Adventures in France - Journey to Paris and first morning

Saturday morning saw us both up bright and early for our journey to Paris.  We actually did not need to have been up quite so early as we found we could get a slightly shorter journey for less Euro than if we'd got the earlier train.   Two minutes past the time the train was to have left the station it had not arrived so I went to the ticket office to ask if the train was delayed, as we had a connection to make.  I was told we had to get on the bus which was in front of the station.  You should have seen us move!  Fortunately we got on the coach and made the connection.

This was the very fast TGV train to Paris.  I said we should sit upstairs on the train so we could see more of the countryside.  We found a couple of seats and got comfortable for the four-hour journey with speeds of up to 300 kph.   At the next stop we were told that we were sitting in someone's seat.  It seems we were in First Class and we were unaware we had seat numbers booked for us in Second Class.  So we had to go back downstairs and find the correct carriage and seat numbers.  The rest of the journey was uneventful, but we arrived at Montparnasse Station in rush hour.  Very scary being in such a large crowd which was channelled into a narrow ticket checkpoint.  We found the Metro without any problem, but getting the correct ticket was a bit of a trial.  The chap who served us only heard part of our request and sold us the wrong ticket.  We were fortunate that in the next queue we had a young lady behind us who spoke excellent English and translated our problem and we had our ticket exchanged.  We found our hotel fairly easily and went out to eat and then an early night as we had two places to visit the next day.

Up early again we went out to have some breakfast at a restaurant nearby - this was in more pleasant surroundings than the breakfast room in the hotel - and cheaper.   Then off to negotiate the Metro and find the Picasso Museum.

I am not a fan of Picasso, but it was interesting to see how his style changed over the years.   We weren't supposed to take photographs inside, but lots were, so here are a few that I did quite like.  I wish I'd taken a photograph of the ceiling over the large staircase - it was beautiful.

This one was called "The Farmer"

I think this was "Woman with hand on her faced"

This one was- I think 'Owl inside'

Not sure of the name of this one - but an early still life. Jug with pears?