GOING TO PARIS
London to Paris under the Channel in 3 hours
Beginning our journey at Waterloo Station, London.
Boarding the very modern Eurostar Chunnel Train.
Going through the Chunnel ... as the tunnel under the English Channel from London to Paris is called.
Some people wonder if it's scary. Colleen thought it might be. But it was just like going through any train tunnel. Couldn't see much. Then you are on the other side, going through the French country. It was more like a cinema experience, going from one movie to another.
We were in England, now we were in France. Amazing.
(Paris to Venice in your Pajamas. Sleeper trains from Rail Europe.)

We could take our two bags on board with us, and stow them on the rack above our seats, just like an airplane. We could have taken more baggage, by arrangement with a porter. The seats were really comfortable. For groups of four, there were seats facing each other with a table in the middle.

A SUMMER STORM
As we arrived in Paris, a summer thunderstorm was making itself felt on the outskirts of the city. There was a little rain, with big drops, but not that much of it where we were. From Gare du Nord where the Eurostar train arrived, we took Le Metro, the subway, to the heart of Paris.

Before we left London, I happened onto a little booth at Waterloo Station that was selling Paris Visite cards. These are multi-day passes to all the public transportation modes in Paris, for whatever number of zones you choose. You need one. Don't even think about not getting it. Make sure you have one in hand when you arrive in Paris, unless you plan only to use the taxis or rent a car... I wouldn't.
By the way, there are displays in the Metro stations for some very interesting stores,
like the very lacy shirts in the window above. If you would like some real French perfume, Click here
and enter enter the word French into the search box that comes up.

We arrived at our Paris Metro station, Concorde, just three blocks from our hotel on Rue de Cambon. Ducking between the raindrops, we found the courtyard of this small residence hotel and checked in. The room was small by American standards, but that is usual for Europe. In fact, we considered ourselves very lucky. The opportunity to go to Europe came up rather suddenly for us, so it was only a few of weeks before departure when we looked for hotel reservations for the middle of summer in Paris.

This is not generally a good idea. Traditionally, Paris fills with tourists in summer. We could not find a hotel with a room available in all of the First Arrondisement, the District in the center of Paris where we wanted to stay. Fortunately, the people at Rail Europe have incredible knowledge of the City. (Click here for Rail Europe. ). They found for us what I think was the only room available at the time. They also gave us a choice of other hotels, but they were in other Districts of the City. We wanted to be within walking distance of the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Champs Elysees. And so we were.

A FREE MAN IN PARIS
As we unpacked, the thunder in the distance, we pretended we were in the Paris of 1940, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. There are any number of fantasies availble in Paris. You can select your own.
The weather continued, and we asked the hotel manager for his recommendation for a nearby restaurant.
He pointed us toward the one in the cul de sac of our street, and said it was perfect for the first night in Paris.

He was right. The thunder was booming so that even the Parisians looked heavenward at the sound, but the rain held off until we got under the umbrellas of some outside tables. We could have eaten there, but chose instead a table in the inside room. It was warmly decorated, with dark wood and garlic and cheeses and sausages hanging strategicaly from the ceiling.

The ever-present bread was offered, some crudettes appeared, thinly sliced duck in a very French brown sauce graced our table, all very nice. But then... it was time for dessert. Now, for me, in most restaurants, desserts can be okay, or pretty good, or maybe sometimes very fine. But in France... dessert IS the meal, especially anything with French raspberries, called framboise.

Our waiter brought out a huge tart for our approval. It looked luscious. And it was covered with... framboise. We had a perfect slice. We smiled. And had another. As we left, the waiter bussed Colleen on the cheek, he and I shook hands, and we all agreed it was the perfect dinner for a first night in Paris.
The rain had stopped... for the rest of our stay in France, as it turned out. We went back to our room, opened the French (of course) windows, and went to sleep in the warm summer breeze.

Click here to explore Paris with us,
or click on one of the buttons at the bottom of the page to select another country.

Or if you would like to explore having your own Paris fantasy, you might want to check it out.
Eurail Pass: The best way to get around Europe

You can take Eurostar through the Chunnel virtually to your Paris hotel on informationeurope.com first, but to really ride the Paris metro, click on the links and actually go to Paris. I think you will enjoy it.

Visit our Europe Travel webstore featuring Love To Travel gear for your France vacation,
and while you are on the net, check out these other fine Europe websites
Eurostar-TGV.com    Euro-Rail.org    TravelEurope.biz    VacationInEurope.com   
Europe-Train.org    AirfaresToEurope.com   

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