It was pitch black at 6:30am when I left my hotel to walk across the street to Gare Montparnasse. I found my gate, when the time was posted for the train to Bayonne accept that I got on the wrong train. Actually it wasn’t really the wrong train. It was the wrong half of the train. I was in the first half of the train which was staying in Bordeaux. I had to be in the second half of the train which was continuing on to Bayonne. I knew by the panic in conductor’s face as he told me to get out of this coach in Bordeaux and run down to coach #15 of the train behind very quickly that this was serious. I now know that I can run when I have too. I made it…..just!
This happened because I rarely read anything carefully. I tend to go with a few basic details and expect that the world will fill in the rest. Lesson learned. I am now by the grace of God and several French conductors at a hostel in St Jean Pied de Port. More on this in my next post.