Getting from Paris to St. Jean PieD de Port
This stage of the journey was the one that stressed me out the most, because it involved making several connections, whereas the rest of the trip all one had to do was get up, eat, walk and sleep.
We flew in to Charles de Gaul airport, and waited in stifling heat for about 3 hours, maybe 4, in a crowd of maybe 500 people to have someone look at our passport. I would never do that again. I'd fly into Barcelona or another airport in France. From CDG, we got a taxi to our pre booked apartment in Paris. The apartment was nice, and cost 157 E for the two of us. The taxi guy charged us 90 E for a 50 E ride, but we didn't know the difference at that time. We had a cheeseburger for dinner, and it was pretty good.
The next day we caught a taxi from our apartment to the bus station, to catch a bus to Bayonne. At the bus station we found automated ticket machines, and Laura figured out how to get our train tickets, which cost 102 E for two tickets to Bayonne. First you find a selection for "English", then select the destination, and pay by credit card. The machine spits out the tickets, then you have to find the correct train, if it is in yet.
At Bayonne we detrained, and joined about 30 others pilgrims (people with backpacks) at the small rural train station. A bus arrived in pouring rain, and we got on the bus to St. Jean Pier de Port. (SJPDP). I don't remember the cost but it wasn't much, and I was relieved that we had made the connections. It dumped us off at the SJPDP bus stop, which is near downtown. Laura had booked us a room, and we learned how important it was to get rooms as close to the Camino as possible. We had to take a taxi to the hotel in a nearby town (Banca, 50 E) and back again the next day (20 E). We stayed at Hotel Errequina Banco, 148 E for the two of us, plus dinner and breakfast.
