And as an aside, every time we've been to France, we've experienced both extreme kindness and maddening bureaucracy/grumpy people, often within minutes of each other.
Today's train adventure involved rushing to catch a train at a small rural station, not knowing/thinking to position ourselves in the centre of the platform, then making a mad dash with 3.5 bikes and a 4-year-old. I had a bike in one hand and toddler in the other... 1/