A magical evening at Paris airport

I've arrived in St Jean Pied de Port, the starting point of my Camino, by way of Paris and Biarritz, and I can only hope my adventures in getting here are not some awful foreshadowing of the journey ahead.

They say there's nowhere like Paris in the Spring, but I'm surprised no one has ever mentioned to me how glorious the airport is in Winter.

'Glorious', that was definitely the word rattling round my head while I was standing outside the wrong hotel at 10 o'clock at night, in the freezing cold, waiting for the bloody shuttle bus to arrive.

Thanks to sodding Ibis and its branding strategy, I'd turned up at the fancy Ibis 'Styles', rather than the bog standard Ibis. I should have known I'd never have forked out for the fancy one.

"Je suis desolé," said the man beind the counter.

I was feeling very desolé for myself I can tell you.

When the shuttle finally arrived, I had a wonderful tour of the entire airport complex - the multi-storey car park, the taxi rank and The Sheraton (front and back) - before arriving at my actual hotel, an hour after I'd arrived there before and failed to get off. What a twonk.

Well, at least I could get into bed and get a good five hours sleep before my 4.30am start. WRONG. I just couldn't drift off and when I did, briefly, I had a full-on nightmare that somebody was in my room (thanks brain!).

On top this, I'd already found out my flight was to be delayed by two hours, but I still had to check-in at the same time. Tell me Easyjet, how is that fair?!

By the time I arrived at Biarritz, the bus I needed to get to Bayonne was long gone and there wasn't another for hours, so I had to splash out €22 for a taxi (farewell, budget) to the train station, where I had to get a rail replacement bus thanks to a landslide.

At least I managed to get some sleep on the bus, and as soon as I arrived in St Jean Pied de Port, I must have had a sprinkling of some Camino magic, as it's been nothing but lovely.

Getting off the bus I spotting two men chatting together, both wearing berets, I took this as a good omen. Surely nothing bad can happen in a town where the men wear their berets with pride? Here's hoping...