I had known for some time that Janet was arranging a special trip away for my 60th birthday this year.
However, the destination remained a secret until the penultimate part of the journey.
The trip began with a pleasant Sunday afternoon drive to Porto where we arrived at the hotel. Then, almost immediately, we took Janet's car to where one of her work colleagues lives and left it there 🙃
We had a lift back to the hotel, via a restaurant for an evening meal.
The next morning, after breakfast, our lift arrived again to deliver us to the airport - we are flying off to some exotic location.
It didn't take long to establish that we were heading for France, Paris Orly airport to be more precise. A romantic week in the City of Love was on the cards 😃
Having negotiated our way from the airport to Gare du Nord on the Metro I learned that we needed to go to Gare de L'Est, just a short walk - in the opposite direction than that which were traveling. The neighbourhood where we were walking, with suitcases, seemed less than inviting. We were accosted every few yads by people selling cigarettes and other goods of dubious origin, the seemingly endless whine of the French police cars and fire trucks was quite unnerving. We found a quiet spot to consult a map and realised that we were traveling the wrong way and had to retrace our steps. With more haste and determination we passed back through the street 'traders' and around the train station to where we should be.
Once we were sure that we knew where we were it was time to get a bite to eat so we chose La Maison Blanche opposite the front of the Gare du Nord, in view of the bizarre winged bear sculpture.
After a feed, we went on to the Gare de L'Est, and once Janet had identified the train that we were waiting for, it became apparent where we were heading. Our target station was Sedan, a town in the North East of the country near the Belgian border.
We had quite some time to wait for the train and the station was packed with people but we did find a space to sit in the waiting area.
Our train was a TGV and comprised of two train sets which would split at Reims so we had to get on the front part of the train. This involved a long trek to our carriage, miles along the platform 😂
The first class accommodation was very comfortable. The train departed exactly on schedule and we were soon flashing through the countryside at 300km/h. We stopped at Reims for some time while the two parts of the train were disconnected, then continued on our way to Sedan.
Our hotel at Sedan was a reasonable walk from the train station but with the use of 'google maps' it was quite easy to find. We checked in and retired for the day.
The next morning was cool enough for evidence of frost on the grass, a far cry from the 15ºC minimum that we had been used to in Vale de Prazeres. We had breakfast and then headed out to the bakery that we had spotted the night before on our way to the hotel, the Marie Blachère Boulangerie. The choice of food was excellent and the girl was happy to speak English to help us out with our choices. We picked up sandwiches and cakes for a day out and returned to the hotel, stopping at the bus stops along the main road to check the schedule. Janet had previously established that we needed to take a bus to the final destination village, some 5 or 6 km outside of Sedan town itself and that there was just one bus there and one bus back during the day. The bus route was also very close to our hotel so it would not be necessary to walk back to the town again to get the bus.
Unsure of the etiquette and costs we arrived at the bus stop in good time to catch the bus. When it arrived a couple of minutes after the scheduled time we boarded and asked for two tickets to Fleigneux. The lady driver was somewhat surprised that two obvious tourists should be asking to go to such a remote place but charged 2.40€ for the two tickets. We tried to ask if she could tell us when the bus arrived there but that ended in some confusion so we gave up. Once we sat down it was obvious that the bus was quite modern and the route was displayed on a TV screen with the current and next stops clearly shown. It was very much a 'local' bus, the driver waving at people on the route and talking at length to one of the other passengers. By the time we reached Fleigneux we were the only passengers left, we said thank you and left. I'm sure she thought we were lost.
To be continued ...