Wednesday Sept. 18, 2024
Today is a Travel Day
It’s a short walk (22 min) to the train station in Toulouse from our place, and it’s a “short” 100km ride, but it’s a “local” train and there are 6 stops, so it will take nearly two hours to get to Cahors.
From past experiences with trains in Europe, I decided to book 1st class, which comes with reserved seats. It was only 15€ more and this way we wouldn’t have rush to get seats to be able to sit together.
The scheduled departure time is 10:45 but we arrive early because, well, there’s not much one can do on a travel day except…travel.
Despite having made “significant” progress over the past 4 months in my French lessons on Duolingo AND advanced to level 2 in Pimsleur’s French, there is still some confusion when trying to decipher or translate train schedules. So, in my best French, I ask someone wearing an official looking railway uniform which platform the train to Cahors is on. He tells me it’s on track 1. Right! Straight forward enough.
We go to track one and, sure enough, the train to Cahors is there, but this adds to the confusion because I can’t find the 1st class car. Maybe there’s been some mistake?
We’re way early, but we board anyway, only to realize a few minutes later, when the conductor blows the whistle and the doors close, that we’re on the wrong train! Well, not exactly. Apparently, there are “local” trains that go through Cahors, that depart every 30min and there are “regional” trains that go to Cahors and depart every 2hrs. Local trains have more stops but because the train we’re on is a local train and departs much earlier, we arrive in Cahors about the same time we would have, had waited for 45 minutes sitting around the station for the “right” train, (and our 1st class reserved seats). Anyway…the conductor comes through, scans our tickets, and wishes us “bonne journey”.
We find the door to our apartment after closely following the complicated and confusing instructions to retrieve the key from the apartment next door.
After dropping off our packs we head out to explore and find a few essential gluten-free grocery items (and wine), to carry with us as a backup. The bread. The wine is for tonight.
As well as postcards and stamps to send to family and friends back home, since it is almost International Postcard Day.
Thursday, Sept 19
The next day…
Having done some advanced planning on the internet before leaving home, we discover that the Camino Store where we were going to buy hiking poles, also known as “walking sticks”, is permanently closed. But, there is an “Intersport” 3km north of town and it’s a beautiful day to do a warmup “trial hike” and buy the cheapest walking sticks they have because airlines don’t allow them in carry-on bags so we will end up “donating” them at the end of the hike in Condom. There’s also a little coffee shop at the mall where we can take a break “surplus” before the 3km back to town.
For the route back, we decide on a preview of tomorrow‘s hike to familiarise ourselves with the trail and markings.
The brass scallop shells are a symbol of the Camino.
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