We made it! Here are 11 of the 14 pilgrims dropping off luggage to be used after the Camino. We bought our train tickets and then headed to lunch, where I was joyously reunited with my great Parisian love: the tuna fish baguette. After adding an Orangina (here, pronounced "orAHN-geeNAH"), I now consider my life complete. This 500-mile walk is just to burn off the calories.
We killed some time before our train to Bayonne by grocery shopping, and then a few of us walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg, a sprawling park that stirred sharply sudden and vivid memories of my last visit, when I was twelve: the imposing gold-tipped fence, the pale green chairs scattered about, the epic zipline in the playground, the carousel where children spear bronze rings with sticks, the bocce courts populated by aging men, the little round lake. I noticed some new things, too -- palm trees amid the carefully sculpted hedges and delicately arranged flower gardens, a man juggling tennis balls, several couples entangled in each other.
Back at the train station, we found most of the others sound asleep, lulled by the late afternoon stillness, and we quickly joined them. Just before six, we boarded our train and raced into the crop fields and billowing clouds, leaving the radiant city behind. The moveable feast came with us in the form of packaged couscous, a fourpack of yogurt, and plastic spoons from the Supermarche.
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