Day 16 San Sebastian and Paris

Day 16 - San Sebastian and TGV trip to Paris
The day started overcast with occasional bursts of sunshine. We packed up and decided to once again visit the inlet of San Sebastian hoping that we may have missed most of the traffic .... It had improved but was still fast. We did find it but with no sunshine it didn't look appealing to go for another walk, so decided to get back on the auto-route and head towards Biarritz and Bayonne. At the toll-booth the Spanish police were checking cars but we weren't stopped. By the time we reached Bayonne it was raining. Snapped a few photos through the window of what was once a pretty French fishing village but is now a major shipping port with motels and restaurants from Bayonne to Biarritz. With overcast conditions not making it easy to sight-see and no easy parking, we decided to drop the luggage off at the railway station and return the car early. When we arrived at the station we realized that our Travel Agent had booked us on the train on the wrong day. A very helpful French ticket officer cancelled our ticket and rebooked for the correct date. We had originally booked on 2nd class and were told that we couldn't catch the TGV from Biarritz but had to travel by a normal train to Bordeaux and then change. She was able to book us on a TGV the entire route but as there were no available 2nd class seats we had to pay extra and were upgraded to 1st Class. We didn't mind ..... just relieved to be on the train.
Left Biarritz at 1.03pm, the train stops at the station for about 3 minutes (this is what you are told) and you have to be lined up in the correct spot on the platform for your coach ready to board. We shared the Coach with about 3 other people to Bordeaux and then it was full. The countryside was very green and pretty with fields of yellow (a flowering crop of something) interspersed with brown. Then you would see a village and Church tower and occasionally a chateau on a hill. We noticed that they only fenced paddocks where animals were farmed but the crops had no fences. Saw a number of wind turbines when we got nearer to Paris. Arrived in Paris about 6.55 pm (20 minutes late) at the Montparnasse Station. It was a very relaxing trip and good way to break-up our travels. The gentleman sitting next to me explained that the train had had to slow down passing through a number of towns for safety reasons .... we thought this was reasonable.
Our accommodation had changed from our original booking and our apartment had been upgraded to another apartment in Montparnasse. So instead of having to catch the Metro to get to another station, we only had to walk 3 streets and we were at our Rue d'Odessa apartment. We are staying in a great apartment. Plenty of space, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a washer and dryer (travel heaven). Montparnasse is very popular for restaurants and cafes, and also seems to have a number of theaters. The Metro is at the end of the street and it still has shops like boulangeries (bakeries that make the best baguettes and cakes) and supermarkets where we have been able to buy food to cook. We did dine at the Odessa Cafe on our first night in Paris. The waiter was very pleased that Richard was trying to speak in French and was very interested to hear that we were from the 'new country'. We all obligingly tried to use French words but not Tom who in his broadest Australian accent thanked him for his drink .... the waiter thought was hilarious. We have escaped the rain for the moment but more rain is predicted so we have planned to do a lot of walking tomorrow.
Au revoir from Paris.