Off to Paris I go
Thursday, June 7th, 2007So, last time I was touring around England on vacation was Spring Break more than a few years ago. At one point we saw a sign for quick trips to France so we packed up, jumped on a hovercraft in Dover, and soon after wound up in Calais. Always wanted to ride on a hovercraft so that was pretty cool!
This time around it was a train that took me from downtown London to downtown Paris in under 3 hours. No muss, no fuss and no bother of getting out to an airport 2 hours early and all the joy that goes along with that. I jumped on the express train available in Richmond (after getting Stabux that was on the way) and 15 min later was in Waterloo station. From here I picked up the Eurostar and headed for Paris. I was lucky enough to get two younger folks (so much younger it made me realize I’m not in that category any longer) who were touring around fro different reasons. One had just wrapped up his MBA studies in Paris and had been staying in London for a pre-graduation vacation and was now heading back fro graduation ceremonies while the other had quit her job in AU and was traveling for 6 months. We had a nice chat and the family next to us did a reasonably good job of keepign their kids from melting down but man, what a mess they left.
When I got off in Paris I did the normal tasks- take money from the ATM, find the hotel, and got something to eat. Getting to the first night’s hotel was interesting. The cab driver had a hard time finding the place so he dropped me close and pointed in the direction I needed to go.
Side note: This would become a theme where cab drivers would expect me to know where the hotels and other locations were. I think every cab I was in had GPS, whcih I think is great since I generally feel like pre-GPS I was taken on the scenic tour, but how come they don’t have the “find hotel” function like my GPS’s do? Maybe the better question is why don’t they use the function as I assume it has to be there.
The first night I stayed in the Hotel Trocadero La Tour and while it was a nice place the reviews online were pretty accurate (the elevator really could only fit me and one suitcase). I was on the 4th floor and they were doing a pretty big rennovation so it was pretty loud when I first got to my room. Luckily I was exhausted so even the hammering on the wall I shared with the suite being updated didn’t keep me from getting in a quick nap.