If I had booked my hotel at least the night before I could have organised myself better. I didn’t book my hotel until the afternon before arriving to Perron. My first choich was well located to continue the next day, but FULL. By the time I found a second hotel that had also gone. In the end I had to take a hotel in the suburb at the wrong -west- end of Perron. This resulted in much more walking than I had expected. I was knackered after about 29km walking. The sun was wery strong. Too late before I left London, I discovered that my polaroid clip-ons were damaged and I suffered the penalty, my eyes were hurting. I consequently needed to buy new ones before I could continue.

I was off-course by many km, so just to get clip-ons and walk back on track would take hours and I would be -out-of-sync with my accommodations ahead, which I early on had to reduce to about 20-25km max. So all accommodation had to be researched anew.

In Reims a couple of friends were going to meet me and stay the night. I would meet them after a short rail journey from Tergnie. Unfortunately one came down with high fever, so no fun at the end.

In the end the negatives outweighed the positives, so I decided to return to London.

I had done some basic internet research the evening before, so left early for a breakfast in town.

I used the Deutsche Bahn’s and Rome2Rio apps and had all buss and train times to take me to Chaulnes SNCF, the closest railway station and from there to Amien and the choice of three different connection points to Eurostar and London. The first bus leaving 12.28 for Chaulnes SNCF, bags of time, BUT for my life I could not figure out where the bus stop Perron Chapelet was located.

I took a taxi, who dropped me off at the wrong place le Chapelet, a girls school, so 1.5km walk back into town. By now it was noon. Luckily a young school girl waited at a bus stop and was sure it was the right stop for Chaulnes. The fourth bus was the right one. I asked all the previous drivers, better safe than sorry.

We arrived at the Chaulnes station. What? No trains! The time table was correct, but it turned out that the rails were being replaced and 5 hourly trains replaced by one bus in three hours time. The driver contacted the station master, they came up with the suggestion that I should continue with the same bus to Mondidier, where I could take another bus 18:30 to Amien.

On to the bus again and getting off at Mondidier. The bus driver told me they are famous for their potatoes. The friendly bus driver drove off. I waited at the staion bar. Three hours to kill. I calculated what would it cost me to stay overnight in Amien. Perhaps 80euros all in. A taxi could be 95Euros. I mentioned to the bar owner, that if someone could drive me to Amiens SNCF station I’d pay 80euros cash. He talked to an off-duty bus driver at the bar. Oui why not ? About 40 minutes drive to Amien.

During the drive it turned out the off duty driver was a local boy, who had worked 10 years at Euro Disney, but in the end it got boring, so he started driving busses.

Amien SNCF ticket desk, Discussion back and forth, then we decided the safest option was to take the train to Paris Gare du Nord. “You buy the ticket there, if there are seats it is OK”.

Boarded the train at platform 1. I happened to have my GPS on during the journey. The TGV reached 156km/h and Yes, that is Sacre Coer in the distance

So dear folks, now on the 21.00 Eurostar to London St. Pancras at a cost of 236 euros, gulp! The speed is 298km/h.

As the Germans say: “Wer eine Reise tut can etwas erzählen” The one who travels can tell you something.

Planning saves money. You can also solve problems by throwing money at them.