubles. Against more than 40 per suite.



Within almost the same sofa, which converts into a shelf. During the day it turns into three chairs. Why three? Difference between the first and the second class is that in one case the arrangement for two people in another - three. Sami coupe with the same.



Tea in traditional iron coasters. The most recognizable "train thing." Show someone such a thing to anyone in this country, he immediately says it's out of the train.



In the locker carafe and three glasses. Beverage free :) No, it's not vodka, and plain water. Here are located outlet. Includes two sockets, one here. And many in the hallway.



Triple compartment in "exploded" form. I think in this trailer plays Soviet.



Here, too, have a shower, but - one on the car.





The exterior of the train.



We saw old wagons trains, painted as the Bank of condensed milk? So - we are in Belarus. Such ancient mammoths have already left. And yet in every Belarusian station good-natured, but annoying aunt and grandmother, who harass you, corn is hot, the beer is cold, baklava-mahlava, potatoes, pancakes, vodka!



First Belarusian parking - Orsha. It changes the locomotive crew. Russian machinists returned to Vyazma Belarusian hunt our electric straight to Brest. At such moments, and you know, what is the state of our union with its neighbors. And, except for places without borders, the average man is not clear.



agon-restaurant. Where without it. Charming ladies are orders for the cars, the car itself is almost all the time empty. No drunken intimate conversations with strangers, no bottles of vodka from under the counter! I forgot to photograph our restaurant car, and then it was too late. Because of his change in Brest on the Polish car. But here's a sample meal on a tray at the girl. Prices - Moscow, hearty lunch (without alcohol) of three meals and a drink will cost you 900-1000 rubles. Here, take credit cards! Poles - do not take. Well at least there in EUR in PLN.



My favorite is the city of Minsk. I do not know why I love it. It seems to be totally Soviet and boring, but very cozy and almost home. There is also a great stop for half an hour. No change, just a lot of passengers goes to the station, many Belarusians get into cars. Who goes to Poland who to Germany.



This time I stayed in the Belarusian capital WWTP bit. Waved a pen familiar places, still see you! Next to Brest I photographed from the window, and then snored under the clatter of wheels. Pleasant case. I do not understand people who can not sleep on the train? It's so easy, moreover, to get enough sleep. Of course, we're not talking about the second-class car in the summer, when the two sides of you are walking drunken muster ....



Awakened by strange impulses. I look out the window - we are in a certain area. Carriages disengaged, stand apart. Is this a serious passport control, so that no one escaped?



No, it's a joke, of course. Border passes in two stages, but it is without tension. Please come Belarusians collected passports. They returned later. Please put a stamp on a certain page. I was very pleasantly surprised when the print was exactly where I had requested, despite the hundreds of passports of the other passengers! Then the Poles, with their laptops, officers scanned the passport, something collate and immediately put a stamp. The customs officers of both countries look into the toilet, ask anyone that carries with it. Belarusians see the camera on the table asked whether to declare it. No, it is not necessary, saying it b / y, and my personal. "Well, if it costs more than 1500 euros ...." Be sure not worth it. Although in reality - more and well, he did not see the other camera with a telephoto, she was lying in a backpack. In the automotive and aviation boundaries do not ask such stupid things.



So what happens on the shop floor? Cars disengage, lift jacks on the powerful and start to "change smb.'s Shoes." Have you heard, perhaps, that Russia has its own special way? Here you can see on this path. In the CIS, the width of the rail gauge is wider than in Europe. They say so happened more times with the king that "the enemy is not passed." We also did not pass, so in Brest always changing truck wheel sets.



The process of the curious, all passengers who do not sleep, be sure to look out the windows and take pictures. Wagons raise with us. Leaving some reason does not allow referring to safety, but this does not prevent all the same wear their aunts Belarusian potato pancakes in the bags and offer to buy their food at any price and in any currency.



Passengers neighboring wagon. Unfortunately, it proved to be very shy and did not want to be photographed. This is sad. While all the talk was not against it, telling how and why were in this train. The vast majority of going to Germany. This emigrants who sometimes return ponostalgirovat and aerophobia ... Who rides in the suites? Together with me to Paris in the next compartment, I was driving middle-aged woman who looked obvious inhabitant of the ruble. But the reality turned out to be not at all pretentious, and the sweet and smiling, appearances can be deceptive. She travels to Paris to work almost twice a month, and always the train. She already knew all the conductors. My neighbor just because of those who are afraid to fly. Previously, there were no problems, but a year ago she suddenly feared turbulence and stepped out of the plane before take-off for a minute, bringing inconvenience to other passengers. And since then - the train. For such people, of course, a way out. From Paris, and Berlin, you can continue your journey by rail to anywhere in Europe.



Change of wheelsets takes two hours. Then cars "collected" in the back. You can go to Poland.



The soft wide bed slept so well, that I woke up only once, just as a train stood at the station "central Warsaw." Nothing interesting around the dark and can not see anything. Polish capital when I look at some other time.



Finally I woke up at eight in the morning, already in Berlin. Have you noticed that here, as in Warsaw, the station looks more like something metropolitenovskoe than the traditional open-air station.



It also changed the locomotive. I was riding in the last car, and was in the first.



Outside, he started a real beauty!



I went to have breakfast in the dining car polish. I liked him more than the interior, about food is hard to say, and here and there it was delicious, my request not to put greens understood the first time. Someone from readers asking to tell about the menu, what to feed? Here pomace. Breakfast fed for free, you can choose an omelet of three eggs with ham and cheese, sausages, frankfurters, cooked English breakfast (fried egg it and all ham / sausage, bread and butter). But the main menu: three kinds of soups - cream of mushroom (4 euros), goulash soup with beef dumplings (5), the cream of lobster with sour cream and croutons (8). Meat, the most important thing! Breaded pork chop (11 euros), pork tenderloin with pesto (16), chicken breast stuffed with bacon (14), steak with vegetables (18), salmon (16). And for special gourmets there toad foot (18 euros per serving) and a kangaroo steak for 23 euros!



I noticed that all the locomotives that pulled us were battered lives. What we, the Polish, the German. Bulb Ilyich! The French - the same thing. Most likely it's because night trains in Europe is almost gone, and now there are rampant high-speed ICE and TGV.



Frankfurt, one of the largest cities in the world of business. The station had some weak, I somehow imagined. Well, at least a match for the Berlin train station.



City Kul - the last before the French border. Technical parking a few minutes. Rather, here too change driver. All this is reminiscent of how in ancient times changed horses, so as not to drive :)



The first thing I saw in France! Rejoice, fans of pictures about the "decaying Europe". And do not accuse me of bias, I show that there is. In fact, when traveling by rail through a bunch of countries, even familiar places are opened in a new way. Areas adjacent to the tracks, always some strange. That plant, the zabroshki ... and not only here, but everywhere.



All right, Belle France on the spot! These traditional windows do not be confused with anything else!



The city of Strasbourg.



The last stop before Paris.



Here, too, a locomotive change. Finish line.



People at the station with interest and looking at them in a strange train livery. Three times a week, once a day - still not a frequent visitor.



Nosach-TeZheVe stands on a nearby road. He will go to the beautiful city of Bordeaux, drink sweet white wines! And I want to believe that one day this will come to us. How do you like the idea, in ten hours from Paris to Moscow? But it will be more soon, the width between the rails have different again ...



Perhaps we should say a few words about the people who work on the train "Moscow-Paris". In the first place, of course, on the conductors. They are smiling and friendly, but very shy. With barely two men persuaded to pose for a photo. "I have not made up," "I do not shave," "My husband zarugaet" - and so on. No problem conductors, this is the mentality we are. And each of you will find yourself in this situation, too, is likely to be embarrassed and refused. Your right, but people who are not afraid of the camera, almost always turn out well in photographs. We, photographers, do not bite! :)



Even the longest journey ends sometime and somewhere. My train journey in France ended in the evening of the second day on the East train station in Paris. Unloaded the passengers off the train at the depot. Conductors will spend the night in Paris, and in the morning go back to Moscow.

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Source: macos.livejournal.com