Paris to Biarritz

Yesterday, after check-in and several hours of recuperating downtime in our pricy (262 €} but adequate room, we ventured out on a reconnaissance walk. To avoid any miscues for todays TGV ride, we visited the Montparnasse Gare (train station) located just across the street from our hotel. Our objective was to verify our online, pre purchased tickets, get familiar with the area for boarding the train and becoming familiar with the protocol for boarding.

After a brief bit of wandering about, we happened upon three young, motivated and multilingual Parisians with blue vests labeled “accueil” (welcoming). They cheerfully and effectively guided us thru the process and answered all our questions.

On our way back to the hotel we bought quiches for an in-room dinner and selected some enticing items for dessert/snacks. The breakfast and sandwich offerings also looked appealing for purchasing this morning on our short walk to the gare.

All trains at Montparnasse were booked today! So if you didn’t book online in advance, as we did in April, you are out of luck. The heavy crowd was apparent as we boarded at 9:40 for our 10:08 train.

In operation since 1981, the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) is the French version of a high speed train.

Soon after leaving the outskirts of Paris, the sleek looking train picked up speed and hovered around 303 km/hr (188 mph) for most of the next 4 hours.

In almost three decades of high-speed operation, the TGV has not recorded a single passenger fatality due to accidents while running at high speed on normal passenger service. There have been several accidents, including four derailments at or above 270 km/h (168 mph), but in only one of these—a test run on a new line—did carriages overturn. This is credited in part to the stiffness that the articulated design lends to the train.

Bayonne is 480 miles from Paris by automobile taking at least 7 1/2 hours to drive. The cost for the TGV ticket for the 4 hour ride today was 186€ or $200 at the current exchange rate. The ride was relaxing and comfortable, similar to first class seating on commercial jets. A typical flight (economy), one way from Paris to Bayonne (Biarritz) is around $500 for the 1 1/2 hour flight… plus the requirement to check-in at the airport 2 hours prior to boarding, plus transport time and cost from the airport to downtown Bayonne.

We arrived at the Bayonne gare on schedule, and called a Uber driver (using the same app we use at home) to take us the final 7 miles to our hotel in Biarritz… home until Monday morning. Our driver also agreed to take us back to the Bayonne gare on Monday. We planned this extra day on the front end of Camino 2023 to help overcome our jet lag before beginning to walk over the Pyrenees.

We self-checked ourselves into our reserved room per the hotel manager’s instructions, emailed to us several days ago. We spent the afternoon cleaning our selves and travel clothes and resting, to allow our travel weary bodies to heal while continuing the transition to the European time zone.