Today we left the hotel at 9:30 am to travel to the Cannes train station. We put our bags on one area, appointed one member to watch them and then went looking for food. We found some excellent patisseries, a farmers market in the old area of Cannes, an epicerie and a coffee shop. All of these contributed something to our food selection for the day.

The train pulled out of Cannes at 11:30am bound for Paris. There were only three stops, the final one being at Avignon, on the way to Paris. The train travelled at speeds exceeding 300km/h. There was a carriage with a cafe and stand up bar area for passengers to buy food and stand eating the food and watching the countryside pass by at high speed. My mind did wonder what exactly would happen if we hit a cow at that speed, but no matter which way you looked at it, if the train stopped suddenly there would be a lot of baguettes, coffee and people travelling towards the front of the carriage at high speed. One day it will happen. Hopefully not today (I am writing this watching the internal tv screen telling us we are travelling at 301km/h.)

We said goodbye to our tour guide, Tiziana, this morning at the Cannes railway station. She is leaving the tour earlier than expected because her mother is not well in the Milan hospital have just had heart surgery and not recovering well. We will be met in Paris by a guide named Victoria who will ensure our transfer from the train station to our Paris hotel is smooth.

The train is a relaxing and scenic way to travel across France. It is not much slower than catching the plane when waiting, boarding and transfer times are taken into consideration. The train travels from the centre of Cannes to the centre of Paris in 5.5 hours. The plane would not be quicker when taking transfers into account and the scenery from the train looks beautiful. When we pass another train going in the other direction at a similar speed, it feels like a sledgehammer is belting our train sideways and the other train passes in less than a second. The variety of countryside that can be viewed over the five hours of the trip is amazing and it is interesting enough to prevent most people from snoozing.

We arrived in Paris at about 6:00 pm and a guide met us to transfer us by bus to our hotel near Eglise de Pantin. The hotel is in an area out of the centre of Paris, but immediately behind a metro station which made it convenient to get into town. Many of the group went into the city of Paris in the evening but Priscilla and I took the opportunity to find a laundrette to get some washing done. We also found some fresh baguettes for dinner.