Nice to Gonfaron - One of Those Days

Sunday we traveled by train to get to our HelpX home in Gonfaron, France. After an easy 1-1/2 hour trip to Les Arcs we needed only to change trains for a short 18 minute trip to our final destination. We boarded this second train and waited for a good long while for it to actually start moving. First the scheduled departure time came and went, then the status board said the train was delayed 40 minutes, then the 40 minutes passed by and a railroad employee – who fortunately spoke some English – came onboard to tell us all that the train was canceled and we would have to take a bus which left outside the station at 2:00pm. We needed to call our hosts, who were to pick us up at the Gonfaron train station, to tell them of our late arrival, but since the New Year's holiday thwarted my attempts in Nice to switch out our Italian SIM card with a French one, our mobile phone didn't work. I could have used the public phone at the station but it only took phone cards and I couldn't buy one because the little shop in the station was closed. Luckily another passenger at the station (who again fortunately spoke a little English) was kind enough to allow me to use his phone. So we coordinated Plan B with our hosts for us to arrive in Gonfaron by bus. Alas, 2:00 came and went and still no bus appeared. Our attempts to find any English speakers at the station with knowledge of the mystery bus proved futile. I was able to call our hosts again to devise Plan C, this time using our own mobile phone, which I finally figured out could work after all as long as I also dialed the country code for France, treating the call as long distance even though it was just a few towns down the road. In the end, after 3 hours of waiting for unmoving trains and nonexistent buses, I finally succumbed to Deborah's pleas to just hire a taxi, despite the painful removal of 70 euros ($93) from my wallet to take us where that 18 minute train ride I had already paid for was supposed to take us. The taxi brought us to the Gonfaron main square and another phone call brought host John to take us to his home. Next up: HelpXing in Gonfaron.