Ok. I know a lot of my posts lately have been pretty synical about France, but this time it just happens to be a French person that is either an idiot or really really smart.
This happened a couple of months ago actually, but I got to thinking about it recently because there seem to always be documentaries on the television about this or that plane crash.
My subject has been tramatized by these documentaries, and he refuses to fly, so he will not go to the U.S. until they "build the tunnel under the atlantic.
This was proposed to me at a wedding reception for my girlfriend’s host family, and, if anything, the French know how to do wedding receptions. It was about 3AM and I had eaten about four meals and had had several of the periodic, delicious alcohol concoctions that went with every meal.
I had gotten into a somewhat inebriated conversation about America/France, traveling, learning second languages, etc. When at one point, my interlocuteur told me, completely straight-faced, he would not go to the US until the traintracks were laid unda’ da’ sea.
I laughed, then realized by his lack of jocularity, that he was being serious.
“Wait,” I said, “You really think they can put train tracks under the ocean?”
Sure enough, he did. I don’t remember his explanation, but he had one. I think I remember mentioning carbon nanotunes (since I read an article about an elevator to space about four years ago, and figured if they were going to build that with nanotubes, they were going to build the underwater traintracks there as well.
Finally, my question, just to set my mind at ease…is there going to ever be a train under the Atlantic?
