(Geneva, Switzerland, and Annecy, France)

Many months ago, I had it all planned out. I would arrive in Lyon, and then take a train directly from the Lyon airport to Annecy, my first destination on this (purportedly) France-only trip.

I knew that there was “dynamic pricing” for the train, meaning that a ticket bought far in advance is generally cheaper than one bought on the day of travel. But I didn’t quite trust the exact arrival time of my flight, especially as it had already been rescheduled (to 24 hours earlier!) a few months ago. So, I decided not to buy the Lyon-Annecy train ticket in advance.

Sure enough, less than 10 hours before my flight left Montreal, I received what looked like another “we’re sorry…” e-mail from the airline. But this one was different. My flight will still leaving on time. Alas, the class of service I bought (usually, the three kinds are economy, premium economy, and business) had totally disappeared from the flight! So I had to travel in a lower class, but at the higher class price.

This certainly falls into the category of “first world problems.” But, nonetheless, I was unhappy that my careful planning and price-shopping was stymied mere hours before departure. And, for physical reasons, I cannot endure smaller seats for an overnight flight. It was going to be an extremely uncomfortable trip, right before an important sports competition. Not a good way to start!

I then called the airline to express my concern. I told them that, for physical reasons, I had to fly the same class that I had paid for. But I also gave them a way out: if they could get me to Geneva (Switzerland) instead of Lyon, on the same day, and non-stop, we could make a deal. Lo and behold: there was a non-stop flight to Geneva, that evening (one hour earlier), and it still had seats in my chosen class.

They were happy to comply, and at no increased cost. The ironic thing is that I had wanted to travel to Geneva all along, but it was far more expensive than flying to nearby Lyon. In fact, Annecy is a little bit closer to Geneva than it is to Lyon. So it all worked out for the best, and I even got to spend a couple of hours in Switzerland (which I commemorated with the workaday train station photos you see here).

But I would have been less pleased if I had bought that (expensive and ultimately useless) Lyon Airport-Annecy train ticket in advance. My only travel error of the day was a relatively small one: I spontaneously went to a different Annecy crêperie than the one I had carefully researched. And the replacement crêperie did not live up to my expectations. I was deceived by an appealing sign and entrance.

There is more to come from Annecy. The photo at the very top of the post is an amuse-bouche!