And We're Off

Friday 30 Aug to Sat 31 Aug

Like the title says, we're off. Friday at 3:00 pm the limo picked us up and plunked us down at Terminal 3 in front of the Air France desk. The lineups were very long, however, because I had checked us in the day before via the web, we were sent through with all the other special people:)

The first hiccup of the trip came in the form a well laid plan unravelled. I had come up with a great idea: packing our walking sticks and knives in a mini golf shoulder bag that was part of a  promotion from Balentines scotch a few years back. This would enable us to carry the backpacks without worrying about delayed or lost luggage. But alas, they were two big, leaving us with three bags to be checked. Air France was very good about it and did not charge extra.

And speaking of Air France, I was suitably impressed. Now, my longest previous flight was four and a half hours, and one can't expect the same level of service on shorter hauls, but wow, that was impressive. First off, every passenger was given a blanket, headphones, pillow and eye cover. Second, the  meal was superb, with which they served complimentary beer and wine. Had a small bottle of Merlot myself. And lastly, there was a selection of over fifty on demand movies to watch. None of this  Babe Pig in the City or Kung Fu Panda stuff you get on flights down south. My movies of choice were Django, Gangster Squad and The Two Towers making the seven hours fly right by. Overall the flight was smooth, with a few turbulent sections . We flew over Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland and England before touching down in a cool rainy Paris.

To get to our ultimate  destination required three train runs. 

The bad stuff first. The tickets were purchased on line a month ago. With PDF copies of the confirmation in hand, we walked confidently up to the ticket machine to print them, it would not recognize either the code or my card. The best advice we had was, get in line at the ticket desk and get them to print it. NOT ENOUGH TIME!!! After dropping a few F bombs, for the first and hopefully last but likely not time, on the trip it was action time.   I pushed my way to the front of the " strictly for elite members line" and wouldn't budge till they printed them for me.

The good stuff. Absolutely everything else. We met two pilgrims from BC in the vending line ( we are not that hard to spot) And another from Ottawa sitting with us on the train. You actually catch the train right at the airport, a few mins walk in the terminal from bag pick up. The trains are clean, modern, super fast and quiet. Every connection to every other mode of transportation is right there where you disembark from the last link. 

Our first connection in Bordeaux St Jean was a beautiful place, again with direct connection to the city's  LRT line. They used the "naked street" or " shared street" concept, which is running the train directly through the pedestrian area, allowing free flow of people across the tracks, and lined with bars, shops and cages on the side. It is similar to the concept we tried on our project in Markham, but it is a hard sell because of safety reasons, and is a 100 times better than the St Clair LRT in Toronto which literally cuts off access to either side of the street. Most impressive and this network would actually get me out of my car. 

Pilgrim tips:

- So far information screens; to find what carousel your bags are coming on or what platform your train leaves from; is on a need to know basis. These are assigned on an arrival basis and you might not know where to go, or your information might not even show up on the screen to confirm you are looking in the right spot, until just before things get there or you are scheduled to leave. That's a little disconcerting for North Americans who are used to seeing all information shown at once. But once you get used to it, it actually makes good sense.

- there are many trains leaving from CDJ airport: into Paris, surrounding area and national. They all have different ticket machines and leave from different platforms. You need to look for the SNCF red symbol of you are heading to St Jean Pied de Port.

- you can get good food at the airport and all train stations we were through. None of this fast food stuff.