Arrived in Paris early this morning, all went smoothly with the flights. Then took the RER B commuter train into Paris, just in time to catch the high speed (at times speed in excess of 280KM/hr) TGV train from Gare Montparnasse that brought me to Bayonne (First class TGV was a treat). Bayonne is a pretty town near Biarritz in the Basque region of south west France. I am sleeping here tonight and tomorrow morning catching a train and a bus to what is 0KM for the walk, Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port (SJPDP) (about 90 minutes from Bayonne). Tomorrow will be about figuring out the strategy for the first two days of walking across the Pyrenees. The weather has been very challenging and the highest Napoleon Route which I planned to take, has been closed this week on and off. One day a time, there is always another option. Plan is to sleep in SJPDP tomorrow and start walking on Saturday.
The Camino stories started today… a young lady approached me on the commuter train as I was scrambling to figure fastest way to get to the TGV station as I was very very tight with time. It turns out she worked a few summers in a row along the Camino and just stopped me to wish me “Buen Camino” and proceeded to walk with me to show me the best way to make it to the train station. She may just be the reason I made the train with just 5 min to spare.