Big day. We had to catch the train to Brest (or at least the first leg) at 8:30am, which meant we needed to be up and out by 7am to walk up to the metro station and get to Gare Toulouse-Matabiau at a reasonable time.
I worried about the timings and eventually pre booked a taxi for 7:30am, just to be comfortable. We decided we could set the alarm for 6:30, instead of 6am. It’s dark here until 7:30am now as we head deeper into autumn.
Anyway, I mucked up and set the alarm for 6am anyway. Which was probably just as well as the taxi showed up at 7am. We were at the railway station at 7:15am! No worries about missing the train then.
We gently rocked our way in first class comfort back to Paris, then caught another outbound train for Nantes. An hour in Nantes then our connection to Brest. The Nantes-Brest train is a bit more proletarian, with no first class and no assigned seats. It was a bit if a scrum to get onto the train and get seats but that eventually turned out okay and we slummed our way to Brest, rocking in after dark at 8:30pm.
We found our accommodation and then checked out where the nearest cafe and supermarkets were. After a charmed run thus far we have lucked out, they’re nowhere near us, and it’s uphill back to town. And everything shuts at 9pm, so options were limited.
We did find a restaurant still open about 9:30pm and had a good meal. Brest is not a tourist hub. I suspect that there won’t be cafes every 10 metres in the town centre. Damn.
And that was Saturday.
Stephen and Michelle
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