Jo-Lynne Sutherland

Unfortunately, departure day has arrived.

We managed to book a direct 6 hour TGV train from Girona to Gard de Lyon in Paris. Then, we needed to take the RER train to CDG airport. All in all it worked out quite well.

There are 2 train stations in Girona, side by side. The local Spanish trains are in a typical old building. Just next to it is an ultra modern station for the Spanish high speed trains called AVE, plus other trains like the French TGV - which is what we took.

We’d booked seats, the train was on time, so all was A-OK. I’d downloaded a good book and was looking forward to reading it the whole way there. As luck would have it, a sweet, vivacious, young American girl sat across from us, so for the first 2 hours we learned all about her life. Must say she reminded me a lot of our girls - positive, adventurous & high energy.

Arriving in Gare de Lyon, the next challenge was finding the RER train to the airport. The French underground system is massive - quite the challenge.

Our glitch here was, we bought tickets to get through the turnstile and onto the train, but they didn’t work. Fortunately, an attendant let us through. The problem, thought, was those tickets wouldn’t let us out of the train station when we arrived at the airport.

OK what now. A young couple went through before us, so we quickly slipped in behind them - not easy with luggage, but we did it.

The shuttle to the Jangle Hotel arrived quite quickly. We weren’t sure what to expect, so were pleasantly surprised.

The decor was modern & funky, the rooms were spacious, but the big plus was access to Plaine Oxygène - a huge rec centre a 2 minute walk away. Unfortunately, we didn’t scout this out until the next day. Wish we’d stayed an extra day to enjoy it.

The flight the next day was uneventful, which is what we wanted.

Reflecting a bit on the past month - it was great. The weather wasn’t as warm as we thought - should have brought my puffy jacket. Plus, I’d packed terribly - the worst ever. I use packing bags - 3 in total - underwear, tops & bottoms. When opened my suitcase in Bordeaux I saw 4 bags - one full of nothing but more packing bags. YIKES. - it took up 1/3 of my suitcase.

Next mistake - I’d bought new Sketcher runners - light, washable, everything I wanted, but the design of the soles was with lots of holes, so with every step I took there was a HUGE squeak. I felt like a toddler squeaking away - all that was missing was the flashing lights on my heals. Needless to say, Peter & I were delighted when I could finally ditch them.

Bottom line - Bordeaux is well worth a visit. It’s like a mini Paris with impressive monuments everywhere, and bike / walking streets leading into them. It’s designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle - 42 K of connected walkways, parks, workout stations, basketball courts, skateboard parks, even a beach volleyball area.

Girona is charming - a small walled city stepped in history, but also a biker’s heaven. The narrow cobblestone streets in the old area, where we were, mean almost no cars, but across the 6 bridges there’s a modern city with it’s own charm.

Our train excursions to St Émilion & Arcachon from Bordeaux, and Barcelona from Girona were well worth it. Our 52 K bike ride to Sant Feliu de Quixois was memorable.

So ends our Bordeaux, Girona 2024 adventure 😊Läs mer