We’ve learned in any race that the first challenge is to make it to the start line; whilst this is not a race, we hadn’t appreciated that this would hold true in this adventure.
With both trains and flight back to London cancelled because of the General Strike in France, our first challenge was to get back to London and make it to the starting gate.
On Saturday we arrived in good time in Carmaux to catch the coach, replacing the striking trains, to Toulouse. Coming early turned out not to be necessary, but would definitely have been for passengers who were at the end of the queue in Albi who could not get on, but not so in Gaillac where the coach was full and no one could get on at all!
We walked from the coach through the centre of Toulouse, enjoying a coffee and tart before diving into the Metro heading for Blagnac airport, where we had booked a hotel to catch an early morning flight to Stansted.
Concerned that we might get stranded in Paris, and then miss our train to Turin, we went home via St. Pancras station and managed to exchange our Eurostar tickets for the following day for a voucher. Just as well, as later we received notice that our train from Paris to Turin had indeed been cancelled. Luckily we had a Plan B which involved flying to Turin instead, one day later.
This meant we recaptured one day’s preparation in London, which was fully utilised, before setting off on our journey a day later than planned.
We haven’t booked much of our travel after our planned arrival in Turkey, but we hadn’t anticipated the challenges we faced of independent train travel in Europe!
