We went into the station and bought return tickets to St. Pancras as that was cheaper and also more convenient than having to find ticket machines when we come back from Paris. That works as long as we don’t lose the return tickets. The next train to Waterloo station did not take long to arrive. As usual, we had timed it so that it was an express train. We got into Waterloo with lots of time to spare before our train to Paris.
We were able to sleep in a little. Once we were up, we had our usual
breakfast. Fui Ling had offered to drop
us off at the station so we could take the train to St. Pancras for our 2:30
Eurostar train to Paris. After dropping
us off, she was going for a walk with her retired physician friend. Petros was
going into the village to get his hair cut and then lunch. Fui Ling was also going to drop Petros off at
Heathrow for his 4:30 pm flight to Athens.
As we were set to go, Fui Ling’s
walking partner showed up. I guess we
were running a bit late. Her friend
decided to go into the village and they would meet up after Fui Ling dropped us
off at West Byfleet. She told us she
would pick us up after we got back from Paris.
We thought about having lunch in one of
the restaurants but decided against it, as we were not sure how fast service
would be. Instead, we bought some
sandwiches and drinks to have on the train. There was also a dining car on
board the train, but we did not really want to be too far from our
luggage. We walked around and window
shopped until it was time to check in and we did that and then went up to wait
at the lounge We had chosen carriage 18 and 3 seats together when we bought our
tickets on line. There were not a lot of
standard-class seats left by the time we decided to go to Paris. Carriage 18 turned out to be at the front of
the train so it was a bit of a walk to it.
We settled in and Florine’s seat mate did not show up until it was
almost time for the train to leave. He
was kind of chunky and took up a lot of room.
Fortunately for us, he left for the dining car once the train was on its
way.
We could see the area surround the
railway tracks for a part of the journey.
We passed through some pretty country side once we left London. Eurostar is a high-speed railway service
connecting London with Paris and Brussels.
All the trains traverse the channel Tunnel between the UK and France. The service is operated by 19-coach Class
373/1 trains which run up to 300 kmh (186 mph) on a network of high-speed
lines. Eurostar is now the dominant operator in cross-channel intercity
passenger travel for the routes that it operates, carrying more passengers than
all airlines combined. Each 18 carriage
train can carry 750 passengers. The Channel Tunnel is 50.5 km (31.4m) long and
speed in the tunnel is reduced to 160 kmh (100 mph) for safety reasons. Since
the launch of the Eurostar services, there have been disruptions and
cancellations caused by fires breaking out in the tunnel. Fortunately for us, the last incident was in
2008.
We arrived at Gare du Nord at about
5:45 pm local time, which is 1 hour ahead of London time. We collected our luggage and made out way to
the arrival hall. We were looking for
our complimentary pickup driver, hopefully some guy with Florine’s name on a
placard, but a scan of the people with cards did not reveal one with her
name. We had to wait for a while, and I
was going to call the rental office when our driver showed up. He helped us pack our luggage into the nice
spacious Benz van and drove us over to Rue Saintonge. My first impression of the street was kind of
underwhelming – the driver had pulled up against the side of a narrow street
and we were surrounded by concrete walls and wooden gates. The driver then called the greeter to let him
know we were waiting outside the building.
We waited about 5 minutes before he showed up. Aidan Murphy, our greeter, is a young Irish
man. As we found out later while chatting with him, he just decided he wanted
to live in Paris and called up Bernard, our agent, his friend and there he was.
Aidan took us up to our first floor apartment, explaining the entry processes
and the security codes as he led us through the main gate and then through the
door to the stairway. The apartment was
bright and spacious by Parisian standard.
He showed us how to lock the door while outside and while inside (where
you were determined which lock should be used) and we made arrangements for him
to bring additional pillow cases and an extra set of keys later in the night
after dinner.
We freshened up and set out for my
first walk in Paris. Our apartment was
in the 3rd arrondissement, one of the 20 arrondissements municipaux
or administrative districts. We were
near the Archives, the Jewish Museum of Art & History and the Musee
Picasso. On our firs evening in Paris,
we walked around the Jewish area before finally having dinner at the Café de
des Blancs Manteaux. It was a very
pleasant evening and we enjoyed our walk.
When we got back to the apartment, we called Aidan but were unable to
reach him. We left him a message, asking
him to come by in the morning with the spare keys. We found an extra pillowcase in one of the
cupboards.
Where we stayed: Marais Saintonge, 11 Rue de Saintonge, 75003, Paris; 33 1 55 37 97 36 tel; 33 6 08 07 46 98 cell; Bernard
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