Tuesday dawned in London, and it was time to head out. We had reservations for a 9:30 am Eurostar train(through the Chunnel). A quick hop on the Underground and we were at the St. Pancras (yes, I know it sounds like pancreas) station to catch the train. Tuesday, though was also the day of the most messed up Underground service, so it’s a good thing we’d planned lots of time (hoping to get there early to grab coffee) because we made it just in time.
Getting through security, etc. for the Eurostar is certainly easier than for flights, and we could see how the train is a great convenience—also, many passengers used their cell phones during the trip, which is good, I’m sure esp. for business travelers. It was cold yet again in London, but we didn’t see any snow actually having stuck on the ground till in both the English and French countryside.
To be honest, we both expected (okay, maybe just me) more of a noteworthy experience in THE CHUNNEL. But nope. Just a tunnel. We weren’t even really sure we’d gone through it till we decided we were in some long tunnel and otherwise seemed far enough from London to have needed to go underground for any other reason. The France countryside was pretty, though I’m sure the sights in February hardly equal the look of it in the spring.
One other thing was hadn’t anticipated was our ears popping…not surprising now thinking about it, but yeah, I guess going under that much water isn’t a normal occurrence for our ears.
We arrived into Paris via Gare du Nord, and knew the first thing we wanted to do was get our travel pass for the Metro. We hadn’t planned on getting a pass, having heard that the one-for tickets were best, but we found we used the London pass so much that we sprung for it. I can’t tell you whether it was worth it financially, but the ease of it is certainly nice.
After a long wait in line, and my first use of all the French I learned (then kind of forgot) in school, we had our passes. I was determined not to use English unless necessary, so we’d fortunately picked up a French phrase book as a refresher while in London. Nice too, Chris has also found he remembers more French than he’d thought, though I still have ended up doing much of the “business” French.
We figured out which line to take, and before too long (though it is a bit of a trek on the Metro) we got off, and walked the couple blocks to our hotel. We were all set to check in, drop off our bags and head back into Paris when, much to our surprise, we were told they had no record of a reservation for us! Mon Deu! Long story short, what we think happened was, since we’d booked through EasyHotel, they in turn use a travel agent who in turn is the one who contacts the hotel. EasyHotel, though they confirmed with us, never finalized the reservation with the travel agent (who had record of an attempt to make a reservation but never a confirmation). Fortunately the hotel has a room (which they ONLY had because they’d had a cancellation. They gave us a deal on the price, though it’s still more than we’d first expected. Oh well. Chris is going to get it all straightened out with EasyHotel.
Not a great way to start our time in Paris. I was, admittedly, kind of a grumpy, unhappy camper at that point. On top of that, I of course wanted to get in touch with EasyHotel IMMEDIATELY and I couldn’t get the internet to work first thing. Patience is not my greatest virtue, to say the least. Chris, wonderful husband that he is, gently suggested we head out, which we did, and on our (albeit late) first foray into Paris, we walked by the Arc de Triumphe, the Champs Elysee, Palais Royale, Seine, ate dinner at a place recommended by our friends Steve and Jennie, then hit the Monoprix near the restaurant before heading back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, I caught up on some much needed (okay, need is perhaps an exaggeration) internet time, Chris and I watched a movie we’d previously rented in iTunes, and then Chris discovered that for many of the shows, you can select either French or English (he’d thought he was doomed to a week of CNN and BBC News!).
All in all, it was (as are most of our first days in any place) a bit overwhelming, but a really cool day. We went to bed excited to wake up and start really getting to know Paris!
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