Wednesday 11th September.
Can’t believe our week here is over and it’s time to move on
to Paris. Spent the morning packing and making sure the flat was as good as we
found it. Only had to cross the road basically, so no rush to be anywhere at
any particular time. We can’t check in till 12.15pm for our 13.30 Eurostar
train, so we’re sitting at St Pancras using the internet. We’re getting good at
this. I’ve also wandered around this glorious station taking photos, it’s hard
to believe, but then again not, that in times gone by, someone had the
brilliant idea of demolishing this and building something else. There’s a big
statue upstairs to commemorate the man who led the campaign to save it, and
good on him. I’m guessing at his name without looking at the photo and I think
it’s John Betjamen, a poet who died in the 1980’s or 90’s. I met a couple of
Aussie ladies and they took my photo with the statue and I took theirs, as you
do.
Bonjour Paree!
The Eurostar train between London and Paris was a dream. We
bought a carnet of tickets for the Paris metro in the boarding lounge, saving
us the hassle of figuring out a ticket machine when we arrived. They cost 15
GBP, not sure if that was a good price, but, what the heck. That’s 10 tickets
that we can share, one ticket per trip. Trevor impressed a fellow passenger
with the cable lock he ran through our suitcase handles. Probably not necessary
but gave peace of mind as we weren’t sitting where we could see them. Easy
boarding and luggage stowage, found our seats and settled in for the 2 and a
bit hour journey. How can that be? So fast!!
Well, the train reached a maximum
speed of 300km/hr, not for long, but it did register. A man sitting across the
aisle had his Navman set up and he was watching the speed and he allowed us to
take photos of the best speed registrations. Then he realised he should take
photos of it too! Wow! I’ve never travelled that fast on land. The bar opened
not long after we left St Pancras International, so a beer went well with the
sandwiches we made. How organised are we??
The Chunnel didn’t seem that long and the French countryside
zoomed by so fast, but what we saw was the stuff of postcards, mostly. We were
about 10 minutes late arriving at Gare du Nord, maybe we should have stayed at
300km/hr for a bit longer. Tristan, the owner of our Paris flat messaged just
as we arrived with a reminder of directions to get to his flat and was waiting
for us when we arrived. We had to change trains at Gare d’Austerlitz, what a
nightmare!!! Sooo many stairs ……………. I had my first taste of French gallantry –
a nice man offered to carry my suitcase down the last of 3 flights of stairs.
Man, I was so happy, I’m glad I can say thank you very much in French, because
I really meant it. There are drunks and deros the world over, but did we have
to strike them on our first metro ride?? Inoffensive enough I guess, probably
because we can’t speak Francais, but it was the volume and tone that made us
wary.
more to follow, but it's late and I'm off to bed! Bon nuit.
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