The first thing after Hello that Mum said to us was "Your train has been cancelled......" "Le what?!?!?" Apparently Paris had been hit by a LOT of snow a day or so prior to our arrival and trains, planes and what not had all been disrupted. The cancellation of our train was going to be a HUGE hassle as we had already booked our hotel and we were only going to BE in Paris for three days and so on and so on and so on.... BUT.... not to worry... turns out, of all the trains that WERE cancelled ours was among the one or two still running! (Le Phew!!... (Don't worry! I won't do this all the way through...!!) ) So we hopped aboard the underground and headed to St Pancras. ....
(Mind the gap....)
Here's Jessica (in a tunnel, which is why is it dark outside already!) snickering at the announcement that "This train terminates at Cockfosters". Snicker. I suggested that we call it "willyFosters" in order to be a little more polite!!
 |
| Tee hee.... Willy Fosters....!! :P |
Jack was worn out and used his Garry's arm to sleep on for a while. The ride on the underground was over an hour long and we had not had a lot of sleep but adrenaline kept us Grown Ups awake!
Here is St Pancras. It's a BEAUTIFUL terminal. So well maintained. It was built in 1868 and has so many original features. It's lovely! And now, with Eurostar, it's known as London St Pancras International!! Whoo hoo!! ;P
THIS was the crowd of folks waiting for our train. Rather a lot, eh?!
 |
| The board showing our train was indeed still running..! |
All aboard the Eurostar! This beautiful and LOOONG train runs at almost 200 mph but we were told that, due to the snow in France, we would be going a little slower once we reached Calais.
Millie is always thrilled to see her little friend who accompanies her on any journey when there is a reflection!! :D
The ride was very smooth and comfortable and the service was very nice. As our trip began in England all announcements were made first in English, then again in French. My Mum had provided us with a huge bag FULL of sandwiches, snacks, crisps, drinks, cookies, fruit, everything we could possibly have needed for the next few weeks days, so we settled in and chowed down.
The actual journey was perhaps nearly three hours long with the "going slow" and all that, certainly over two hours. All my peeps eventually drifted off to sleep.....
The fellas......
And my girls.....
They missed the whole "Being Under the Sea" part completely, but finally, guess what?!?! We arrived in Paris!!! A La Gare Du Nord!! It was spectacular!!
Nous sommes Arrives! :D
A kind passer~by offered to take a picture of all of us!! Do we look as if we have just travelled 4541.3 miles?!!
So, we were on our way! :D
Here is the outside of the Gare Du Nord station! impressive eh?! It was about 7 pm local time when we arrived and already quite dark. We had to get ourselves a taxi ( which was easy, they had an incredibly efficient taxi rank system.) We explained that with the five of us and luggage we would need a "Maxi Taxi" and that was swiftly arranged. Now I was on the hook. Rex gestured to me and said... "Tell the driver where we need to go!!" Hah hah!! Between us we managed to explain where we needed to be and the lovely driver took us around and was so polite about my French Terrible..!!
The city glowed around us and then suddenly we spotted THIS.....!!
The BEAUTIFUL tower! Glimmering in the distance!
And then, we were right THERE!! A blurry shot out the taxi window as we sped by! Our driver pointed out such BEAUTIFUL glowing buildings, The Opera house was STUNNING... we were just amazed and so very excited by it all! I kept trying to speak French and then would slip into English and then back into some French.... The taxi ride alone was worth all that traveling!
We soon arrived at our hotel and all piled inside trying not to be TOO big and loud and touristy! The staff were so friendly despite our concerns that they may be "aloof" ! We tried to speak French but they very kindly spoke English to us for the most part!!
We headed to our room ..... ON THE 28th floor and THIS was our view!!! We had giant windows with a huge window sill, perfect for sitting on and just gaping and gaping!!
And what could be seen, reflected in the windows of the apartments across the street?!?! There she is again!! Every hour at night the tower SHIMMERS with lights that sparkle and twinkle for about 10 minutes! I can't describe how pretty it is!!
Another view, this time you can see the lights along the Seine below us!! What a cool place to stay!
So there we are, friends! We have arrived in Paris! After a quick bite to eat and an hour or so of marveling at our lovely suite and the fabulous view we finally called it a night and settled in to sleep.
To be continued, bien sur!
Bon Nuit!
No comments:
Post a Comment