Eurostar from London to Paris...
Eurostar from London to Paris...
Although the trip officially started on the Saturday, I elected to make a less stressful start to the holiday by travelling over to France on the Friday evening. Unbeknownst to me at the time of booking it would still not be entirely stress free, with parts of Paris under curfew and the city's bus and tram network shutting down at 9pm in an attempt to quell riots that had broken out following the fatal police shooting of a teenager earlier in the week.
Leaving the UK from London's St Pancras station is pretty simple. Immigration is taken care of on the UK side meaning you pass through two passport checks - one for the UK and one for the French border, then whizz through security.
The Eurostar waiting area at St Pancras is underneath the platforms, in an area which used to serve as a beer warehouse. Sadly it's nowhere near big enough, so it feels rather overcrowded and there's limited seating.
The train was delayed due to an earlier breakdown of the one which was supposed to be taking us
We finally pulled out of St Pancras around an hour behind schedule
Due to the earlier breakdown, our replacement train was one of the recently refurbished older Eurostar trains - still very comfy!
Dinner time zooming through Southern England at 300km/h
We finally pulled in to Gare du Nord almost one and a half hours late. Even so, Eurostar's customer service was fantastic with announcements on the train telling us how to claim compensation.
Luckily even though a lot of Paris' public transportation system had been shutdown, RER trains were still running and I was able to catch one out to the airport
Home for the night, Holiday Inn Express Paris CDG Airport
A room with a view ... across the airport
Trip Overview