Phew. We’re in Paris, it’s warm, humid and there’s rain forecast. The sun is still shining but clouds are gathering.

Let’s start from this morning.

We packed yesterday, woke early, fed the dogs, had breakfast and headed out to big field. Pero behaved himself off the lead and was rewarded with so many sprats. After drying them off and assuring them that Emma and Neil would feed them at lunch time and give them lots of love and cuddles and that Menna and Andy would cuddle up on the sofa with them, we hoisted the packs onto our backs and headed off.

Oxford this morning was very quiet

After a brief but pleasant coffee at café Nero in Gloucester green we arrived at the train station in plenty of time (too much time)

The GWR train got us very quickly to Paddington and rather than use our OAP bus passes (still can’t believe that we have these), we walked to St. Pancras international train station.

We grabbed lunch in le Pain Quotidien and then lined up to go through customs. This is where things got unpleasant and decidedly hairy. Too many people in too small a space is never a good thing. Technology is invariably flawed (and I speak from personal experience) and it took ages to get through passport control only to then have to immediately go through a second time, this time with a friendly french lady who stamped!! my passport to show that we were entering France. Boris – I hate you!!!

Hundreds of people were crammed into dozens of seats and associated floor space and for the next 40 minutes or so we waited until the gate opened and we were allowed to board – only to find when the train finally started that we were going backwards 😢 – backwards all the bloody way to Paris. It’s apparently safer to be sitting such that the direction of motion is backwards in regards to one’s seating position but it’s horrible.

Anyway, we arrived in Paris facing Calais and then had to get off facing Paris. 😞. We waited for forty minutes or so in line for a taxi (walking would have taken us less than an hour)

Eventually we were allocated to a taxi and we were driven off only to stop, start, stop and generally crawl towards our hotel. We passed the Louvre …

… and some one and a half km from the hotel we finally gave up, hopped out of the taxi and walked the rest of the way. The hotel is right next to Gare Montparnasse where we’re picking up the TGV to Bayonne tomorrow morning. We’ve had dinner (a salad entree), a glass of decent red wine and some fries so we’re replete. We’ll grab some breakfast around 8 o’clock and head off. In the meantime, Dorothy is already in bed and I’ll join her shortly (in my own single bed 😢).

Buen Camino