Back to Europe--Montparnasse and Bayonne

 More than three years after our last trip to Europe, we were back again!  On the evening of Monday, September 5, 2022 (Labor Day) we flew out of MSP on Icelandair 656.  We arrived at Keflavik the next morning, and transitioned immediately through passport control into the Schengen part of the airport.  Our next passport control would be back here leaving Iceland three weeks later--Europe is wonderful!

Normally, we would worry about having less than an hour layover, but (especially as we found on our return flight), Icelandair has their trans-Atlantic procedure down to a science.  They have planes arriving from various North  American airports all about the same time, then, an hour or so later, planes take off for various European destinations.   The process is reversed for the other direction.  It is all done efficiently, quickly, with delays and other problems handled coolly and in stride.  So we had no problem making our flight to Paris.

Again, as we saw the last few times we traveled on Icelandair, they do not provide free meals.  The assumption, apparently, is that a mere six-hour flight isn't long enough for people to starve to death.

Normally, we don't check luggage, except for budget foreign airlines (such as EasyJet, Ryanair and, on this trip, Vueling) whose maximum carry-on size is smaller than the standard U.S. size, but Mary Joy's suitcase was over the 10 kg. carry-on weight limit, so we had to check it (already included in our airfare).  This would have snowballing effects on our future decisions.

At Charles De Gaulle Airport we arrived at Terminal 2B, picked up Mary Joy's bag, walked over to the train station, bought tickets from the machine, and took the RER B commuter train into town, getting off at the Denfert-Rochereau station in the Montparnasse neighborhood.

We walked 12 minutes, via the delightful Rue Daguerre--filled with restaurants, bars, groceries, etc.--to Hotel Mystral, where Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir lived during chunks of the 1930s and 1940s.  On the way, we picked up euros at a bank ATM (airport ATMs are now almost entirely run by Euronet, which charges higher fees).  As it turned out, we didn't spend all the cash we took out.  What has changed over the years is that credit cards are in use almost everywhere.  In all the restaurants and shops we went to, it was assumed that we would pay by credit card, and the staff seemed surprised when we produced cash instead.

Our room was small (normal for big-city hotels) but comfortable.  We went for a walk (about half an hour each way) to the Luxembourg Gardens, stopping in at the Notre-Dame-des-Champs church.  This, it turns out, was the home parish of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the great 19th-century organ builder, whom we would run into again later on this trip.

We had a reservation for dinner at Aux Enfants Gâtés, just off Rue Daguerre.  It was just ready to open at 7:30, and the waiter was outside, smoking, but he took us in hand and put on a real show (even offering to sign our menu!), talking Mary Joy into ordering ris de veau (veal sweetbreads--the thymus gland or pancreas of a calf--they were very well prepared, as was my more conventional dish, but she would have been better off having something else).

The next morning, Wednesday, September 7th, we had a nice breakfast at Les Frères Blavette bakery on Rue Daguerre, 

then we checked out and walked over to the Gare Montparnasse, where we went through airport-style security to get onto the 10:11 a.m. TGV high-speed train to Bayonne.  From the station there, we walked across the Adour and Nive rivers to our tour hotel, the Mercure Bayonne Centre - Le Grand Hôtel.

We checked in, ate a sandwich in a nearby park, the Jardin Leon-Bonnat

and got back to our room to take COVID tests (negative).  Rick Steves Europe required that people taking their tours (1) be fully vaccinated, including boosters, (2) have a negative test the day of the start of the tour and (3) wear N95 or KN95 facemasks on the bus.

Down in the bar, the tour leader, Francisco ("Fran") checked our vaccination cards and the photos of our negative test results, and we joined the group of 22 travelers for introduction (with wine and Bayonne's rightly famous chocolate) to the Rick Steves Basque Country of Spain and France in 9 Days tour.

We have liked all four of our Rick Steves tours (maybe not so much the one to Bulgaria in 2019), and the guides (including Fran) have been uniformly outstanding.

Afterwards, after an orientation walk, on which we were introduced to the red, green and white Basque flag and the question of Basque independence, we had our welcome dinner at Le Chistera, a Basque restaurant named after the wicker basket used to catch and throw the ball in the national sport of pelota, known in the U.S. as jai alai..