Goal in concrete, plans in sand

My plan had always been to get the couchette last night and start walking this morning, but I bumped into a friend, Lucia, at Gare du Nord and ending up having a lovely dinner with her and her aunt. Instead of getting the train, I ended up admiring the Eiffel Tour from the Trocadero as it flashed its 1am lights, then partying into the the early hours with an American Airline crew!

Things weren’t much better this morning: I went to Austerlitz to get the 10:05, only to discover that Austerlitz is only used for couchettes, and I had to go to Montparnasse. Luckily my attempt to get the 12:05 went much more smoothly, and I had at least 90 seconds to spare as I leapt on.

I eventually reached Hendaye at 18:30, and by the time I’d got to the beach and taken the required photos it was 19:30. Two hours later I found a slightly dubious place to pitch the tent and rustled up some very simple pasta as it began raining.

So far so good - the cow bells are still as annoying as 14 years ago and the bag feels very heavy on the climbs, but at least I’m underway!

The plan may have had to flex a bit but the goal remains the same - all being well I can make up time when I have a couple of shorter days later this week.