The 6:41 to Paris

An elegant forty-seven year old, she is discontent with her personal life but successful in business with her natural beauty line, Pourpre et Lys. She lives just outside of the Paris with her husband, Luc, and her daughter, Valentine.[3] After one of her regular visits to see her elderly parents, Cécile decides on a whim to stay Sunday night with them which puts her on the 6:41 a.m. train on Monday morning.

Philippe, who works as a TV salesman at a superstore,[3] is the father of two children, Manon and Loïc. He is divorced from his ex-wife Christine. Although he was once popular in his youth, he now spends most of his time alone. Living far outside of Paris, he is only on the 6:41 a.m. train to Paris to visit his friend Mathieu.

Luc is Cécile’s husband, who she describes as nearing fifty and still fit. Cécile feels that their marriage lacks meaningful connection, and that Luc struggles to accept her financial success.

Valentine, almost seventeen, is Cécile and Luc’s daughter.

Mathieu has been Philippe’s friend since high school and who Philippe is on his way to visit. He experienced moderate success as an actor but is now dying of illness. He had coffee with Cécile not long after Philippe and Cécile’s breakup.

Christine is Philippe’s ex-wife and the mother of his children. She left Philippe ten years ago for her first love, Jérôme, after being unhappy for some time.

He is Christine’s kind and wealthy new husband. Philippe’s children prefer Jérôme’s big house with a pool to their father’s less appealing living conditions.

The daughter and oldest child of Philippe, eighteen year old Manon works at an outdoor sports center. She is moving to Reins to study physical therapy.

He is the sixteen year old son of Philippe who wants to take sailing classes over the summer and one day become an orthodontist.

This novel has a heavy emphasis on choice. It opens with Cécile's internal dialogue regarding her decision to take such an early train. She speaks of her uncertainty, doubting everything from that decision to staying an extra night at her parents' to even continuing to visit her parents despite their abrasive nature. Philippe similarly discusses his choice to take the 6:41 a.m. train, saying that the late night ones he hates could have been more convenient. Cécile continues to doubt her past choices, weighing the good and bad that came with dating Philippe. These seemingly insignificant choices are the driving forces of the novel. The choices made in their relationship, those made as they moved on from it, those they make as they share the train ride—each decision has its own impact. In this novel, there is a sense that one is bound by one's choices. Whether in regards to which train to take or with whom to pursue a relationship, there are inevitable consequences that follow, whether intentional or not. The two characters must come to terms with the unexpected consequences of their seemingly insignificant choices. The novel ends when, after much deliberation, Cécile decides to turn around to Philippe as they exit the train. Blondel himself was uncertain as to how to end the novel but chose to give it an open ending the give the reader room to imagine.[5]

Much of the novel takes place in the memories Cécile and Philippe have of their youth. They struggle to reconcile who they were and who they are, especially now that they are encountering one another for the first time in twenty-seven years. They remember one another as twenty-year-olds. For Cécile, she immediately feels like an awkward young woman once she realizes she is beside Philippe.[6] When she turns to see Philippe she notes that he is "unrecognizable. . . Wrinkled. Flabby.[2]" For her, it was almost satisfying to see the man who had hurt her look so physically worn.[4] She thinks to herself that in a breakup one should get to see a glimpse of what the other person will be like once they have aged.[2] Philippe recalls his youth with guilt, especially in relation to Cécile. Though he knows he was better looking and more charming, he realizes that he treated her poorly. The novel speaks a great deal to how youth is remembered and how it affects one later in life. Cécile's final decision to turn back to Philippe was strongly influenced by her remembrance of the feelings of youth. Philippe ponders the difficulties of the loss of youth, considering it equivalent to the loss of vitality. He feels as though aging is decaying, in the form of his sense of self and relation to others. Cécile associates her age with confidence and stronger identity than ever before. She feels more self-assured in her later years than in her youth, in opposition to Philippe whose peak of self-confidence was long ago. Even in his youth, Philippe was aware that he may not have been making the best choices, but he persisted. Now as he has time to consider his past choices, he feels just as unsure yet less confident.