iDNiGHT

I always crave for something new, something unique, something that makes sense or sometimes not at all. iDNiGHT was one of those somethings. It’s administered by a company called iDTGV which is independent from SNCF, the French leg of the Eurail operations. iDTGV operates two kinds of train with three different ambiences, or so they call it. One of such trains is called iDTGV and the other is iDNiGHT.  iDTGV is similar to the conventional TGV in terms of the speed which touches almost 300kmph. I travelled by iDNiGHT, the third ambience designed by iDTGV. It’s an overnight train operating between cities separated by at least 600-700km like Paris-Nice, Paris-Marseille, Paris-Toulouse, etc. It’s a double deck train operating at an approximate speed of 100-150kmph. I travelled by iDNiGHT from Paris to Nice on a Saturday, luckily. It has a disco cum bar cum lounge on board. Two compartments are dedicated for that. One for the bar & disco and other for a lounge for people who like to have a quite time with their drinks and if they are lucky enough, with their partners. It took 10hrs for the train to reach Nice and I must say it was one of my most memorable train journeys ever.

After spending an hour or two at my seat, I decided to check out the disco/bar on board. I went with one of my friends. We were actually 8people travelling together, but a majority of them were pretty content dozing off in their seats. I have seen discos and bars before but none of them compared to the one on board. The way the train rocked when running at full speed was what made the experience different from conventional discos. I sat at one corner of the compartment where I could see the whole place from. Soon, it was swarmed by people, drinking and dancing. I, not being too much of a dancing and drinking type, was quite content being the cameraman for the occasion. I had my handy cam on me and was recording the whole thing. It was a lot of fun and I guess the handy cam somehow excited the people. They were all cheering and waving at it. For a short while, I too danced a bit.

I observed a lot of people on board that night. I hardly had anything else to do. Sleep was a luxury for people who had a bed instead of a non-reclining seat to crash into. There were a couple of Moroccan girls at the disco. They were call centre employees and were on their way to Marseille. One of them was very outgoing and I guess she danced all the way to Marseille without a break.  The other one was a little shy and spent most of her time cheering her friend on. There was also this other girl who did her best to blurt out all the English she had ever learnt to ask me where I was headed to. Later I found out that she was the bartender. I figured that out when she promptly threw my friend’s beer into the dustbin. Drinks not bought in the bar weren’t allowed, she said, with a smile on her face. But apart from that she was very friendly. I should have guessed she was the bartender from her costume and warned my friend but whatever.....he was in too jolly a mood to care about a 50cent beer.

There was also this lady, who must have been around 40, having a good time on board. She was another person who I guess didn’t bother to check out her actual seat even once during the entire night. One girl I remember most vividly was the one who probably spent the least time in the disco. She was with her boyfriend who was kind of having a hard time convincing her to dance. She was a little shy and was like really cuteJ...... (I hope her boyfriend’s eyes don’t get anywhere near this blog).....

The train reached Marseille at around 5am and it rolled further along the Mediterranean Sea passing cities like Cannes, St Raphael and finally arrived at Nice at around 9am, our destination....it was just 12hours before we took the same train back to Paris on sunday night....