In Reply to: Pretending to be French to avoid the train fare. posted by Damien. on November 17, 2002 at 08:32:16:
It doesn't work in reverse either, unfortunately.
I got fleeced on an SNCF to Paris from Limoges cos a particularly vacant travel companion had made us miss our first train. Sitting in first on the subsequent train - second was full - I tried being useless and English but the guard's spoken English was perfect. Which makes a change from English trains, really. :-)
Beggars in Paris seem to be bilingual too which really irritates me!