France at last!!

Today we finally got to Paris. We took the train in from Reading to town to catch the Eurostar over to the continent, and we werent the only ones on the train who were doing that. Mum ended up giving all sorts of motherly advice to a girl who was booked in to go to Paris but her friend had grabbed her sisters passport instead of her own and might not be able to make the train in time. Of course Mum told her to stop being silly and to just go on alone, but she was a bit of a drama queen and who knows what she ended up doing, we didnt see her again. She was even talking about getting her friends dad (who was general of some section of the army or something) to hold up the train, but somehow i dont think that was quite plausible.

We got to the Eurostar station safely enough, and after Mum set off all the alarms with her braces we settled into the lounge to wait for our train to board. Boarding we uneventful, and after getting on board and getting ready to set off, we only got about a minute down the track before the train was stopped again. Turned out there was a mechanic problems with one of the wheels, and after sitting around for 2 hours waiting for them to get clearance to go on, it turned out that there would have had to have been a severe speed restriction on the train and we would have had to proceed at a snails pace all the way to Paris. So they then (after we had already been waiting for 2 hours) decided to take the train back to the station and put us on another train!! So our trip to Paris was twice as long as it was supposed to be, but uneventful after that.

Tesni met us at the station, and we went and dumped our baggage at her apartment (which is very nice, by the way) and then headed into the Champs-Elysees to see the Arc de Triomphe at night and have a look at the Paris Christmas market. The Arc was wonderful, but everywhere was so crowded you could barely move. The market was once again disappointing, we are hoping that the other European ones will make up for it.

Then we got the train out to the station nearest our hotel (which is out in the Wops, out by Disneyland Paris for anyone familiar with Paris) and waited around for the courtesy bus to take us to our resort (which was late, of course).

However, it was all worth it, as the resort turned out to be wonderful, and is just like a little village, and has a restaurant and bar and indoor pool and steam rooms and the list goes on and on. We are in a lovely room, and although we are sharing a bed its huge so this shouldnt be a problem (and there is a sofa bed in case mum snores too much). ;) So we are all settled in now and thoroughly enjoying Paris.

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Part of trip: Big European Adventure

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