I heart Eurostar

Can there be any better way of getting to Paris? We leave home at 8.30 am to be in the heart of St Germain in perfect time for lunch.

A 35 minute drive from home gets us to the wonderfully refurbished St Pancras - a thing of beauty with Victorian façade, vaulted glass ceilings, polished hardwood floors and colonnades with fab shops and cafes. 

Oh and how’s this for capturing the old-fashioned romance of train travel ...

(Paul Day’s bronze statue, The Meeting Place, under the station clock)

 A coffee stop at Le Pain Quotidien gets us in the mood for France ...

And then we’re on board and set to go

Curl up for a read and a very decent brunch and, before you know it, two hours 15 minutes has disappeared in a silent high speed flash across countryside and the tunnel, and you are tipped out with a bienvenue and a bientot … and oh dear, if only they would give the seedy Gare du Nord a badly needed makeover the picture would be perfect ... 
but never mind, because at the end of a quick taxi ride you see this picture instead ...

(the tiny but perfectly and exotically furnished hotel Bellechasse)

... and across the road a large place filled with many more beautiful pictures

 (Musee d'Orsay)



and your weekend in Paris has just begun.