The ferry docked at 0645 local time leaving me with over four hours to kill before the train from Caen to Paris. I had toyed with the idea of trying to catch the 0758, giving me a bit of time in Paris but I’m very glad that I didn’t because, unlike previous years (probably because there were so many of us) cyclists were last off and by the time I’d got through border patrol I wouldn’t have stood a hope in hell of making it. The morning was foggily wet and my glasses were soon covered in water. I could scarcely see Pegasus Bridge 50 metres from the excellent cycle track that joins Ouistreham to Caen but by the time I passed under the motorway Bridge over the Orne, nicely decorated with graffiti,

the sun had started to break through and by the time I reached the station it was a cloudless sky with the temperature rising fast.

I had a cup of coffee, most of which I managed to spill all over the floor, and a pain au raisin and then set about sorting out the indexing for the gears. It was a long slow process adjusting quarter turn by quarter turn, made even more difficult by the panniers which made mounting and dismounting difficult but I seem to have managed it. There may still be some tweaking to do tomorrow but I’ve got all day to cycle 68 not very taxing miles. I sat in the waiting hall, people watching until 1145 came round and I made my way down under the main station by way of lifts to Quai G where I boarded the non stop train to Paris. The rolling stock looks new, built by Canadian firm Bombardier and all the trains that I saw were double deckers. Bikes travel free and having hung it up by its front wheel I went upstairs and enjoyed the Norman countryside, heavily wooded and green as we made our way east. Once we reached the Seine the scenery deteriorated to industrial mishmash and rail yards, no different, I suppose, from any other conurbation,

We arrived at Paris St Lazare on time and I set off to find Gare Montparnasse, the departure station for Toulouse. I’d plumbed the route into both Garmin and phone

but was having trouble hearing the directions. I headed south towards the Seine, passing through heavy traffic in the Place de la Concorde where there was lots of tentage and stands for the Rugby World Cup

and stopping to take pics of the Champs Elysee

and the Seine as I crossed it, managing to neatly blot out the Eiffel Tower!

I went a bit off course towards the end but arrived in plenty of time to board the train, this time TGV non stop to Bordeaux and then on to Toulouse. Bike provision on TGV is poor despite having to pay 10 euros for the doubtful privilege. There is not enough luggage space so, although bikes take priority, baggage is piled around and on top of them

I feared for my derailleur but all was well and everything seemed OK as I rode to my hotel from the grand Matabiau station