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.
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
and your weekend in Paris has just begun.