Breakfast was at 8am so we had a short sleep in after some late night Bastille Day fireworks which were very loud but not seen as we were trying to sleep.
We left at 10am in the vans for Amiens to catch the train to Paris Nord. We had allocated seat numbers on the train but in what seems to be the typical French fashion, it was a free for all with first in, best dressed, got a random seat which of course had a ripple effect through the whole train. With most of the support staff driving the vans to the next stage, team leader was delegated to the video man.
Arriving at Paris Nord, we took the Metro to Paris Gare Lyon which is a huge railway station with multiple halls and lines. The site is probably considerably bigger than Hawkes Bay Airport. We wandered to a restaurant at the station for lunch and were largely ignored by the waiting staff until we ordered large and then they were all over us.
We caught the TGV to Geneva which travelled at speeds of up to around 300km/h. On the way, we passed cereal crops which turned to mountains and a viaduct running along the side of it.
On arrival, no taxi was very keen to take us to the hotel so we wandered around town and settled in an Indian restaurant for dinner. The food was good and service reasonable as France won the soccer world cup.
We had to run some distance through rain to find the vans which had by that time arrived. It was about 9:15pm by the time we reached the hotel which was a Best Western in the French part of Geneva.
Tomorrow we ride into the mountains!
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