Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Euro Star Travel

EurostarWhat a nice way to travel - as much hand luggage as you can carry, 30 minutes from check-in to departure, and direct to and from the centre of the city. No extra journeys in themselves to the departure point, and the place you are actually trying to get to.... Even the longer time actually spent in motion was pleasant - I really enjoy spending three hours with a Sunday Times. Breakfast going out was a little of a disappointment - but I'm not really a breakfast person - and the cooked version did look and smell very nice - even as a non-breakfast person I'll be going for that option next time... The meal on the return journey was a pleasure - only let down by the fact that the cheese provided was a rather plan boring piece of Cheddar - with all the wonderful french cheeses, you'd have thought they could have at least stretched to something a little more interesting... Maybe that was Eurostar preparing visitors to leave the gastronomic delights of France... That wasn't the only difference on French rails rather and English. While travelling between Paris and the tunnel we had to stop - some sort of electrical problem in the tunnel - the slowing down could really be felt - in major contrast to the rather gentle deceleration when stopping at Ashford - the train was clearly travelling significantly faster on the SNCF rails than on BR's! At least Paris did try to make me feel at home - for the first 15 minutes it poured with rain in a style London weather would have been proud of! It did dry up and failed to spoil the racing - although a wet Champs-Élysées would have made for interesting cornering... I don't think this will be my last day trip to Paris. Anyone for a few hours with the Sunday papers, followed by lunch next to the Seine?

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