Aiguilhe

We were up early and packed and ready to go before 9am. We had arranged to meet our host at 10.30am to hand over the key and then head to the Part Dieu train station to begin our journey south west to Le Puy en Velay.

The rain had started falling last night and it was still raining this morning. Even though the apartment was less than a kilometre from the station we elected to take the metro to ensure we stayed as dry as possible.

The trip to Part Dieu was uneventful and we were ahead of schedule, so organised supplies for the train trip and also purchased a couple of umbrellas, which have came in very handy in the afternoon.

Our trip finally appeared on the departure screen and we were allocated platform, so everyone made their way up and awaited the arrival of the train. Five minutes before the scheduled arrival time, an announcement advised that our train was now leaving from a different platform. So, everyone raced to the new platform and the train arrived very promptly. Finally, we were on our way to Le Puy en Velay!

We had a 40 minute journey to St-Étienne Châteaucreu where we then had to transfer to a smaller train for the remainder of the journey. As we got off the train I heard some Aussie’s talking about Le Puy en Velay and I told them where our next train was departing from. It turns out they were the rest of the tour group, so we met Carmel and Maria from Sydney a little earlier than expected.

We made it onto the new train and misread the signs, and settled in 1st Class. We then realised we actually had 2nd Class tickets, so moved to a different area. Our travelling companions, who followed us into the same area decided to stay put, even though they only had 2nd Class tickets. They made the right choice as, unlike us plebs in 2nd class, their tickets weren’t checked!

We travelled through some lovely French countryside on our way to Le Puy en Velay, for much of the way tracking along a steep gorge of the Loire river. The weather continued to be cloudy with rain showers. We walked to our hotel and checked in, then met up with Mary our tour leader and Jerome our bus driver.Read more