first day in Angoulême

Sunday 18 may

first day in Angoulême

I'd first fly to Bordeaux and then take the train to Angoulême. I had arrived in Bordeaux at about one o'clock in the afternoon. From the airport I had to take a the shuttle bus to Gare Saint-Jean and of course I took the wrong and much slower bus, it took me a hour to get to the center of Bordeaux. I did see a little of Bordeaux because of my detour. they have much like in the Netherlands trams in Bordeaux. I had to get on a tram from the center to get to Gare Saint-Jean. At around half passed two I finally was able to by my ticket to Angoulême. Unlike in the Netherlands you buy a ticket for a certain time slot. It was a Sunday so naturally the trains weren't as frequent and they'd be another day in the week and I had to wait about an hour to get on my train. 

I was really kind of nervous, not a lot of people in Bordeaux were able to speak English and it had been quite a while since I really spoke any french.

At last I got on my train to Angoulême, I had a seat number and I went to find my seat as soon as the doors opened. I set next to a lady who was nice enough to tell me what stop Angoulême would be, actually just the next stop. The train was almost empty in my compartment where just about five people all together, one of them was a man in the seats parallel from mine. He was reading an English book and on his desktop he was looking at some cartoons he was, or so I thought, working on.

We where almost at the station of Angoulême and I had called a friend whom I had met at the kunststripbeurs in Utrecht and he would pick me up and show me around. The man who had an English book with him also went down to get out on the next stop. Figures I thought a cartoonist or something alike he must live in Angoulême.

When we where both waiting to enter the station he told me in French on what sides the doors openend and I got confused and said: “Pardon, mais je ne compris pas” and he immediately understood I wasn't french and asked me in perfect English where I was from.

When I told him I was from The Netherlands it turned out he was one of the people my professors from the HKU had met. Matt Madden is his name. He knows Stefan van Dinther and had met Bart as well. In fact his wife (Jessica Abel) was the person who had asked for an intern and I was said intern (for my second month).

We talked for a little while he gave me a little book of his and his and Jessica's email.

Walker – Mat Madden

My friend came to pick me up, showed me where my hotel was and I ended up having dinner at his place.

Afterwards I went to my hotel, apparently everyone stays at this hotel their first night. I took two books with me from home and started 'Memories of Silk and Straw'.  

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my internship supervisor at two o'clock so before that I guess I'll have the chance to see some more of Angoulême.