Europe

We had a relaxed start to the day today, getting down to breakfast around 9:00am. We over-indulged again, which was very easy to do at The Connaught because the breakfast is fantastic.

After breakfast we made a quick trip to Selfridges and then departed the hotel around 11:15am to head to St. Pancras Station to catch the Eurostar to Paris. We got to the station in plenty of time and relaxed in the lounge before boarding the train around midday for the 12:24pm departure.

The train trip was very comfortable and the Eurostar staff were excellent. We had a nice lunch on board, served with very nice wines and excellent champagne. We got to Gare du Nord in Paris just before 4:00pm Paris time, a trip of about two and a half hours.

We lined up to get a taxi for the short (less than 4km) trip to our hotel (Le Bristol) and after a short wait, headed off from the station. The traffic did seem a bit heavier than we had experienced before in Paris and quickly got even heavier. Apparently protests around the city (in response to proposed changes to the retirement age from 62 to 64) were in full swing. So, our less-than-4km taxi ride ended up taking more than two and a three-quarter hours (longer than the train trip from London to Paris!) and cost just under 90 Euros! Just sitting outside Gallerie Lafayette, we burned 20 Euros on the meter! Our taxi driver couldn’t even stop outside the front door of our hotel because the street had been blocked by the police. And just to get past them we were quizzed on our intentions.

By the time we checked in and got up to our room, it was about 7:30pm. We had considered going to Saint Germain for dinner but we were advised that walking was not a good idea and catching the Metro was a worse idea. Clearly, getting back in a taxi was not an option either! So, we ended up having dinner downstairs in the hotel, which was excellent.

We are now back in our room and will have an early night. We have no specific plans for tomorrow; we’ll just see what the day brings.