Saturday 20th May. LATER: The train trip started well. Got to Waterloo around 6:15 after a short taxi-ride. Eurostar trains are similar to certain types of mainline UK trains - except they travel faster - so no great surprises and just a standard level of comfort. (Note: The famous Channel Tunnel is really only a tunnel like any other, albeit longer. Twenty minutes of darkness. I guess the fact that it’s only twenty minutes of darkness to travel from the UK to France is reasonably impressive).
That part went well. However on arriving at Gare du Nord in Paris (without about 1hr 20 minutes to make the trip to Montparnasse to make the Biarritz train) things started to get less so. I’d been told that the trip from GdN to Mont was a relatively easy 20-25 mins. That might be true if queues for tickets went at a reasonable pace and weren’t stymied by argumentative people blocking lines for 20 minutes. Finally got ticket and the train shuttled off and made good time. However Montparnasse is like a maze and - dragging a heavy bag and backpack along corridors, up and down stairs, along non-moving walkways etc - took a good 20 minutes in itself. The Biarritz train was set at the farthest end of the platform an so I literally made it with about 2 minutes to spare. Hot, sweaty and with my favourite sunglasses lost beneath the train’s wheels as I boarded. Settled in for train journey with Pims (French Jaffa cakes, YUM), Sprite, Michael Connelly’s The Black Ice the only Harry Bosch book I hadn’t read to date) and with texts from Kerry that she and her cousin Ellen were making good time to meet me at Biarritz around 5:25pm. Seat was nice if not angled for a very good view of the countryside outside but stereotypically beautiful French girl to look at (50% gawky 50% model - think Beatrice Dalle’s younger sister)… the trip was on course again.
Picked up by Ellen and Kerry and we first visited the townhouse/villa the ‘older folks’ were renting and got better directions to the chateau (where we were staying) ‘Turn right at the paintball sign, follow the road and then turn into a barely visible gate that leads to the driveway out of Jurassic Park…’. After several roundabout detours and cries of ‘I meant the OTHER right!’, we made it to the chateau around 7:00pm-ish. The sun didn’t set for a while and further introductions were made.
Apparently several people were on my train, but because we’d never met and despite efforts beforehand, we weren’t able to co-ordinate meeting up en route, hence there’s a good chance that in true ‘Lost’ style, we briefly crossed paths without realising it before being formally introduced. Several people will arrive later, but the main cast assembled by early evening: Kit, Ariel, Laura, Holly, their friends Alex (the best man), Shaleah and Laura (bridesmaids), Tina (Kit's sister), Steve (Tina‘s husband), Michael (Ariel’s dad), Charles (Ariel’s brother), Sarah (Ariel's nine-going-on-thirty year old sister) and us. Dawson - the friend who will marry Kit and Ariel - will arrive in a few days for a whirlwind visit and another friend Eric soon after. Pix to follow.
