Having made our way from London to La Rochelle via Paris, we had collected our hire car and driven a couple of hours south to Le Bassin d’Archachon (or Arcachon Bay) which is around 45-minutes from Bordeaux. With a base in the village of Le Teich for just over a week, we were well placed to explore the local towns as well as the wider region.
Having enjoyed just over 24 hours exploring the French capital, it was time to continue our journey to the coast and so we headed to Gare Montparnasse, Paris’ gateway to the Atlantic coast and South-West of France. We were going to be travelling onboard an SNCF TGV in 2nd class as we made the journey from Paris to the port town of La Rochelle.
Paris’ Metro network is wide reaching across the city and its suburbs with 16 lines spanning the city along with the five lines of the RER. During our stays in the French capital I was able to take a ride on 15 of the 16 lines (annoying I know!) and took the opportunity to explore some of the Oddities of the Paris Metro.
Arriving in Paris Gare du Nord onboard Eurostar, we had just over 24 hours in the French capital to explore and see the sites before we were due to catch a TGV to La Rochelle. However before we began exploring, we needed to make our way across the city to Montparnasse to drop our luggage at our hotel.
For our summer holiday this year we were heading down to the Atlantic coast of France, not far from Bordeaux. However, rather than head to Gatwick, Luton or Stansted and fly out to Bordeaux, we decided to let the train take the strain and so we started our holiday with a night in a London hotel and an early morning walk over to London St. Pancras International.
Its been a while since we did a ‘five places’ post, so I’ve decided that its time for another, with 5 Extra Places to visit. Whilst for the most part this post will be the same as others in being a bucket list, this one is a little bit different as it actually includes a place I’ve already visited.
Flights & Times 