Returning from Dax

We had breakfast at home today, the went to Orthez for coffee; checked out a local clothing outlet where some very good clothes can be bought quite inexpensively for France. Then we had lunch in a very chic cafeteria at E. Lecerc - a large hypermarchet. All such cafeterias could learn something from this one - the food and atmosphere were so good.

While in Orthez Andrea had helped me change my train ticket after we thought it might be a good idea to visit Dax or Pau, and board the TGV from there. Dax won the day. It was also nice to get back into Paris earlier because the Métro stops running at 12.30am and the later TGV into Montparnasse wouldn't have left me much time to get back to Porte de Vincennes.

It was lovely to see Andrea and Kevin again - they are such good friends and great hosts, always so generous in sharing their local knowledge and experiences of a "maison secondaire" in France.

A word or two about the TGV, if I may. 30 minutes before arriving back in Paris, I made a note to never again get the seats in the middle of the car - your knees thouch those of the person facing you and there's no room to stretch at all. Also, as fabulous as the TGV are, perhaps SNCF needs to look at a couple of details: on outward and inward bound trains, no water remained in les toilettes for the washing of hands, and I noticed on the train back to Paris today, that the person before me had discovered there wasn't even any for flushing! Perhaps it is all a sign of overcrowding, which was further evident all the way from Dax when a man carrying walking poles and a pack who also got on at Dax sat directly behind me. He'd not availed himself of the great French tradition of cologne - nor water it seemed - for several days: the stench for 5 hours was such an unwelcome contrast in an otherwise fragrant country. So, SNCF - look please to les toilettes, and perhaps a bit more space for comfort when the TGV cars get a refit!