In the 1980s was my first train ride in France on a
TGV,
Train à Grande Vitesse.
TGV pronounced tay-jay-vay,
three letters that rhyme with hay,
with the middle letter uttered with a soft j-sound.
Ah, the French language even makes
train travel sound elegant with its name.
My first train trip was in second class, on an
overnight train, not a TGV, in which I was too excited to sleep
in the couchette bunks our ticket prices included.
Most of the high school French language students I was helping
chaperone were just as excited and also got little sleep.
