On Mar 10, 8:11*pm, Stephen Sangwine wrote:

On 2011-03-08 19:58:15 +0000, Arthur Figgis said:

On 08/03/2011 18:51, Paul wrote:
Purely coinicidentally, I was in Paris recently. The metro there
generally has a reputation for being more reliable the the London
Underground.

France's external reputation for transport doesn't generally stand up
to reality.

Other useful French phrases I've come across are "retard" (=departure)
and "service autocar" (=train not going to/from Paris).

Un autocar is a coach or bus. As someone else said, retard means delay
or lateness
as in RETARD 5MN = 5 minute delay.

Mr Figgis knows this very well...