This morning we left the flat around 9:00 in order to walk to the underground station and take it to King’s Cross station, which is the stop for St. Pancras International, where we would board the EuroStar Chunnel from London to Paris.
We had read that we should arrive 75-90 minutes ahead of time, and we arrived easily by 9:45 for our 11:30 train, so we had plenty of time go get through security, get our passports stamped for exiting London (yay for a passport stamp!), and grab some breakfast as well as a sandwich to eat on the train for lunch. We got food at Pret A Manger (shout out to Chris for the rec!). It was perfect take-away food for a train ride.
The boarding process is interesting. You board by platform number, which is announced 20 minutes before departure, as well as coach number. So we know approximately where we’d be going but not exactly until the platform number showed up. Once our number came up, we took the moving sidewalk upstairs and got in line for coach 12. Somebody eventually came to us and said that since we were at the back, we could board from the back door. We were in the back row of our coach, so we stored our suitcases in the storage area right behind us and put our backpacks up top. We were ready!
Ken and I ended up on one side of the aisle, seated together, and Pauline was across from us, next to a very nice woman. Ken and I decided that was perhaps a perfect arrangement because she could chat it up with the stranger while the two of us introverted and kept to ourselves. Here she is chatting instead of paying attention for our picture…
And now here is a pic of the three of us paying attention.
The ride passed by quickly. We read, napped, ate lunch, and enjoyed the countryside. There were flowers upon flowers in fields out the window!
Ken checked our location on Apple Maps and saw that we were about to go under the English Channel, so we knew exactly when we were under water, which was cool!
When we arrived at Paris Gare du Nord Station, we were off the train quickly since we were right by a door. We made our way to the metro, and thanks to our VRBO host, were able to make quick sense of the route we should take to get to our flat. We were on the metro for one stop before getting off. Here’s our first view of Paris - it was beautiful at first sight!
We then had a very short walk to get to our flat. It’s a nicely updated unit in an older building, right in the middle of all sorts of cafés, bakeries, and happenings. So far, we think it’s a great location!
We took a few minutes to get settled before heading out to do some exploring. We decided we’d head toward the Seine and to see the outside of Notre Dame. On the way we found a park-like place with a monument of sorts. It was called La Tour Saint-Jacques. The area, minus the monument, reminded me a bit of the Arboretum on UNC’s campus. Beautiful tulips there! I don’t know how you say favorite in French, but they are mine for sure!
Here’s our first view of the Seine…
The line to get into Notre Dame was VERY long, snaking around for quite a while. We are hoping to get in on Monday (maybe with a ticketed entrance time?) once the Easter weekend has passed, so we’ll see if that works out. If we can’t get tickets, we’ll stand in line on Saturday or Sunday.
At the top of my list - other than the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame - is Sainte-Chapelle and its stained glass windows. It’s on the same island as Notre Dame and just a super short walk from there, so we headed there next. Again we found a line of people, though nowhere close to as long as for Notre Dame. We only saw signs for timed entry, so we stepped aside to see if we could purchase tickets. It seemed as if tickets were sold out for the whole time we were here… or the website wasn’t working… and we weren’t sure which one. We asked a man about buying tickets to go in, and he told us to come back at 6:00 (it was currently 5:30). We saw a café across the street, so we decided we’d go there for a quick drink and appetizer.
What we didn’t take into consideration is that Parisians live on slower time… so by the time we got back to Sainte-Chapelle, it was 6:15 and we were too late. Another man told us to come back at 9:00am tomorrow… and actually to arrive even earlier. I’m going to do some research online tonight, but if we can’t get tickets, I’ll likely be an early riser in the morning! This picture of a very small part of it will have to do for now, because it’s all we could see from the outside, hidden behind that other building!
We decided to start the walk back to our flat and see what we could find for a restaurant for dinner on the way. We ended up at an adorable bistro, Le P’Tit Bistrot. Yelp had 32 reviews and it had 4.8 stars. It was very good! Ken and Pauline essentially got ham and cheese on bread with frites, and I got a steak. We tried the Paris version of deviled eggs just to say we did… I was not a fan. And for dessert - a Nutella crepe!
We walked back to the flat and realized we are in a hoppin’ area! It’s not nearly as noisy inside as it is outside, but I’m glad I brought my mini sound machine.
Another country and another great day = another banner day!
Check out Ken’s blog at worshamsgotoiceland.blogspot.com.
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