London - Chunnel - Paris!

A rainy London day today--good day for travel.  Our train to Paris left from the St. Pancras station, next to Kings Cross station.  We visited Kings Cross first, and here M and H attempt to find Platform 9 and 3/4.  We did find the muggle tourist version, but the line was a bit too long and in the rain, so we decided it was not essential to wait in line for a photo with all the other muggles.  We spent our last pounds and pence on some fruit, ready made pancakes (which later became covered in Nutella) and marshmallow candies.  

M and H aboard the train.  We're not excited, are we?  A very pleasant ride!  The Eurostar train from London to Paris took 2 hours and 20 minutes and left London a minute early.  There were no stops between and it travelled about 170 km/h but was quite smooth.  For anyone who was wondering (we were), the tunnel under the English Channel (Chunnel) actually is buried quite a bit deeply beneath the earth under the water, not through the water itself.  Sully had asked if there would be sharks next to the train tunnel where we would be traveling.  The ride in the Chunnel proper lasted about 20 minutes.  I sipped wine and sorted pictures.

Legos travel well.

Our train upon arrival at Gare du Nord.  Took a bit of work to get our Metro tickets.  I needed a passport photo for the Carte Orange Pass, finally got it from a machine after some trouble and then found out that they wouldn't sell us the passes today as they only start on Mondays.  Then I couldn't buy a carnet (packet) of tickets because our credit cards wouldn't work in the machines.  Some machines in Europe require Visa cards to have a chip that we don't have in the states.  Finally got a packet of 10 rides for  E12.50 (about $18 or so) from an actual person, which is significantly cheaper than the Tube in London.  Even Nik's patience was tried a bit.  Finally we made it to St. Michel Metro stop and came up into Paris again.  Excellent.  Three minute walk to the apartment where we met Christian, from whom we are renting the apartment.  Felt really nice to dump all the bags.

Erica says:  Paris is as lovely as ever!  This is just a couple minutes' walk from our apartment, with Notre Dame and Ile de la Cite on the left side.  We walked to Monoprix, a chain grocery store and stocked up.  Reading and interpreting the labels contributed to it all taking a while.  So did the four year old insisting on repeatedly tossing the paper towels in the air.  Good quick dinner and trying to get everyone to bed.  We will likely being taking it somewhat easier tomorrow and begin to soak it all in.  .  .