CWT Journal – September 2, 2026 | Bayeux → Paris

Today we packed up and bid farewell to Normandy, harboring a little trepidation about our second encounter with the French railway system. Our inaugural attempt had included confusion, luggage gymnastics, and an involuntary excursion beyond Bayeux, so expectations were appropriately tempered.

But we're learning. This time we boarded like seasoned commuters, stowed our mountain of belongings, found our seats, and—most impressively—disembarked at Gare Saint-Lazare with time to spare. Progress!

An Uber carried us across Paris to our new home in the 3rd arrondissement, in the Enfants-Rouges neighborhood of the Haut-Marais. The quarter takes its unusual name—“Red Children”—from a 16th-century orphanage whose children wore red uniforms. Today it's considerably more convivial, a labyrinth of narrow streets, cafés, boutiques, and the Marché des Enfants Rouges, Paris's oldest covered market.

We deposited our bags and set out to reconnoiter our neighborhood, eventually finding a good dinner before retreating home for some much-needed sleep.

Apparently the secret to mastering travel is simply making enough mistakes that eventually you run out of new ones.