Thursday 16th – Friday 17th, May Today was an early start. Having stayed in a hotel in London overnight, I was up at 05:00. With no breakfast available in the hotel at this ungodly hour, I walked to St Pancras International railway station for a quick coffee before meeting and greeting the tourees between 05:55 and 06:55. All the tourees made the meet and greet on time. As I met each of them I handed over their Eurostar tickets and explained the security and border control procedures. Although we were booked on the 07:55 train, unfortunately it did not leave until 09:05. We arrived in Paris 1h15m late and were expecting our transfer coach to be waiting outside at the side of Paris Gare du Nord. Unfortunately, for various reasons our coach was absent. After waiting, and a few telephone calls, it was all down to Tour Manager’s plan B. All 25 tourees were bundled into taxis and a mad dash across Paris ensued. We arrived at Paris Austerlitz with only time for a quick pit stop before joining our train with two minutes to spare. It was a good job the RailDiscoveries planners had factored in a three hour transfer time, otherwise we would have missed our connection. A pleasant five hour train journey followed. We were met at our destination station of Souillac by our coach and transferred to our hotel. Dinner was at 20:30 followed by my welcome speech. Friday morning was a free morning, this allowed […]