My flight to Paris from Chicago was about 9 hours on United Airlines. I tried to sleep through most of it, but also watched Crazy Rich Asians during the flight. The airplane meal was chicken and rice.
I landed in Paris and navigated through customs and to the train that takes you to public transport. I originally had planned on going straight to the Paris train station but I had time to take a quick pit stop and see the Eiffel Tower. I took the metro to Denfert-Rochereau and then transferred over to another line and walked around the Eiffel Tower and the Seine for a bit before heading back to the train station.
The train station was huge and it took a while to walk to where I wanted to go. I paid €1 to go to the bathroom, bought a Greek chicken wrap from Pret for lunch to eat on the train, then I boarded the train.
The first train ride was about 4 hours long. I got a window seat and listened to some podcasts, took a nap, and cleaned out my camera roll. Once I got to Bayonne, I walked around the city for a bit since I had 2.5 hours before my connecting train. I walked across the bridge from “petite Bayonne” into the main city center and explored. It’s a very cute, decently sized city which I wasn’t expecting. I went back to the train station area, got a pastry, and then called Tovin for a bit.
Finally, it was 6:30pm and time to get on the transfer bus. I listened to a podcast and was in and out of sleep during the hour train ride but I finally arrived in Saint Jean Pied de Port!
I got to the hostel and everyone else was already there and having a big group get to know you. They were having discussions about what a Camino is and why each of us is choosing to do it and things like that. We had an all vegetarian dinner (pea and potato soup, quinoa, salad, carrot salad, rice and veggies, homemade hummus). We also had wine and tiramisu for dessert.
After dinner, I showered and got ready for the night. I’m sleeping in a 3 bed room but there’s only 2 of us in there so plenty of room (myself and an elderly woman).
