5th Arrondissement, Paris

Ahhhh - Paris! Last night we finalized payments for our Paris Apartment. The internet has been wonderful for organizing this trip, especially things like international currency transactions which seem to have so much paper work attached to them. We did the first couple through a local bank branch but soon discovered that it is much easier just to do it yourself from home! Of course, you still need lots of information - bank addresses, IBAN numbers, swift and sort codes, benificiary names and addresses - but once all that is collected the whole process is remarkably pain free.

Our apartment is situated in the 5th Arrondissememnt - the Quatier Latin - close to Rue Mouffetard with its fabulous street market and the Jardin de Luxembourg. It looks a very "friendly" apartment, filled with light and books! Just my kind of place!

A key and some train tickets.

We have a key! Yes, just a small ordinary looking key but it will get us into our beautiful apartment in Dinan. All we have to do is get there and find it.
The plan is that we will catch the Eurostar from London to Lille and from there, take the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse or Very Fast Train) direct to Rennes, which is the capital of Brittany. Once in Rennes we will pick up the hire car and drive to Dinan. Rod booked the train tickets last night and we are looking at approx $200 AU per person for the trip. Our other options were flying from Heathrow or catching the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Brittany but the train seemed so much easier with only one change to be made at Lille.
Goodness knows how easy it will be to drive from Rennes to Dinan, but I have looked at the routes on Google Maps and also on the Michelin site and it appears it should take about 45 mins and be fairly straightforward. As it will be our first expeience of continental driving I imagine that it will probably take a lot longer and that anything could happen - and probably will!