The Train to Paris, a debut novel by Sebastian Hampson
Sebastian Hampson’s debut novel The Train to Paris is
described as ‘a surprising and compelling love story’ and will be launched at the New
Zealand Festival Writers week. Hampson will also speak at the First Published event at
Writers Week. We share an excerpt from The Train to Paris, which charts the
adventures of characters, Lawrence and Élodie, with an introductory Q&A with the
author.
1.
The idea that an author might be better able to see, describe or critique their own country rather than another is perhaps a parochial one, but did it ever feel audacious to be a New Zealand author writing a novel set in Europe?
I have to admit it did feel a little audacious, though I think this novel is still a reflection on New Zealand identity, albeit indirectly. I don’t think the idea of writing about one’s own country has to be parochial – the setting of a story is usually dictated by the author’s interests. For me, setting a novel in Europe was the result of my interest in other cultures, particularly the French. This isn’t to say that I would never want to write a story set in New Zealand. But at its heart the novel is about the experiences of a young New Zealander exploring the wider world. It follows that he approaches his new settings with a unique kind of curiosity that comes from growing up in a small, fairly remote country. And as such, Lawrence is the product of the society that he has grown up in. He is curious, idiosyncratic and intelligent, yet at the same time totally naïve. Paris is a fascinating city that has been electrified by any number of writers (and artists in general) over the years. I saw that as a challenge to do something different. And I thought the New Zealand perspective would at least partially achieve that end.
There is one moment where she jumps fully-clothed into a swimming pool in Biarritz, which was particularly unexpected
2.
Élodie considers herself perceptive, especially about Lawrence. When she asks him about his girlfriend she says, ‘But tell me about her, or I will have to tell you.’ Is there anything that surprised you about Élodie as you were writing her into being on the page?
Élodie really was one big surprise to write. I hadn’t preconceived her as I do some of my characters – she walked into the story in much the same way that she walks into the train station during the first chapter. Despite not having planned her, it felt like I knew everything about her instantly, even though this made her character no less mysterious. And she is such a strong presence in the story that at times it felt as though I had ceded control of the narrative to her. There is one moment where she jumps fully-clothed into a swimming pool in Biarritz, which was particularly unexpected – it wasn’t something that made any sense to me when I was originally writing it. Only after rereading it was I able to understand what she was doing and why it was such a beautiful (and tragic) moment for her character. And after all this, I still can’t figure out where she came from. She bears no resemblance to anybody I’ve ever met, yet she feels as familiar as an old friend. I hope other people also see her this way.
3.
Complete the sentence: A debut novel is…
…an opportunity to say something new and exciting about a familiar world.
The Train from Paris
By Sebastian Hampson
Part I
1
Five hours and fifty-one minutes after my departure I arrived at the border. It was a Friday afternoon at the end of August and things could have been worse. Most people would admire the charming Basque town of Hendaye, with its sunbaked terraces and terracotta roofs, and I wanted to be most people. I wanted to describe the idyllic scene before me even though I could not see it clearly. The town drifted into view from beyond a mess of overhead wires and signal boxes, and I was so preoccupied by the matter at hand that only a few details remain with me. Pastel-coloured buildings cascaded down to the waterfront, while the shuttered villas that stood on the bluff were the vestiges of wealth long since spent. Hendaye was out of kilter and I had no desire to linger there.
The train pulled in on the Spanish side of the station, which was barricaded from the French by a wire fence. This seemed a strange precaution when the French did not bother with passport control. I suspected it was more psychological than practical, a reminder that we were all crossing into unfamiliar territory.
I was among the first off the train. I made straight for the ticket office, along with two women whom I presumed were in the same strife. My ticket took me no further than the end of the Spanish line. The women must have noticed my panic—one of them asked if I was going to Paris. ‘I hope so,’ I said.
Both women had tans. I wondered where they might have acquired them. Certainly not Madrid. Nobody wanted to go to Madrid at this time of the year. I imagined they had taken a hotel in one of those purpose-built Mediterranean resort towns I had seen in advertisements.
Queuing—practically a way of life in this part of the world—gave me a chance to take in the surroundings. The station was bare and not exactly clean. Monet would have brushed over the finer points and left a hazy concourse filled with faceless people, but Daumier would have seen more: a paper napkin sliding across the ground in a draft, catching under the hard wooden benches that were cordoned off and labelled, Transit Area.
It was the dankest part of the station and I had to wonder why any transit passenger would choose to sit there. I knew very little about this station, or the town of Hendaye for that matter, except that this was where Hitler, Franco and von Ribbentrop had met. That was appropriate enough.
The day was mild because of the raw, steely breeze that rolled in from the Atlantic. It was a relief from the scorched plains of Madrid, but it was still too sunny for my liking.
The displaced Parisians had made it to a ticket officer.
I could not understand the conversation, which was in Spanish, but it was heated. This filled me with dread. After they left empty-handed I made my trepidatious way forward. He was my mental image of a ticket officer—small and portly, with round spectacles and thinning grey hair. He had the usual air of impatience, as though my allotted time with him was the greatest privilege I could hope for.
‘Yes?’ he said.
‘Yes, hello. I need a ticket to Paris.’
‘Paris? Today?’
‘Yes.’
‘No more to Paris this weekend.’ I must have shown my confusion because he added an exasperated ‘Full’ in English, complete with a hand gesture. I was conscious of my perspiring brow.
‘Is there nothing for the whole weekend?’
He motioned for the next in line to come forward. It was the end of the summer holidays. I should have known that every last Frenchman would want to go to Paris this weekend. How out of touch I was with the French timetable.
The departure board indicated that the next train to Paris was leaving in a quarter of an hour. It would have taken me there in time for a twilight drink at a café on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. The next and last train for the day was not due for another two hours—that, I presumed, was also full.
There was nothing to be done, so I waited in the station hall with my fellow travellers, all of whom appeared as lost as I felt. There were no derelicts. This was not Paris, I reminded myself, where I had heard the homeless were routinely rounded up and dropped in the countryside. Nonetheless I held my luggage close. One bag contained my laptop and my travel documents—whatever use they were—and the other was a slim and sensible trolley case. I was twenty years old, but I might have been a Parisian financier on holiday.
The queue was not dwindling, and it was awkward to stand at the front of the concourse, as if on a stage. Everything around me was in motion. I went over to the ticket machine, thinking that it might be more helpful than the officer. I set about trying to operate it, despite my bad French and worse Spanish. A regional train to Dax was departing soon, and I considered catching it. Dax was at least a familiar name. I waved down an assistant who was heading for the station offices, and asked him if this place had an internet connection anywhere. He did not understand me, and he could do nothing more than direct me back to the ticket officer, despite my insistences that he was not helping me either.
I walked aimlessly into the station’s atrium, a brutal glass addition to the original neoclassical building. I could see the high-speed train to Paris from my new vantage point. The concourse was emptying around me, and soon I counted only a few other people. I watched as the carriages slid out of view to reveal the Dax train at the opposite platform. I could go there. It was better to go somewhere than nowhere. But something told me it would also be better to stay in this inhospitable wasteland. I felt sure that something would turn up.
She entered the station, wearing a white leopard-print dress that was short enough to show off her legs. Her hair slid down the back of her neck in a curtain of gold, which shimmered as it passed through the updraft. There was a conspicuous ring on her finger.
I allowed my gaze to linger as she crossed the concourse, trailing a designer suitcase. Her heels reverberated with each step. She was thin and her muscles were lean, yet the dress fit tight and her thighs pressed against the folds. She joined the queue in the ticket office and lit up a cigarette, puffing out smoke as though it meant nothing to her. I imagined that she was used to standing before a camera. She removed a pair of butterfly sunglasses and hooked them into the neck of her dress. Her head turned and her eyes almost met with mine. I looked away.
A man sat next to me, so laden with luggage that he could have been creating a fortress around himself. His face was craggy and grey, and I felt him watching me. I pretended to busy myself, searching through travel documents for a non-existent answer to my problems. A fly landed on my arm and I flicked it away. My body was craving both coffee and water. There was no vending machine, no source of drink in this hellish building. But there was a photo booth. At least I would be able to take a pass-port photo, even if I died of dehydration.
Her confrontation with the balding ticket officer was also becoming heated. She was not the sort of person used to being denied. I saw her turn in profile as the officer did his best to explain himself. Now she was applying reason, having already shouted and implored.
The afternoon was young. I had time to go and explore the town. But above all else I needed a coffee. There wasa café across the road from the station, with plastic chairs that looked as though they might collapse if anyone sat on them. The language of this region frustrated me—it was stuck somewhere between French and Spanish, but retained its own eccentric nuances. Seeing the name Casa Miguel printed next to Brasserie increased my disorientation. Casa Miguel was the place to be in this town: two people were at the bar. Every other shop was shuttered away from the heat.
I took a table by the window and ordered a café crème. In Paris they would disapprove of the use of such peasant-like terms, but here it was the right thing to do.
She had followed me out of the station and now crossed the road, treating the flaky white lines like a catwalk. Her stride was all confidence. I watched as she drew near. She could see me, but pretended not to as she entered the café. Her face was striking and somehow unconventional, her nose a perfect wedge. It stuck up over glistening lips and a flat chin that matched the sharp curve of her jaw. Her cheeks were firmer than most. They sat high, and their roundness suggested amusement. Her make-up was visible in the direct sunlight, done with attention to detail, neither underhand nor showy. Diamond bracelets and gold bangles glinted on her wrist. She dropped her suitcase beside the table and sat down opposite me.
‘You’re buying me a drink,’ she said in English.
I had trouble hiding my surprise.
‘I am?’
‘You are, yes. We are both in need of one.’
The other patrons of the café were staring at us, but she ignored them. I beckoned the waiter over.
‘I’m having a coffee,’ I said to her. ‘What would you like?’
‘A real drink.’
‘Very well,’ I said to the waiter, stammering my way through the French. ‘And a beer, too, for me.’
She asked for a Campari and soda, fixing me with a probing stare. I pretended to use a paper napkin to wipe my hands, when in fact I was pulling it apart beneath the table. I tried not to look into her eyes, which were dark hazel and hard as crystal.
‘What is your name?’ she asked.
‘Lawrence. Lawrence Williams. Or Larry, whichever you prefer.’
‘You are a Lawrence.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do say so. Mine is Élodie Lavelle. One cannot do much with that.’
‘No, I guess you can’t.’
The drinks arrived. I ignored the coffee and gulped the beer. She did not appreciate this and approached her drink more carefully. I had grown fond of a cold beer while in Madrid, where it was cheaper than water and came with a plate of chopitos. Like I had no choice but to get drunk on a warm afternoon.
‘Come, you look terrible,’ she said, after staring at me in silent fascination. ‘What is the matter?’
‘I didn’t have a ticket booked to Paris. They assured me in Madrid that I could get one at the border.’
‘Ah yes. That old story. And when you arrived here they told you that there was a strike.’
‘No, they said all the trains to Paris were full.’
‘Have you not read the papers?’
‘I don’t pay much attention to the news.’
‘It’s this damned pension debacle. The unions are siding with the protestors, so only two trains are leaving tomorrow. Sunday will be the same. I hear that they’re protesting up in Paris as we speak.’
This made me wonder if Ethan, my musician flatmate in Paris, had joined them. He found that sort of thing thrilling, even though the French protests were more like carnivals, complete with singing and dancing.
‘So you’re stuck here, too?’ I said.
‘Until tomorrow. The sweet little man has put me on the morning train, the last seat. Perhaps you will have a harder time of it, though?’
‘Perhaps.’
We lapsed into silence again. I tried to work out what her beauty might hide. My own appearance hid nothing. My shirt was old and frayed. Her dress could have been bought brand new from the most fashionable of all stores in Paris. But on closer inspection I could see that there was a cigarette burn below the waist.
She leant forward to cover it up.
‘Are we going to leave it at that?’ she asked.
‘Sorry. Of course we aren’t. What brings you to this town?’
‘That is more like it. I came down here to visit my mother—she is not well. I have no idea why she had to choose the village of Ascain for her retirement. It would not surprise me if she did it to make me travel.’
‘Is your mother French?’
‘She is, although she claims to be Basque. And yes, my father was English, in case you could not tell. Handy citizenship, although I don’t identify with either of them.’
There was something in her accent that was neither French nor English. It reminded me of the transatlantic voices the great American actresses used to put on, in the days when drawling was not permitted on-screen.
She sat up straight as though she had said too much.
‘Now Lawrence, you cannot get away that easily. Where are you from?’
‘I have no idea where I’m from.’
‘Oh. None at all? Why don’t we start with where you were born, then?’
‘New Zealand. That doesn’t exactly help.’
‘No wonder your accent is so confused. What draws a small-town boy like you to Paris?’
‘I’m about to start my year at the Sorbonne, studying art history.’
This made her wince, as though I had told a lame joke. She raised her thin eyebrows. Every single hair aligned.
‘Oh dear. Why would you want to do that? Do you want to be a painter?’
‘If I had the talent. Or if I could find the inspiration.’
‘Well Lawrence, I cannot think of anything duller than studying something you don’t ever want to do.’
‘I can’t think of anything better. I know, it won’t get me anywhere, but it is interesting. Not dull at all.’
‘So you were in Madrid. You must have been soaking up that crock of bore in the Prado. You went nowhere near the Thyssen, and you walked through the Reina Sofía but hated everything about it. Too modern and edgy for your liking.’
There was truth to this assessment, even though I did not care to admit it. She had penetrated me. I tried to think of a way to force her back out.
‘How did you do that?’ I asked. She laughed, and I wondered what there was to laugh about.
‘I am enjoying this. You’re an open book.’
‘Or it was a good guess.’ I furrowed my brow. ‘So what area would you say I specialise in?’
‘You have chosen Paris as your place of study, so my guess is that you specialise in post-Revolutionary Romantic works. And you have positioned yourself close enough to the Louvre so that you can go there every day.’
‘Nice try. In fact it’s the Impressionists, focussing particularly on the transition from Realism heralded by Manet.’
She drew in her lips. They were attractive lips, but they were also chapped. No amount of lipstick could hide that. She took a cigarette from her handbag and asked if I minded, although I could tell that she would have smoked anyway.
‘Do you live in Paris?’ I asked.
‘I do. A pied-à-terre in the Eighth, one in London, one in New York. I have feet all over the world.’
‘Three houses? What do you use them for?’
‘Parties, usually. I need a space to entertain.’
‘How do you own them? Did you inherit them from your family?’
‘My husband owns the ones in Paris and New York. But yes, I did inherit the flat in London.’
She sounded flustered, as though it was too much information to keep track of. I tried not to let my disappointment show at the mention of her husband. There was the danger of treading on somebody’s toes. But the danger was also attractive. I started to imagine that I could get to know her, that we could spend the night together. It was a joke to myself, but I imagined feeling her thighs beneath my hands, the thrill of reaching beneath a married woman’s dress. It was a ridiculous prospect. I knew nothing about women, except for what I had pieced together from overheard whisperings at school, and the occasional nude painting I had studied. Élodie was like nobody I had ever seen before, and yet she was the epitome of what men were supposed to want. Why had I never come across somebody like her before? And why had women never shown interest in me, until now?
I had no idea what to make of her. She was sitting across the table from me, and I could see those thighs as she crossed them. They were tangible.
‘What are you doing tonight?’ I asked.
‘I thought you would never ask. Who knows what might happen? Needless to say, I am not returning to Ascain.’
‘Do you know any hotels in this town?’
‘No, sadly. I have never been stuck here before.’ She bent in, conspiratorially. ‘We should go on an adventure. Biarritz is always nice at this time of the year. Or we could go over the border to San Sebastián.’
‘Right. There’s one problem, though. I don’t have any money.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘I’m nearly out of cash.’
‘How were you planning to pay for a ticket?’
‘I don’t make many plans.’
‘Obviously not.’
‘But I have a discount pass, so it shouldn’t cost much.’
‘That does help.’ She disapproved. The concept of a discount must have been foreign to her. ‘So you cannot pay for a hotel, or a taxi, or anything. What were you going to do with yourself?’
‘I don’t know. If worst comes to worst, I thought I could sleep in the train station.’ She laughed, a high flutter that suited her superficial smile.
‘Why that’s absurd, Lawrence. Luckily for you, I have a soft spot for hopeless causes. Come, we must have some fun while we still can.’
I went to pay for the drinks with the last of my cash. But, before I could, she had laid a platinum credit card on the table. It carried somebody else’s name.
‘Keep the money,’ she said. ‘Who knows when you might need it?’
Sebastian Hampson was born in 1992 in Auckland, New Zealand. He grew up in Wellington, has lived in Europe, and is currently studying art history and literature at Victoria University. The Train to Paris, published by Text Publishing, is his first novel.
Read the Text Publishing book club notes for The Train to Paris here.
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