On to France

 June 21 Monday

A warm solstice to all. We’re really enjoying the long days! Especially today when it was 10 pm when we finally got to our new Airbnb and it was still light for us to find our way in.

Today is a travel day to transition to Fontainbleau, France. There is an impending train strike in London so many people have moved their travel plans up a few days. That is making it hard for us to get a train to Paris.  Nick is able to find some tickets that are reasonable price and schedule-wise. There is a change in Brussels that also includes a train station change. But the stations are across the street from each other so it shouldn’t be too bad. We need to be at the station at 1 for our 3:00 train because we have to go through immigration. That darn Brexit…. 

We need to check out of our Airbnb by 11 so plan on leaving at 11:00 haul our stuff through the tube with a change, get to the train station and have some lunch. That part was really quite smooth. Customs and security really wasn’t bad either, just very crowded. The train ride was just over an hour. A little bit of scenery then most of it pitch black while we’re in the Chunnel and the pop back out into the sunlight for the last 15 minutes. It is all really green and really flat. 

We see signs for the other train station which they say is a 7 minute walk. I was a bit concerned that their 7 minute walk might be more like 20 for me pulling my luggage. But,it was pretty accurate. Found our next train and we’re on our way again. The train is quite comfortable and there is an area to store your bags right when you get on. 

Sculpture at the train station in Brussels

The next leg is when it started getting hairy. The train came into Gar de Nor. The train to Fountainbleau leaves from the Gar de Leon. How to transfer stations? How to get tickets to transfer stations? It takes finding 2 people who actually know something who also speak English and standing in a slow line for about 30 minutes. Ah, tickets in hand and instructions. We find the line to get us to the Gar de Leon and make that leg just fine. We have the ticket for the final leg and are told it is line “R”. We follow signs to line “R” but then the signs stop and there isn’t any indication of where or what to do next.  We ask several people and realize that we’re going in circles. As we’re standing there wondering what to do now, we see a ticker tape sign that has Fountainbleau Avon listed for that track! Yeah! Forty minutes and we’ll be in Fountainbleau. How to get from the train station to our Airbnb? The host suggests we take a bus but we feel that we’ve earned an Uber ride. We end up walking about 4 blocks before we get to a place where he finds us.  We give him the address and show him a picture of the outside. He stops and what we see matches the picture.  After a little looking we find the key box, the combination works to get the key. Up a small spiral staircase and we’re at our new nest for the next 4 nights. 

Just as we start really understanding how to get around in an area, we move on. It’s all about the journey and we had one today.