Day 1: Edinburgh to Lille

Up at 5:30am, bright eyed and bushy tailed ready and raring to begin the first stage of my mini-adventure – Edinburgh to London and lots of Kindle time. It made a change that I wakened the cats instead of it being the other way around. Rob dropped me off at the station and my Semaine en Normandie is about to begin.

The journey to London was pleasantly uneventful and pretty much on time. I managed to read a lot of my book, at this rate I’ll need to download more to my Kindle. It is so nice to be able to just sit and read and read.

The Eurostar station was pretty busy, but boarding was a lot less tedious than the queues to get on planes and we were soon heading to France. I was so engrossed in my book that I did not notice going through the Channel tunnel and it was only when I looked up and saw which side of the road the cars were on, that I realised that I was in France. Probably just as well I was unaware of the tunnel as I was not completely looking forward to that bit of the journey.

On arriving in Lille, I found my hotel really easily – no Scottie shortcuts today. The holiday is young, there is still plenty of time for that. After looking for and not seeing the hotel that I am staying in on the way back to Lille at the end of the holiday, I eventually found it. Had a wee stroll and saw some really lovely old buildings but was a bit on auto pilot so I did not do Lille justice. I will have more time at the end of the holiday to see a bit more.

Day 2: Lille to Saint Marcel

Well, it is fair to say that today did not go as silky smoothly as yesterday. Got from Lille to Paris, Gare du Nord easy, peasy, then it kind of went downhill. While on the train I booked my bag in to a luggage locker type place as I had 2 hours to have a wee wander in Paris and it would be nice not to be bumping into folk with my rucksack. Even better, it wouldn’t cost anything for such a short time, so seemed like a good idea.

My first challenge on arriving at Gare du Nord was to do something as simple as get from there to Gare St Lazare and I decided to use the metro, which would avoid the risk of a Scottie shortcut this early in the day. Hmmm, finding a ticket machine proved harder than I thought …. because I was looking in the wrong place. Anyhow I got down to the metro level and went to get a Navigo pass but had to queue as you couldn’t buy them via a machine. When it was my turn, the ticket seller said that it was not worth buying a pass and buying single tickets would be fine, unless I wanted to keep the pass as a souvenir. Guess what, I bought single tickets, so I am sorted for 2 return journeys in Paris. I may do a third one, but at least I know what I am doing (allegedly) next time.

With tickets finally bought, I headed to the metro line 5 only to find that it was closed due to rail works. This was starting to feel like Challenge Anneka or some kind of escape room game. I asked a very nice SNCF person where the bus stop was, expecting to be told that it was all the way back where I had come from, but my luck was changing, and it was up the stairs and right outside the door. The bus arrived and off we go, or don’t, or we go a wee bit, then stop. I felt very much at home – traffic was slow to stopped, but at least I was sitting down just watching the world go by (faster than the bus).

I tracked our journey on Google Maps and could see the luggage locker place was smack bang the bus route so I jumped off to hand over my bag. The slight (?) embarrassment was that by the time I got there I only needed 20 minutes (yes it took that long to faff in Gare du Nord) but I had to hand my bag in as no-shows are charged the full day rate and cancellations on the day are charged too, so I sheepishly left my bag for 20 minutes for €0. Bargain?

Gare St Lazare to Vernon went fine. It was a busy train, but it arrived on time and I quickly bought my shuttle ticket to Monet’s garden for the next day, so I gave myself a wee Brownie point for that, as it is one less thing I can mess up tomorrow?

The person I had booked a massage with came to the station and picked my up, which was incredibly kind (saved me any “delays”). What a lovely place Vernon is – the houses are lovely, as is the stonework and the traffic was really light where I was. That massage was just what I needed after all the travel yesterday and the “fun” so far today, so I left feeling pretty much back to normal. Final bit of my journey was to the chambre d’hôte in Saint Marcel – it was only about a 15 minute walk from the massage place and I had Google Maps so what could go wrong?  As I sauntered along enjoying the warmth, peace and the calm feeling of vaguely knowing that I was heading in the right direction, I noticed the battery on my phone going lower and lower. I shut everything down except for Google Maps and put it on to battery saver mode, but the battery ran out before I reached my destination. Luckily, I was very close and had memorised the last bit and the address, so I got there fine.

The chambre d’hôte (Le Jardin des Erables) in Saint-Marcel is lovely – the couple who run it are really kind and helpful, my room is smashing, their house and garden are lovely. I have yet to see the cats, but there is still time. I am using my French a lot already – at massage and at the chambre d’hôte – they offered to speak English, but … when in France …. plus I want to improve my speaking so this is a great opportunity.

After settling in I did some quick research and headed out to buy a PowerBank so I won’t have the same battery problem again. Time was marching on though and I had an online Board meeting later so I grabbed a quick pizza at a restaurant called Le Loft – very nice – and had my first glass of wine, which went down a treat. All in all, the day went well and lots of lessons were learned. Without cats to compete for space in the bed, I claimed the whole bed and slept like a log.