Paris 2008 - 19 Juin

Jeudi - We got up around 07h30, packed everything that wasn't packed already, paid our bill and took a taxi to the train station.

One thing I dislike very much about using the trains in France, is that they don't tell you which track it will be on until about twenty minutes before the scheduled departure time, and every once in a while, they change that at the last minute. We waited in the lobby with many other passengers awaitng the track information. Fortunately, we were on track #1 and we didn't have to drag our bags down the stairs, walk to the indicated track and drag the bags up the stairs to the train. We simply walked out to the track area, checked the sign that tells you which car will be in which area, walked down there and got on.

Something we hadn't counted on was that the train would take us to Gare Montparnasse and not Gare d'Austerlitz. It also would go through Bordeaux and not Limoges. In direct opposition to the trip down, this time we got to see a lot of the countryside and the neat little towns along the way, including an occasional chateau. It was a much nicer journey and it was on a TGV, although it took the same six hours to get to Paris that it had taken to get to Toulouse.

The closer to Paris we got, the cloudier it became. Toulouse had been warm and sunny while we were there and when we left there wasn't a cloud in the sky. When we got to Paris, it was very cloudy.

We dragged our bags to the taxi stand and were on our way to the apartment, when LIF called to see where we were. I hadn't called before we left, because I felt relatively certain that they probably hadn't gone to bed until about the time we were getting up to leave.

Maybe because of the weather, Paris seemed so grubby compared to Toulouse. And dirty.

As we got out of the taxi at the apartment building, it started to rain. After we were safely inside, it started to pour. It did stop in time for us to go to dinner at L'Angela, which was disappointing. The last time we were there, Robb had had a terrific Osso Bucco. I ordered it this time, but apparently, the chef doesn't make the same dishes each time. He changes them according to the ingredients with which he has to work. That's all well and good if you don't have your mind set on something in particular, but I was very unhappy with the dish I got in place of the one I was expecting. I'm not sure we will return there.

Plus à venir, mes amis.