Hotel Regyn’s
Pl. des Abbesses, 75018 Paris
///shapes.guess.monk
48°53’4.7832″N, 2°20’17.0520″E

We were up a bit earlier this morning & off to a local cafe for a light breakfast before taking the subway to the Montparnasse train station for our trip to Angouleme.

About the only thing we didn’t ride the last few days was the carousel beside our hotel. Perhaps the next time we come to Paris….

We arrived at the train station well in advance of the scheduled departure time.

Montparnasse Train Station
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48°50’27.1176″N, 2°19’11.8452″E

This place is like an airport with many trains per day going in a variety of directions, lots of people & an amazing amount of amenities for travellers. This is the 4th busiest train station in France & reportedly handles about 56 million passengers a year!

We boarded our train at 12:00 noon for a 12:40 departure time.

There was a pretty big crowd boarding it but the process was quick and not much stress.

The train left the station right on time & before long we were speeding through the countryside. Occasionally we got a glimpse of cars travelling on a nearby freeway & the train zipped past them like they were parked!

I got out my phone & turned on my GPS car navigation system. Once it got connected to some satellites it started giving me all kinds of warning signals. They were so loud I had to turn the sound off on the phone because other passengers were starting to stare!

Apparently my GPS was VERY concerned that I was doing 296 kilometers per hour in an 80 km/h speed zone!

The train was so quiet & smooth that you would never think we were going that fast. I also suspect that the train may have exceeded 300 km/h at times because there were times when we could feel it accelerating even more. 

We arrived in Angouleme around 2:30. It is famous for its cartoon artists & for many murals on buildings throughout the city. The fellow in the picture below was installed on the roof of the train station. He kind of reminds me of the Fonze from Happy Days.

Google maps informed us that our hotel was only about 750 meters from the train station so we decided to walk there. Unfortunately Google forgot to tell us that the entire walk was uphill!

We eventually made it to the Hotel Mercure & were very pleasantly surprised at how nice it is. Our rooms are more than double the size of the rooms we had in Paris & everything is chic & modern inside a very old looking building on the outside.

Tomorrow we will explore Angouleme & also start gathering some provisions for our week on the boat.

Cheers!