The strikes in Paris were still impacting the Metro, all suburban lines as well as the Eurostar. After my one-on-one with Valerie Jardin the day before I was hoping for a “no incident” day travelling back to England.
My bathroom and the tiny lift …
Day 6: Tuesday 31st January 2023: Journey home from Paris
After breakfast I checked at reception about my taxi to the station. The strikes had increased the demand for taxis and as I waited, the manager was on the phone again trying to confirm a taxi for me. I learnt that the taxis (more than one) that he had been booked earlier had cancelled and this was his third attempt to rebook that morning.
Paying my bill was a little confusing as I thought I’d pay for breakfast when I had booked.
Here are my window views.
One last picture of the room as I finished packing.
Taxi to the Gare du Nord
My taxi did arrive on time at 9:20 am. It followed the same route out of the fifth as the Uber yesterday. The big difference being that the taxi could travel in the bus lanes. The driver explained that paying for this privilege was one of the (high) costs of being a taxi driver in Paris.
I was dropped off opposite the entrance to the station.
The Gare du Nord
Once inside, I headed for the Eurostar terminal. Just as on previous visits the ticketing inspectors were as grumpy and rude as before. With no outside signage how on earth are passengers to know when they could go through the gates?
I was told that I had to wait until 11 am to be able to go through. There are no waiting rooms on the Eurostar mezzanine. The majority of the space is taken up by a very long queueing space between barriers that only lead to more barriers. At the top of the stairs there is a small café/bookshop called Café Noisette. From their food stand I bought a small coffee and settled down to wait at the only free table.
Eurostar Gare du Nord
After this long wait, I joined the queue at 11 am and finally made it through to have my bags searched and my passport stamped. Once in the passenger hall, we were updated that none of the departure boards were working and to listen carefully for all announcements.
I went to the nearest food stand and bought a drink and a sandwich (very very expensive).
Sadly there is no free Wi-Fi available in the Eurostar terminal to ease the wait. I eventually sat on a bench to eat and to wait for the train to be called. In the terminal there are two gates to all the trains one for each half of the train.
The gates from the waiting area lead out to a landing that runs over the platforms below. Only the escalators to the waiting train were switched on and all the others were all blocked by barriers.
Once down on the platform finding the coach was easy but working out which end to board was definitely not.
Once at my seat I had lots of room and was sat by a window.
Bizarrely there were lots of empty seats despite the cancellation of many trains to London. The train hit 297KPH as it ran through the French countryside at 2 pm.
At 2 pm UK time the train emerged from the tunnel into England.
My journey across London on the underground was not too bad as rush hour had yet to start. However, leaving St Pancras for the underground I had to carry my bags down the steps to the Underground as with only one lift there was a long queue waiting.
