Day 20 (Tuesday 26Nov19) Barcelona to Paris

A quick check and return keys for the  apartment and we headed out for the last time in Barcelona. It was a early start (for us) this morning (7am) as we took taxi to the train station. Our Taxi driver was a delightful older fellow who chatted with us on the way to the train station. 

Once at the station we had breakfast and headed through slightly less intense airport style security check then to a long line of passengers waiting to have their tickets checked. 

Once checked in, we headed underground to a vast series of platforms where we directed to 1st class carriage 12 seats 71 & 72. Very nice. The train left on time 9:25am and passed through a long tunnel for several minutes before emerging above ground briefly. Our train passed through lots of tunnels before emerging in Northern Spanish country-side. The train has two decks and is high speed variety. The seats in 1st class are similar to business on a aircraft. 

Like we saw with Swiss trains a decade ago, this Barcelona to Paris train is very efficient. Call overs are in Spanish, French and English languages. The track is very level, they go through hills and mountains rather than over and the ride very smooth despite the advertised speeds of up to 300kmh. We suspect our train is cruising about 150-200kmh range. 

At 10:45am we arrived in Perpignan France, which google predicts as 3 hour train journey from Barcelona. So perhaps we are moving faster than it appears. 

On the way to Narbonne we passed swamp like country. From the train it appears that the little town of Bages on the way to Narbonne is an island in a swamp like plain.

The train moved slower over the flood plain.

Our train to Narbonne is very close to the Mediterranean Sea.

Around the town of Narbonne the rolling fields returned. Narbonne from the train seemed a large town with a large but old station. 

Outside the town of Beziers will stopped “for our safety”. A decade ago when this happened between Switerland and Italy we were boarded by Dad’s army who conducted passport checks and customs. This time it appears to be train ahead that is broken down. It delayed us about 30 minutes before arriving very briefly in Beziers. 

From Beziers the train followed the coast to the port town of Montpellier Saint -Roch. Along the way we passed through but didn’t stop the little town of Seit. 

Montpellier Saint -Roch is the nearest town to Marseille which we visited on our cruise. 

After Nimes we passed through more fields of grapes. 

Once in the non stop section the train varied its speed from 90kph to 273kph. The country side flashed by leaving motorists travelling at 120kph standing still in comparison. Impressive!

It is very hard to do justice to the beauty of the French country side when taking a photo at 200kph +.

At 4:36pm our train arrive at Gare de Lyon, some 40 minutes late despite the super fast speeds. It took 1hour and 15 minutes to get to a metro station near our apartment. It took a bit with some welcome help from some nice locals, to get a handle on the Metro but we got there. (We will get a Uber or a taxi to get to our station in a week’s time. The bags are too heavy with all the stairs.)

Our apartment is small but nice. 

After we settled into our flat, we decided to explore our street to find food. Very different feel to Barcelona, very busy but somehow layedback.  Very cosmopolitan.  Food was delicious at ‘La Pointe Drouot’.  Nice ‘Pub Grub’. Yes my first French meal was steak and chips. Needed protein after rice and whit bread. Cos ate a French dish grandly called Supreme de poulet. 

Our street is in the theatre district so full of life.