Just a little tip for any of you who may be going in the future, I suppose this goes for other busy cities too.
- Make sure you know where all your things are and keep checking to make sure they are still there (i.e. wallet, camera and phone)
- Treat everyone with suspicion, even folk that look trust worthy as those are often the ones that will try and 'bum' you
- Do not trust any SNCF staff or other train station staff unless they are behind a counter and glass screen.
- Lastly but most important... If anyone trys to help you buy tickets, politely refuse their help.
Me and Laura have traveled quite a bit in Europe both pleasure and work, and I like to thing that I am quite savvy when it comes to these 'tricks'.
We were conned out of 50Euros on Monday at a ticket machine by a SNCF employee at Gare du Nord in Paris for 2 alleged four day tickets which turned out to be single trip tickets. We were conned in front of a busy queue of people, so this was by no means an undercover con artist.
Now, whats worse is that they all seem to be at it so complaining will fall on deaf ears. When we were back at Gare du Nord on Thursday, we spotted these 'employees' a mile off but alas the chap who conned us was not there.... which was a shame as Laura was, and I quote "Gonna kick him in the bollocks" which would have been quite funny to see!
TREAT EVERYONE WITH SUSPICION! Rich
