We'll always have Paris

Of course to get to Spain by train one has to get off of the Eurostar and change to a TGV. In Paris this meant getting the Metro to Gare Austerlitz.

I find that generally it takes me a day to remember whatever I know of the local language in order to be able to put it into use. This trip of course means that the 1 day delay is of little use as I'm moving from one language to another, then to another, then back to the second one (but with a North African accent). Explaining to the sous-chef de gare that I needed him to print my ticket as their machines were not accepting my code was fine. However, small talk with my fellow travellers once on the TGV was rubbish.

It almost didn't occur to me that I could pop out from Austerlitz to soak up some non-railway station Paris. The station is next to the Seine and the Eiffel tower was visible from the bridge - I like to think that the next bridge was the pont neuf from "Les amants de pont neuf" but no waterskiers were in the river so maybe not (it's from the film, you know)