Caught the TGV as planned, after an earlier than usual start (up at 6:30!) Lugging two large suitcases up and down the stairs of the Barcelona Metro system (no, they don’t all have lifts or escalators) reminded us why we chose to drive, last trip. Still, we made it in plenty of time, but not so much that there was excessive waiting. Nicely judged, Cath.
The TGV trip itself was mostly uneventful: there was more snoozing done than sight seeing, and I read a chunk of my new William Gibson novel, on my tablet. It was raining. I was a bit surprised by how much of the low, Carmargue area is under vine, as well as under water. I wonder what swamp-wine is like?
Indeed, it rained so much (the PA announced a “tempest”) on the approach to Montpelier that the train came to a stand-still. Not very fast at all, for about an hour, while tecnicians fixed whatever it was that had become waterlogged up ahead.
So we reached Paris in peak hour, rather than before, which made the RER trip to Nation a bit hectic. Found the hotel without problem, no thanks to the garmin, which had apparently woken up in my bag and flattened its batteries.
Cath was still feeling off-colour, so we did not head straight out to find happy-hour with oysters, as planned, but instead rested up for our dinner booking. That was a 9:30 reservation at Le Servan, which was quite fantastic. Young, happy staff and a generally good mood among all the patrons, and the food was really good. I splurged and had the Foi for entre and the Ris de Vau for main, both excellent, but Cath was more circumspect and had the sauted mushrooms (poelee champignons) in a broth, with egg yolk and then the fish (skate, I think.) Recommended.
No photos yet, although I did take a couple last night, I haven’t decanted them from the camera yet.