Viva la Paris!!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010
Alarm didn`t go off this morning but my internal one did so we woke up in good time for our ferry...thank goodness!! The ferry left promptly at 8am and we were due to arrive in Roscoff, France at 1445 local time. We are now 6 hours ahead of Ontario so skype date times may have to change. Anyhow, we got to Roscoff on time went to the info desk to get to the train info and make our way to Mont-st-michel. We ended up waiting for a bus that never came and took a taxi to the train station. Roscoff is a very small town and the train station even smaller. After a struggled attempt to speak to the man at the train station (our French is poor and his English minimal) we discovered that we could not get to Mont-St-Michel tonight and we would lose our money from the hostel we booked. That was a big downer. We had to originally book a private for Mont-st-michel because that was all that was available and private rooms do not come cheap. Tensions were high as we had to made a quick decision so we didn`t miss the train out of Roscoff. So we could either go to Rennes for the night and then Mont-St-Michel tomorrow or we could just go to Paris tonight. We chose the latter of the two options...decided to make life easier and just get to Paris. We didn`t have a clear plan for Mont-St-Michel anyhow and were just going because we were told that it`s beautiful. So the guy at the counter was super amazing and booked us in a hotel for the night in Paris and got our train schedule organized so we would arrive at 10pm tonight. He actually called the hostel we had booked for tomorrow and the next night but they could only accommodate one of us. He also gave us directions on how to get to the hotel and hostel tomorrow via the subway. This will probably come in very handy once we are in Paris. So on we went to Morlaix to go further to Rennes to connect to Paris. We had about an hour wait in Morlaix so Heather went on a wine mission. We were right in town and how hard could wine be to find in France? Well after about 30 minutes I was starting to get worried and in she strolls sweating (because it’s finally warm now that we are in France) with two bottles of wine. The town was a huge hill and she had to walk down and back up again in the name of wine! Mission accomplished! So we grabbed our wine and our huge baguette sandwich and headed back onto the train. We made all of our connections on the train today!!! Hooray!! First time in awhile...that`s for sure! So we arrived in Paris at 1015 and had to navigate our way across the lovely city. The man from Roscoff who booked all of our trains and hotel also gave us directions on the tube for when we arrived. Our hotel for tonight also happens to be close (or near) the hostel that we will be staying at. So our transfer tomorrow shouldn`t be too bad. So we got our tickets (because the self serve screens can be in English) and headed to our first subway, with only one transfer to make. No problems on the tube (we`ve had lots of practice in London) and landed in the neighbourhood with only an address and no map. Thankfully we found our bearings on a bus map and had some help from a lady who approached us. It took only 10-15 minutes to arrive to a hotel...yes a HOTEL not a hostel. We have our own room and bathroom with towels and check out isn`t until noon. Sweet! This is definitely how to boost morale and a fantastic start in Paris. I think however, we are catching up to Waterloo weather. When we arrived at the hotel we were drenched with sweat from walking with warmer clothes on and our packs but we had a clean, private shower and 2 bottles of wine to celebrate.