Quickly, I rethought my choice of footwear, snapped a photo, and returned to getting together my things for the day. I set out for the bus stop, as usual, marvelling at the muffled quiet and the beauty of Metz under the pristine coat of snow. It was incredibly gorgeous!
Hardly anyone was in the streets, and there were very few cars out. As I got closer to the main place where nearly all the buses pass through, I began to wonder if the still morning might in fact mean something more than just being an effect of the snow... There were people about, cautiously working their way along the snowy sidewalks, but... there weren't any buses... When I arrived at my stop, and didn't see the usual crowd of high school students, I knew something was up.
A man in a car with the bus company's logo pulled up and said to me, "Madame, you'd better go home. We've stopped running the buses this morning." I asked if he knew if/when they'd start running again. He gave me a noncommittal, ever-so-French shrug and rolled up his window. I headed home.
By the time I got home, I looked like the abominable snowman. The snow was still falling in big, fat flakes. "No buses running" I told my housemate who had just gotten up. "Why?" she asked. "Have you looked outside?" I responded. "No..." "Come to the door right now!" I insisted. She did, gasped "WOW!" and grabbed her camera too.
I called school to let them know I was stuck at home until the buses were running again, and was told not to worry. I spent the next couple hours listening to the local radio station who had put aside their usual morning programs and was devoting their broadcast to continuous updates about traffic, transportation and weather. Lots of commuters from Metz to Lux ended up spending 3-4 hours on a drive that usually takes about 45 minutes. Locally, people were told not to drive unless absolutely necessary, until the streets had been cleared. Somewhere around 8am they were just breaking out the "plow trucks." (This is not at all a beast like we see in VT! They look more like little street sweepers with a small plow on the front...) Finally, around 10.30am they announced that some buses were again running, and they would be adding more as things got cleared up.
I suited up, grabbed my bag and headed out again. Take two. My usual bus line wasn't yet running, but there was another that I could take at least part way to school. But since the buses weren't running on a set schedule, nor in any vaguely predictable manner, I decided it would be better to just start walking in the direction of my school, and hop on the first bus I could. I walked, and walked and walked. It seemed like all the buses were going in the opposite direction, but finally, one came my way and I was able to ride a mere 2 stops before I had to get off and continue by foot to school. Ultimately, I got to school at about noon, just as everyone was sitting down to eat lunch. I was rocking the abominable snowman look again, and everyone got a good laugh when I came in.
Fortunately, the buses were mostly back to normal tonight when I was heading home. Not so much a snow day as a... four hour delay?!
Tomorrow is supposed to be clear, with more snow in the forecast for Wednesday (no school) and lots for Thursday, so we'll see what happens next!
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