Your intrepid travelers have to settle for the much more prosaic LNER (formerly Virgin) fast train
from Edinburgh to London (King's Cross station) then changing to the Eurostar, which departs from the very imposing, the splendidly gothic St Pancras station. Having left Edinburgh at the quite civilised hour of 9:30 AM we arrive at Gare Nord, Paris at 18:37 PM, our cost, a very reasonable $830 for us two.....both first class naturellment! First class gives us more leg room, comfy seats and complimentary food and booze....its the only way to travel. However, at £44 a bottle, we did forego the Duval Leroy champagne. Yes, I know, I know, that's really letting the side down, but, I say, forty four pounds when "train bubbles" are free!
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| St Pancras Station, they don't build them like they used to! |
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| The Skinner's Arms |
Happily, the two stations, King's Cross and St Pancras, are but a very short luggage trundle apart and we had a 90 minutes changeover. What else to do but sample a pint at a London pub just to say that, once again, we enjoyed London hospitality. Down a side street we found The Skinners Arms, perfect. Must have been a rather smelly neighbourhood in the past. I really think there must be more corner pubs in central London than there are corner coffee shops in central Sydney!
We are nearing Paris so we really must get in the mood with Edith Piaf, of course, here Need I say more, no.
Your travelers had no intention whatsoever of trundling our bags about Paris at 6:30 in the evening in search of our hotel. Been there, done that and then not happy! So its a short taxi ride from Gare Nord to our apartment hotel, Citadines Bastille Marais , 11th Arrondisment. ("Oui, monsieur, we have been in Paris several times. We know how close the hotel really is to gare Nord!" This to forestall a Cooks tour and subsequent fare.)
Our hotel is not far from the Place de la Bastille (without la Bastille, long since demolished) and the very picturesque Canal Saint-Martin. This video (admittedly a tad touristy but enjoyable) does give a great feel for the
Canal Saint-Martin and surrounding area. We elect to spend a whole day just taking in the wonderful atmosphere..., un long dejeuner avec une bouteille de vin blanc maison...what bliss. No prize for the translation, its fairly obvious, isn't it?
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| Canal Saint-Martin |
For the evening meal, we have found a lovely little cafe serving
authentic French Onion Soup. Hot and brown, strips of onion in a beef stock soup deliciously gratineed with croutons and cheese on top of a large piece of bread, all grilled. Voila!! Bon appetit!! 😋😋😋
The Canal, in part, was built for bargemen to bypass the long loops of the Seine around central Paris. Napoleon Number 1 ordered construction to start in 1802 and construction continued until 1825, all funded by a tax on wine. Now that must have been popular!!!
Below is our expedition's chief dork at the Champs-Élysées Christmas market. Contrary to appearances, he's not chatting up the (un)impressed bird (I'm really really not) but negotiating for a cup of vin chaud (hot mulled wine).
Coming clean: both pics are from our November 2013 visit to France ahead of our 11 month house exchange in 2014. And, yes, it really was that cold in Paris.
We leave soon for La Charante where we will visit old haunts and old wonderful friends we met in the great year 2014.
Love to all, Val and Bryan
****Not to denigrate the great experience of a night on the Spirit of the Outback, a slow journey to Longreach (for our European readers, that's in central Queensland) ADD PIC of Beds
Val sits opposite and the cupboard and chair back fold
down to form a single bed. Val has one that folds down
so our tootsies touch. With the beds down there is precious
little room to change. But we loved the whole experience!
