De Montpellier à Bayonne

[25mar22] De Montpellier à Bayonne:

Easy morning, clean up the apartment,

walk the suitcases to Place de la Comédie, take Tramway one stop to the train station, get breakfast (regional specialties), train first class car #2 to Montpellier, changing trains is Toulouse. Second class is 2X2 seating while first-class is 2x1 seating with a bit more legroom and slightly nicer seats, but otherwise not much different. Fortunately these intercités trains have good wi-fi.

Arrival at Toulouse is a bit delayed; Jeff runs to the ObjetsTrouvés office seeking his eyeglasses. Fortunately the office is open, the guy helpful; he shows me his box of found eyeglasses. Mine are not there. Disappointing, yet it's somewhat reassuring to know for sure that they are truly lost. I run back to Track #3, where our next train is boarding—we (and others) struggle to identify car #13. Even other passengers cannot find #13. Eventually I ask a worker, who tells me the passage through the train cars is closed, just take any available seat in the first-class section, no problem. That worker later turns out to be the conductor himself, who reassures us: just stay in these seats, no problem. We are seated across from an elderly gentleman traveling from Toulouse to Bayonne to visit his grandchildren.

Fortunately our seats are on the south side of the train, with beautiful views of the Pyrenees and the River Adour, though the higher peaks are shrouded in clouds. Lourdes is particularly beautiful, and I note that this is the only stop where the announcements are also in English and Spanish! We pass through the town of Pau, which our companion assures us is beautiful and home to lots of Englishmen.

Bayonne, to meet Dominique and Maxime Michel: they drive us back to their home in Hasparren, 40 minutes via A63, up a steep hill overlooking the town. They purchased the house over ten years ago and are still in the midst of total renovation. We particularly like the light-up bathroom mirror, and the shower controls. We were hosted in their downstairs independent studio apartment, as the upstairs bedrooms are under renovation now.

Maxime is the proud chef. He prepared several gourmet full meals. Tonight a simpler chopped-veal in a Basque sauce, with of course an earlier entrée, salad, then cheese board and then his own Tarte Tatin apple pie with ice cream. Fantastique! Our arrival was fêted with a feast (ed.note the etymological liaison between fête and feast), finally ending at 10pm.

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