> "We got fined for getting off the train at the wrong stop" is not much of a travel story though.

I was on a plane recently and two people in the row behind me were having a lengthy moan about their respective travel experiences / disasters. They stopped escalating when one of them said "That's nothing, we were just coming in to land when the volcano started to erupt."

I was really tempted to stand up and pitch in with a line about landing in Tokyo when Godzilla chose that precise moment to attack, but the fasten-seatbelts sign had just lit up, so I didn't.

yet another reason not to visit Paris, win-win!

Pretty sure you wouldn't want to make two of those in succession. I mean, last time I had to pay a fine for not having The Correct Blessed Type Of Ticket, I did pay a lot of attention to the tickets I bought next. (Wasn't as expensive as in Paris, but still a palpable mistake.)