please empty your brain below
Was also in Paris this weekend. Drove to Ebbsfleet and took the last train back last night (21:13), going out on the 08:42 on Saturday. Most relaxing. Did you buy the €10.50 card and save money or time with it. We bought a carnet on the train and it includes commission. The £11.90 paid compares well to the $13.30 normal price - no queuing, however the euro price on the train was €14.90! Trust you visited the Dali exhibition at the Pompidou Centre - we thought it was spectacular, and you had great weather.

Ken | 11.03.13 - 6:57 a.m. | #

I've been thinking about doing this for my birthday glad I'm not being that unreasonable

Gareth | 11.03.13 - 7:29 a.m. | #

I really must do this one day, the closest to Paris I've ever been was an overnight stay at CDG airport... fantastically written as ever, DG

alfb | Homepage | 11.03.13 - 8:17 a.m. | #

There is a good reason why I make your blog my first stop of the day DG - I love the way your writing brings a scene and a situation to life. As always, more power to your keyboard.

THC | 11.03.13 - 9:55 a.m. | #

My thoughts of St.Pancras train shed I have posted before. It is a cold, bare brick uncomfortable station. Eurostar should have stayed at Waterloo.
The views from Eurostar leaving or entering St. Pancras are mainly the inside of a tunnel.At Waterloo you did get glimpses of Big Ben on one side and the city on the other.
Thanks to the UK not signing the Schengen Agreement (which allows free travel between EU countries) we still have to have segregated platforms for Eurostar, border controls at the station, and the need to carry a passport.
If you get a train from Paris to Spain or Holland etc. the trains run from normal platforms and there is no border control. I wish UK had signed Schengen. I think it is only UK and Ireland that did not sign.

John | 11.03.13 - 10:47 a.m. | #

I've done Brussels as a Eurostar daytrip, which is very manageable, as Brussels has far fewer 'must see' sights and museums than Paris, hence you can enjoy the ambience more.

Mikey C | 11.03.13 - 12:44 p.m. | #

My one trip to Paris was a brief 10 hour visit whilst a student - a coach trip leaving from from Aston campus in the centre of Birmingham later Friday evening, via Dover - Calais (this being a couple of years befor ethe chunnel opened), arriving in Paris 8am!

A tour of the city until 6pm, when we boarded the coach again for the return trip, back to Birmingham on Sunday morning!

Great place, but really must do it properly one day!

Mark | 11.03.13 - 1:09 p.m. | #

In the days when my "bonkers" level was very high I once did a day trip to Lyon from London. This involved

a) Boat train to Newhaven
b) Night ferry to Dieppe
c) Boat train to Saint Lazare
d) Getting dreadfully lost on the Paris Metro and being unable to find Auber RER station.
e) Being unable (initially) to meet a friend at Gare de Lyon and hearing my name on G de L's public address system. I then found my friend.
f) Rebooking our TGV with mangled French
g) A fantastic return trip on the TGV to Lyon.
h) An argument over seats between two French people on the return train where a gent called a woman "une vache" (a cow).
i) Steps (a) to (c) in reverse.

It was great fun and a genuine adventure. These days I cope with Paris and Parisian transport rather better than I did on that occasion.

PC | 11.03.13 - 5:14 p.m. | #

Schengen: Can you imagine the kittens in the tabloid press if people from Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and ultimately Romania and Bulgaria could travel to the UK without passport control?

Andrew | 11.03.13 - 5:31 p.m. | #

EU Citizens can travel to UK even with the Passport entry.
The idea of Schengen treaty was that once you have entered an EU country from outside EU, you then have freedom to move around without border controls within the EU countries. Same as once you enter the United States of America you only show your passport at the state of entry into the US, you do not need it for interstate travel.
It seems that some overseas visitors who plan on coming to Europe often get a visa for entry in a non UK European country. This is useful for them as they can then travel all over Europe (except UK). Having to obtain a separate Visa just for UK deters some visitors, as they can only use it for UK and can not visit the rest of Europe with it. I think the tourist business is lobbing the UK government to do something about this.

John | 11.03.13 - 6:42 p.m. | #

As a regular traveller on Eurostar I agree that the St Pancras terminal is not as good as the old Waterloo one. Pity it was only used for 13 years. There was much more space at Waterloo. Now the departures lounge gets very crowded at busy times, especially when there is a delay.Also at Waterloo there was easy access to the tube. On another issue there is a Paris metro one day travelcard called the Mobilis that is cheaper than the Paris Visite but is not marketed to tourists or has details in English
http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/c_20595/mobilis/

kissenme | 11.03.13 - 6:43 p.m. | #

In 1983 I spent that year traveling back and forth between London and Paris.
I all the public forms of travel, plane, ferry, train, bus, car and even the HoverCraft.
I was staying during the week at Clamart, and most weekends in London.
I 2004 I went back again and bought a house in the Paris banlieue at Les Mureaux. I stayed for two years and then sold the French house, at a profit, and came back to London (I had retained a London property) As I was then aged 60 and I thought London had a lot more to offer, and I was eligible for a Freedom Pass....
I have only been back to Paris twice since then.

John | 11.03.13 - 6:51 p.m. | #

Your blog posts paint a fabulous picture DG, it's almost like we are there with you

Amber | Homepage | 11.03.13 - 10:07 p.m. | #

I met up with a friend in Paris in the summer of 2011, just for a weekend. We had a cheap hotel in Montmartre and got around by a mixture of the Metro and Velib hire-bikes. One of the best bits was riding to, and around, the Place de la Concorde, like they do at the end of the Tour de France.
BTW #1 I went to a talk last week, by the actress Francoise Pascal. It looked for a time as if she had a choice (c1970) between working in France or England. I said it was nice she chose here.
BTW #2 Only tonight, BBC2 was showing Michael Portillo's Continental Railway Journeys (tonight, Paris). Should be viewable on BBC iPlayer for anyone interested.

RogerW | 11.03.13 - 10:10 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy