Cracks in French public transit

For the past month (it'll be a month in 2 days) I've been all over the East of France and taken several trains to and from Paris without a problem. Of course there were a few close calls but that was mainly because we left too late. The conductors have been nice and everyone always wait while you are getting your tickets or looking for the correct platform. 

Today was the first day where something didn't go right. Granted France is allowed to have those days, but the TGV and SNCF in general is praised as having awesome transit-maybe that only applies to the trains, My bus (or autocar as its called here) was 15 minutes late!!! Normally, I wouldn't care but this was a bus that was connecting me to Reims, and I have an appointment (for a champagne cave tour and tasting) later this afternoon. So, I need the time to put my stuff down and get a few things before heading to Pommery. 

We arrived in Charleville (where I had my connection) with one minute to spare. Luckily, I flagged down one of the workers on baord the train I need to take, and they held the train for me and a few other people. Yay! Crisis averted. Now, to enjoy some fresh champagne straight from the source. ;) 

First Day in Sedan Sept.27th/Foreign Banking Part 2

This morning, I had a lot on my to do list. The assistant from last year is currently in Sedan to help me take care of practicalities, like opening a bank account. Since everyone takes a two hour lunch from noon-2pm, we decided to have lunch at Les Halles, a great place to get some cheap decent pizza.
Next, we headed over to BNP Paribas- turns out YOU NEED AN APPOINTMENT TO OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT!!!!! They don't accept walk-ins. After James explained that I needed to open a bank account ASAP (I needed it open before my orientation in Reims, which was October 1st) the man at the welcome desk made a few phone calls, and voila, I had an appointment set for tomorrow at 11:00am. Yay! Now, hopefully I can do this myself............

Then, he took me on a tour of Sedan and the school-nothing too interesting. There's a "Botanical Garden" and some of the buildings still have bullet holes in them from the Wars. 

 
Still no internet, phone, or public transit. After our tour, we went back to drink some champagne that he brought from the University he's working at.  It was quite yummy, then we went shopping for practical things. Got back, ate a late dinner.