Eurostar – somewhere between Paris & London

Looking out the window of the Eurostar, belting along at whatever fast speed we’re doing, passing many wind farms, heading towards London. How quickly the time has gone.

Thursday 1st:

 

Spent the morning walking through and around Ile St Louis and Isle de la Cite.  Huge queues to see Notre Dame and we were grateful that we’d seen it during earlier travels. Explored some of the left bank and visited the St Severin church, started by a monk in the 6th century. Some walls and pillars still remain.

 

 

 

Visited the famous bookshop in Paris, “Shakespeare & Co”. It’s been in existence for a long time and has provided accommodation for writers down on their luck. There is a reading room and people are encouraged to sit and read. Bought a book so we could get the shop stamp in the front. This is one book we can’t get rid of. (At least we can justify keeping this one).

 

 

Had a light lunch in an air conditioned Himalayan restaurant and went to the mainline station for a train trip to Versailles. The destination wasn’t the purpose as we’ve been there before, but it was the train trip we wanted. About one quarter of the trains that go to Versailles have been decorated inside to look like rooms of the palace and we wanted to see one. After letting 4 ordinary trains go and spending about 1 hour in the exciting environment of a hot, underground station, we gave up and caught the next train to the station nearest Versailles and returned to Paris. The photos here are downloaded from the internet to show what we didn’t see. Back home then, to cheese, bread, wine and the great view out our window. Again we were grateful of the portable air conditioner and we left it on all night. Had to pull up the sheet during the night.

Friday 2nd:

Back to the laundromat, thankfully for the last time, although if it meant continuing the holiday, we’d happily spend more time washing clothes.

We wanted to visit the catacombs, some of the many tunnels under Paris, where bones from many Parisian cemeteries were moved to after many cemeteries were closed. Some of the quarries around Paris collapsed impacting on some cemeteries with bones washing into some cellars, another urgent reason to relocate the remains. We thought that the catacombs would be a good place to visit on this hot day, where the underground temperature was 13 degrees. Unfortunately, so did half of Paris We spent almost 2 hours in the queue. It was worth it though, bit bind boggling seeing so many skulls & bones dating back to the 1700s. Around 5 million Parisians are stacked there. Back home for a very tasty felafel at one of the local Jewish restaurants.

Saturday 3rd:

Breakfast first then gave the apartment a bit of a clean before we left. Our landlady said that the apartment has never been left so clean, so we felt good about that. We tend to try & leave places better than we found them.

Caught the metro to the Gare du Nord, where Eurostar leaves from.

We’re slowing down now and about to enter the chunnel. Just been advised that the trip under the channel is about 20 mins. Last sight of France. Hello England again.

We arrived in London at about 2pm & got to the hotel at Euston around 3pm. We were able to check in straight away.  The Eurostar was great, smooth quiet, fast (300 km/h) and a much easier way to get from Paris to London. 2 1/4 hours. Great experience and we’ll do it again. Compare that to getting to Paris airport, waiting, flying, possibly 1 hour to get through UK immigration then close to 1 hour to get into London.

Having previously found a good coffee chain, Cafe Nero, we had a good coffee at one just  around the corner from the hotel.

 

 

 

 

We walked back to Kings Cross Station for one particular reason. Understanding the reason behind these photos is based on a bit of prior knowledge or having read the books.

 

 

 

 

 

After these photos were taken, one of us, (not whom you’d probably expect), looked at the map and noticed that there was a canal not far away and wondered if we should walk and have a look. We detoured on the way back to the hotel. We discovered that the local Sainsbury supermarket has their white wines in the fridge, so we felt that we should buy one before we got back to the hotel.

We’re now in our hotel in London and it’s 7:15pm (UK time). The bottle is now empty and we are about to go out and find a meal.