After a coffee at Le Peloton, it was off to the Pinault Collection, Bourse museum. This is a restored modern art museum. Big national strike today, the march route is fortunately not near here but most transit is disrupted, so staying fairly close. Museum membership allowed me to skip the line, and the main exhibit was a pool with floating bowls that knock into each other making a very zen bell like sound. After that a walk over to Rue de Monotorgueil for lunch and then a walk up the upper Marais. Attempting to find some shoes, but my size is not readily available and when they do have it they are too narrow. Dinner at Breizh, a well known crepe place, but really not great.

Met up for coffee this morning with John R. And Harlan before heading to the Musee Guimet. Musee Guimet This is a museum with a large collection of Asian artifacts. Also featuring a photographer who had a lot of Asian material, and, as it turned out now lives in Seattle. After a few hours in the museum we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then headed over to Trocadero, just a few blocks, for the Iconic Eiffel Tower picture. Back to apartment for some downtime and then local cafe for low key dinner. Big strikes scheduled for the 18th, luckily metro line 1 near me is Automated so will run normally.

Spent some time catching up with admin things this morning. Then met new friends from Port Townsend for a coffee and a walk around. Stop at BHV for new squeegee, film a quick video on how to properly install shower drain. Then to Melt for lunch. Finally found an excellent Gluten Free pizza nearby at Quadrofoglio, just past the Bastille. Made for an excellent dinner, if overly filling, early night!

We spent the morning cleaning and organizing to leave things in good condition. Then load up one of the cars and it was off to Utah Beach. Some rather intense wind, which I’m told is just the norm for the area. We parked a ways from the tourist part and walked down the beach to the museum. Turned out to be an excellent museum, even had a B26 inside! Then lunch at the associated cafe, which was surprisingly good and then to the train station at Lison for the ride back to Paris, about 2.5 hours. Luckily this train was not crowded and it was a smooth on time ride back. Then a quick regroup before heading to the cheese and wine shop and then to dinner at John R. On Ile St. Louis. A most excellent poulet Moutard that John made!

After breakfast and a long neighborhood walk, we had a good lunch nosh and then headed out to the agricultural fair. This ended up being a huge thing with massive tractors and farming equipment, live poultry for sale, food booths, horse demonstrations etc. We probably didn’t even get to a quarter of it. Watching a lady have horses dance for performance was really cool. Then it was off to a very windy beach for another walk and back to the chateau for a bite before Léopoldine’s friends went to the train station.

Started today with a metro ride to Gare St Lazare, then 2 hour train ride to Carentan. Joan was on the same train, and picked up by Léopoldine and her friends at the station. We immediately headed to Chez Roget for lunch which turned out to be a lovely old house converted into a great restaurant. The menu was a number of delicious courses and a bottle of champagne was consumed. Then it was off to town for a coffee and a walk, a stop at the war memorial and then the family Chateau. Wow!! The place is huge and bit of a maze. We got the tour and settled in, walked around grounds, dodged the watch Geese, who are quite aggressive. Then a long nosh on dinner. Leo had bought 6 dozen oysters! Big fireplace in the kitchen dining room. Much fun!

A lovely fall day in Paris today. Handyman due at 10:00am for some more plastering. Went over to storage space to get my bag, then coffee at Peloton, then picked up some drain cleaning fluid and met Joshua, the handyman. He is a Kiwi. Put up a couple more layers of plaster and then went out for paint. I put drain cleaner down the kitchen drain for 30 minutes and did get major improvement. Lunch at Brigade du Tigre with Joan from Seattle. Back to apartment. Dinner at Avant Comptoir du Terre and then a glass at La Lutetia on Ile St. Louis where I met Harlan from Port Townsend. Did shower drain with cleaner and sink again. Fumes not nice but it did seem to work! Train to Normandy early AM from Gare St. Lazare.

After breakfast at my favorite coffee place in San Sebastián, Simona Coffee Club, it was back to the Pension, then bus to Euskotren station and then about 30 minute ride to Hendaye just over the border in France. A quick lunch at the cafe there and then train to Montparnasse, about 4.5 hours. Had an upper deck first class seat and for most of the ride it was not crowded. Arrived Montparnasse only about 4 minutes late, which considering the turmoil of yesterday was great. Bus 96 to apartment, and then some settling in before heading over to St. Germain for dinner. Apartment has some painting and repairs in process and I did some drain clearing. Avant Comptoirs were too noisy and too crowded so some not great duck at les Editeurs across the street.

After a quick tram ride to the Bilbao bus station, one of the nicest bus stations ever, it was an hour and twenty minute ride on the ALSA Supra bus to San Sebastián. My usual hotels were way overpriced, so staying in a pension in the old town area that I like. Nice room, clean, small balcony, good location. Pension Iturriza in case you want to book it. Went out to get some Tapas and Pinxtos for lunch and do some walking around. As evening came, so did rain, off and on, which gave way to very strong winds. Umbrellas had to be retracted! Tomorrow it is back to Paris, with Euskotren and SNCF. Hopefully the block everything strike of today will be over!

After a lovely evening last night, took bus to Bilbao. For those planning trips to Spain, make sure you download the ALSA app, they are the primary bus company in Spain. It is worth trying for the SUPRA service which gives you wider seats and more direct service. In this case about 4.5 hours, but went by quickly and comfortably. I have been to Bilbao a number of times and have stayed at this hotel, AXEL, a number of times, so easy to get around from here. My first visit to Bilbao I was not enamored of it, but on subsequent visits I have grown to like it. Today, 1.5 hour bus ride to San Sebastián. I have done the Euskotren for this, but it stops something like 40 times and takes 2.5 hours for the same trip.