18 hours in Paris

We were up early and heading out of Cambridge by 8am - no breakfast toast to report today, but we did have 1 day old Sainsbury's jam doughnuts to munch on, so there was that.  Once again, we had lucked out with the weather as it was again cold & rainy during our travel day.  It was a straight shot down the M11 to London and we'd built in plenty of time to get to St Pancras to drop off the  rental car and to check-in for our train.  Now, I've driven in London a few times before but it can get a little squirrely at times, especially in you don't quite know where you are going and the GPS keeps on taking you on very strange routes, so you don't quite trust it 100%.  Well.  Things got really quite stressful, I'm sorry to say. 

We'd navigated our way to St Pancras fairly unscathed only getting stuck in a couple of roadworky traffic jams and I'd plugged in the SIXT car rental return address into both the car's GPS and my phone.  We followed the directions exactly (I was driving), keeping an eye out for helpful road signs and got to the destination - and it was NOWHERE in sight!!!!  We did another loop round, approaching from a different angle and still NOTHING!!!  No signs, no nothing.  I was starting to get a little panicky at this point (we had a buffer of time, but it wasn't infinite!) so I called the SIXT helpline number and got put through to the actual location to ask the guy Where The Fuck Are You? Meanwhile, as I was waiting to be connected, ManpanionTM had gotten out of the car to have a look around to see if he could spot it on foot (I was pulled over on the side of the road with my hazards on at this point).  Just as the guy from the SIXT office was starting to explain how to find them, ManpanionTM opened the passenger car door, slightly winded, and said "I've got it!".  I have never loved him more than I did in that moment (actually, not strictly true as I seem to love him incrementally more with each day that passes - much to his continued bemusement).  I guess we probably should have figured it out but it turned out that the car rental place was in a multi storey car park.  WITH NO EFFING SIGNS ANYWHERE TO TELL YOU!!!  When we got to the place, parked up and made our way in a jumble of nervous energy to the rentals desk, it turns out that this is a scene that plays out daily for them, as they (the car rental companies) are NOT ALLOWED to post any signs or directions out in the street.  How ridiculous is that????  WTAF?  The staff told us that people come in every single day and are angry with them about it, and they have to explain that its not their fault.  I felt bad for them - and they felt bad for me - and this mutual feeling bad and sympathetic towards one another must have been sufficient to blind the rentals guy to the new scuff marks on the tire rims I'd been desperately hoping he wouldn't notice!  I'd acquired those coming out of the car park in Banbury on day 1 (oops) and had been really worried I'd get absolutely nailed for some damage fee.  But no, I signed the car return document and we quickly went on our way - before they changed their mind!  That, as they say in the old country. is a Result.

Tasty snacks and a glass of bubbles to
get our trip underway.

So, it was a bit of a stressful start to the day (I don't think I'll be renting - or returning - any hire cars in central London again) but things did improve from there on in.  Our check-in process at the Eurostar was ridiculously simple as we'd signed up for a new facial recognition system that linked your ticket to your passport to your face - the sign-up process was very quick and easy - but I'm sure it probably sucked a bit of your soul out of you, as well as all your right to privacy etc, but hey - as the ultimate douche pass, it really couldn't be beat.  We simply walked up to the Express Gate altmost without breaking our stride as it recognized us as we approached and gave us the green light to proceed.  We had our own security baggage scanner with zero line and after our bags had gone through, another security guy escorted us to the front of the passport control line (I did feel a wee bit bad as placed us directly in front of the people waiting - but I got over it) where a suitably grumpy French border guard stamped our passports and we were on our way.  The whole process probably took a maximum of 3 minutes (half of which was taken up by my wrestling my stupidly cumbersome Patagonia hold-all onto the security screener's belt - which was set stupidly high up IMHO).  

ManpanionTM settles into bizmouse
class in the Eurostar

Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, we continued on to the Eurostar lounge, where we had about an hour or so to wait, so we restored ourselves completely with strong coffee and tiny little Frenchy style cafe cookies.  No other food - I guess we'd hit the awkward spot between breakfast and lunch.  But not to worry - we had been promised a gourmet luncb on board the Eurostar (specially designed by Raymond Blanc).  Before long, boarding was announced, so we rejoined the masses to throng our way through the departures hall and find our place in the Business Class coach.  It was alllll the way to the very front of the train and it was only about a third full, so ManpanionTM and I were able to spread out a bit.  I've been on the Eurostar before, many years ago, but this was his first time so he'd been keen to try it out as our way of getting to Paris.  One of the benefits of the train is that there are no luggage weight restrictions, so I didn't have to worry that our cases full of Maltesers would exceed the weight allowance.  

Lunch!  The hummus appetizer was surprisingly good

Chicken and potato gratin thing.  Not bad at all - and
mouth searingly hot!

It was a very smooth and uneventful journey (two fairly critical criteria for going through a tunnel under the ocean, I guess) and lunch was indeed served and was not terrible.  Not sure it was full-on gourmet, but it filled a hole.  The entire journey took just under 3hrs so we pulled into Paris Gare du Nord train station just before 3pm local time.  The main reason we were in Paris was to visit ManpanionTMs brother and husband who were there on vacation for 3 weeks-  we were going to be there for just one night!!  It was really nice as they both met us at the train station (along with another friend of theirs who was staying with them in Paris) and so we were in good hands as they took us to the Metro, to catch a couple of trains to where they were staying.  There were a few stairs I had to haul my unwieldy bag up and down - and one memorable moment when I was not fast enough in dragging it through the swooshy electric barrier gate behind me - thus resulting in it clamping my bag tight in the middle, when it was only halfway through!  It was proper stuck and it was only after a couple of minutes of people pulling back on the gate's barrier flaps that they managed to loosen them enough that I could heave my bag out of there!  (no pictures, alas).  

No words needed.  You may lick the 
screen.

After that excitement, we made it to M&A's with no further incident where we dropped off our bags, caught our breath before heading to a local cafe to get a coffee and do some light people-watching.  It was still raining and was pretty busy, given it was a Saturday afternoon - lots of people out and about doing grocery shopping, sitting chatting - and smoking.   I'm always surprised by just how many people still smoke in France and that there are no real smoking areas - people just light up wherever they like. C'est la vie, I suppose!  We took the Metro over to the Place de la Concorde, where we could see some of the preparations that are well underway for Paris to host the Olympics in July this year.  God only knows how the Metro is going to cope with the huge influx of people - it was pretty packed on a regular Saturday afternoon! We had hoped to visit the Hotel de La Marine - HERE described as an 18th Century jewel in the heart of Paris - but unfortunately tickets had all been sold out for that afternoon.  So instead we wandered over to the Church of Mary Magdalene to have a poke round (very ornate and fancy) before then spending another pleasant hour wandering about, checking out Napoleon's pole (ooer), before heading back towards the Hotel where we were booked into to enjoy dinner at their beautiful restaurant, Cafe Laperouse.  The inside was very luxey and fancy - and the food was exceptional!  Despite us only being in France for just over half a day, we were certainly making the most of our experience!  

ManpanionTM and SJBIL

Its a mystery how Parisiennes can have THIS
much actual whipped cream on top of their
coffee and all still stay so thin!

Stadium and stuff under construction for the 
Olympics with Eiffel Tower in the background

Understated church

With tablets in the collection baskets so you
can Venmo your donation, I guess??

Now THATS a big organ

Though not quite as big as this one....
Honestly, I can't take him anywhere.

If you look really really closely, you 
can see the Pointy Toblerone monument
at the very end of this street

Apparently this is how chic Parisienne men
wear their ties.  Good to know.

Yummy chocolate dessert at the Cafe 
Laperouse.  Layered with apricot, it tasted
just like a Jaffa Cake!

Interior of Cafe Laperouse

No pain, no gain, right?  We just couldn't
be in France and NOT have some tasty pastry

After dinner, we waddled back to the Metro and made our way home for the night, stopping briefly to buy some France-themed tote bags at Monoprix.  We had an early afternoon flight to Ljubliana, so would be leaving the house at around 9.45am the next morning - which gave us just enough time for breakfast and some delicious baguettes and pain au chocolate!  SOOOO GOOD!!!

And with that, our all too short visit to Paris was done and it was time for the next leg of our trip  and our third country in three days - au revoir, France!!  Slovenia, here we come!