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Thursday September 12th was the day that Richard
and I were to actually reach the Med and check our train arrangements
whilst in Narbonne.
The day dawned and after an early breakfast, we hared off down the long
hill from Margaret's onto the coastal plain, alongside the Canal du Midi
for a while, and some 30 miles on, into Narbonne, just a few miles from
the sea. |
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It was almost a disappointment when we finally
arrived at the broad beaches of Narbonne Plage. The weather was not
exactly what we had hoped for and there was no Brass Band to meet us!
Margaret, however, was there to meet us and show us to a garage
where she had made arrangements to leave our bikes overnight for the early
train the following morning. She had, as always, been an excellent hostess for our
three days of R and R. |
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Friday September 13th |
It was Friday 13th, we were in coach number 13 and I was in seat number
13!
By late morning, we had said our farewells to Margaret (who had driven
us to Narbonne to be reunited with our bikes) and travelled from
Narbonne to Bordeaux, where we had a break for lunch and awaited our next
train for Nantes. The problem was that we had been told at Narbonne that
this train would not be able to accept bikes. |
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I had lost some sleep over this possibility,
I have to admit. In the event, we got the bikes on through a door marked
'Access Velos' with no-one around to stop us. We secured them in a rather
tight fit of a place and went to our seats. My relief was palpable when
the train moved off. It was short lived, however. The guard/ticket
collector entered our carriage some minutes later, starting with the usual
"Bonjour Messieurs et Mesdames" and ending on an interrogative
note. The word "velos" was somewhere in the
middle. I knew enough French to realise that he was asking who had (the cheek to) fastened their bikes to a place in the middle of the train
where bikes were not allowed. (I later worked out that velo was also the
French for wheelchairs. Oooops.)
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| Such embarrassment as we had to come clean in front of a carriage full
of people!
He indicated that we would have to remove our bikes from the train at
the first stop...(Oh NO, I thought)
...and take them along to the guards van at the end of the train. Phew,
relief.
Richard and I were waiting by the bikes as the train pulled into the
station. It was a very long train and many people were getting off as we
struggled with our bikes to get them down onto the platform and along to
coach 16 against the flow of passengers. Not an easy task, and we had no
sooner heaved them in to their rightful place than the train was on the
move again. It only remained for us to struggle through umpteen smoking
carriages holding our breath as we did so. |
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We soon found out that it was a good idea to get up to the
guards van well before the train approached it's destination. Carrying
full panniers along a corridor train is tricky, to say the least. |
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The Hotel Duchesse de la Anne in Nantes was picked by myself
out of the Logis de France book. It was close to the station and was very
reasonable.
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By night, it was transformed by quite imaginative
lighting. |
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| That night we were about two thirds of the way
back to St. Malo after about 8 hours on the two trains. Richard had not
felt at all well and went straight to bed on arrival. He reckoned that it
was a recurrence of 'Pharoah's Revenge' that he had picked up on his Scuba
diving week. |
