I flew out of Toronto on Wednesday evening putting me in Paris for dawn and a quick connect to Toulouse where I caught a bus to the city centre where I had a room booked at the Hotel de Orsay across from the train station.I was early so I just walked around town till noon soaking in the old architecture and markets. My plan was to get a good nights sleep and then the train to Bayonne early Friday and hopefully connect up to St. Jean de Pied de Port the same afternoon and start my hike on Saturday. I managed to buy a ticket for the 10am train the next morning so I went back to my room and crashed. For the last three decades I have always prided myself on not needing an alarm clock, waking at 5:30am every day and then getting on with it. Well I did wake up at my usual time the next morning but North American time not French. It was 10:45 and I had missed my train by 15 minutes never mind the resulting panic from having to repack my backpack which was spread out all over the room and get out of my room by 11 am. I cleared out and headed to the train station where I was told my ticket was good all day but there was no way I would connect to St. Jean with arriving there after nine pm so I would have to find a room in Bayonne. The train ride was very pleasant in a compartment and the countryside was mostly farmland with each towns arrival being signalled by the increasing graffitti tags on appraoch. I hunted around Bayonne and found a small room on a fourth floor walk up for 30 euros and found a Kebob joint for dinner, finishing the evening with a little town exploring, This time when I went to bed I set my alarm to avoid a repeat of this mornings events. to be continued..... |
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