Got up at 4:30 this morning to catch meet the tour at St. Pancras International Railway Station for the tour to Paris.
Changes some pounds to euros for Paris and boarded the Eurostar for Paris. The trip takes about 2:20 from London to Paris.
The standard class seats are actually quite comfortable and they have a dining car during the trip.
When we left St. Pancras all of the announcements were English followed by French and changed to French followed by English after the Channel Tunnel. This reminded of Yes Prime Minister episode about the Tunnel.
The trip through the Channel Tunnel is about 20 minutes.
We were accompanied on the train by one of the two guides on the tour. She was English and we met the French guide at the Gard Nu Nord in Paris.
and boarded the coach for the sightseeing tour of Paris.
The famous or infamous depending on who you ask Pyramid at the Louvre.
Unfortunately on Tuesday the Louvre is closed so we couldn't visit it, but given the size of the museum and time we had free it wasn't bad.
The first view of the Eiffel Tower from the tour bus.
The next stop was the Riverboat cruise. This went up river to the island in the middle of the river on which a settlement has existed for over 2000 years.
The boat arrived back at Eiffel Tower. The tour company takes photos of all passengers and offers prints for 10 Euro. There were some comments from other passengers about the price but it was a good deal considering the prices for photos I have got taken at other events.
We walked up to the steps and crossed the road to the base of the Tower. Paris is very strict on where buses can drop and collect passengers with a 139 Euro fine for breaches.
There is a photo of the solution later on
Took about 30 minutes to get to the restaurant on the first level of the tower.
We had a choice of either entree+main or main+desert.
I had the Chilled asparagus soup with cottage cheese and herbs layered under the soup. It was very tasty.
For the main course I had the Roast Chicken breast on potato mash.
This came with bread and champagne.
The meals are not freshly prepared but still very good.
The view from even the first level is spectacular. You can go up to the second level by stairs (Didn't try) or the top using the lift but it is very busy and they are renovating and some of the lifts aren't in use.
The outside of the restaurant and the menu. This is included in the tour price ($300).
Some crazy people walking up to the second level. We had to wait about 10 minutes for a lift which had space.
A few of us got back to the bus a little late but as the next time was free for us to shop it didn't matter.
We drove to the Louvre underground car-park which is open as there is a large shopping mall under the courtyard of the museum.
When they were excavating this they found ruins dating back to the 100 years war. The wall would have continued through the McDonalds that is in the mall.
The inverted pyramid which is next to the other pyramid.
The tour guide made this the meeting place for us and then directed us to the local shopping areas so we could shop. Window shopped but didn't buy anything. Still considering whether to ship some things back to Australia (Guide Books etc.).
The Parking solution is an underground car-park that can handle 50 seat coaches although it is a very tight fit and I agree with the french guide in that the designers of the car-park never had to drive a coach in it.
Got back the Gard Nu Nord at about 6:00pm (Paris is 1 hour ahead of London) and went through French and then UK Borders at the Station.
Got a quiche and drink as I was starting to feel a bit hungry and we had about an hour to wait.
Boarded the train and departed for London. It was quite foggy as we travelled. The Eurostar reached a maximum speed of 295kph. They seem to have a departure every hour and while walking down to our carriage I noticed that most of the carriages are for freight.
