I am glad I waited because I declined to leave him to wait alone. Fortunately, I was there to establish that the driver said he has to ask SNCF for a remboursement!
I wasn't quick enough yesterday with my thinking when about 6 people were waiting behind us to board the bus, that if he had to ask for a reimbursement, then that clearly he meant he HAD paid!!!!!!
So why did the 'sncf / ter bus / coach ask him to buy another / a new ticket!
I know how long it took him to find the budget transport and indeed it was my decision to take him to Chateauroux double the distnace and time of what I would have had to do if he'd gone to St Savin... but where was the bus stop? ... 'twas NOT marked on Google maps because it is named after a hotel that doesn't exist anymore... DER!!!! We had to ask the tourist office to find out where it was and it was still unclear! It seemed safer to go to Chateauroux!
I have since learned that the train would not accept the ticket and again a second ticket had to be bought.
Moral: don't book a ticket ahead of time! YOU might not even get there in time!
Why can't these companies see how hard it is for the budget traveller who does not have a vehicle and who is a traveller!
It must be so frustrating and is one of the things that puts me off traveling without a vehicle.
I can see the advantages of bus travel because it is cheap... and I have travelled National Express, but one needs TIME to do it and assurance of cheap or free accommodation at the end of the journey or a lift!
On my way home I stopped at La Maison du Parc in La Brenne for a lime ice-cream and wandered to the pond where frogs were beginning to leave their hibernation mud to practise their croaking skills!
HOME to a banana sandwich with new bread I'd bought containing wheat (I think I should avoid it!)
but stuffed with sultanas, pistachios and hazelnuts... it was a meal in itself with a glass of red whilst my cousin phoned and I was told about the ill health of an ageing family! I fell into bed to read.
