England, Scotland, Ireland, and Paris 2022

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Today started out early.....first at 3:00 (I set my alarm wrong), then at 4:30 (we had to get to the Eurostar early for security, passport, and boarding. We had been to the terminal last night and saw the crowds and long lines. A policeman said to be there no later than 5:30 (7:01 departure time), so that's what we did. We hated to leave our cute hotel room, but off we went dragging our luggage, or at least part of it, to the train station. This station was beautiful inside and out. We were shocked to find that there weren't as many people as we thought since ours was only the 2nd train of the day. We got through security with no problem. Passport control was really just a stamp your passport and go situation. We each got something for breakfast from the café and found a place to relax until our boarding call.

One of the security guards offered to take ort picture at we arrived at Track 6. We then found our seats and waited for the train to start. I really thought it was going to go much faster than it did as it was only 2.5 hours to Paris. It was such an interesting ride. Part of the time we were above ground and part of the time we were in tunnels. We didn't even know when we went under the English Channel until I overheard a passenger say we had just cleared the channel. We didn't really see any towns, but there was lots of beautiful farm land.

Once we arrived in Paris at the Gare du Nord Station, we quickly disembarked and found our way to the main exit. We were herded outside rather quickly. It seemed there was a lot of police presence and some areas were roped off. I inquired about toilets but was told we couldn't go downstairs. We weren't sure how to get from Gare du Nord to our hotel as we thought we could take a train from that station. I spied a McDonald's across the street so we headed there to gather our wits, check our maps, and take a potty break. We decided it would be best to walk to the next subway station and catch the train from there.

I was fun just looking around the neighborhood, seeing the different stores and businesses. The streets were tree lined with a mix of old and more modern buildings. It was fun until we got to the station and had to walk down 3 flights of stairs dragging our 3 carry-ons, our purses, three small suitcases and Marsha's 50 pound suitcase. We were actually happy that we didn't have our other 2 large suitcases to drag around. The train was crowded but we made it and had to ride for 10 stops in order to reach our destination. Once there it was just about 2 blocks to our hotel.

I hate Paris, or so I have for the previous 3 trips I made there. When I planned this portion of the trip I did so trying to do something different so that I would actually like Paris. I pick out a Parisian Hotel....really quaint, near the Champs Elysee, complete with lots of pink and rose flowery wallpaper, a small courtyard, plus a typically European breakfast. We fell in love with the pace. They had us wait in the reception area, fed us chocolate croissants, and changed our room to one that was ready so we could check in. By noon we were checked in and ready to hit the streets and explore.

Our room was a two-room suite with a king bed in the bedroom and a sleeper couch in the living area. It had a long hallway lined with beautiful paintings with lights over them almost like you were in a museum. We fell in love with the room. We also fell in love with the area. We were just around the corner for all the ritzy stores.....Louie Vuitton, Harry Winston, Christian Dior, Channel, Tiffany.....just to name a few. Shealynn was in the height of her glory....that girl LOVES to shop!!

We walked the streets and took our time going in and out of the stores. I'm sure they took one look at us and figured we weren't really going to buy anything, but they sure treated us like we were goin to spend dome money. At Harry Winston, Marsha tried on a 3.5 carat diamond ring and then a 5 carat diamond ring. There was no price and we sure didn't ask. At Christian Dior a bottle of perfume was $240, but if you bought it and refilled it later you only had to pay $150 for the refill! We surely had fun and we did see some big shoppers.

Shealyn was on the lookout for someone famous. She really expected to see someone she knew from tv or the movies. We she did not get disappointed at all! As we were walking up the street we passed a very expensive café. She glanced over and there sat Steve Harvey. It took all we had not to yell "Were from West Virginia" or "Go Mountaineers", but we kept our decorum and let him enjoy his meal in peace.

Our goal was to go the Arc de Triumph, which wasn't very far from our hotel. We found a cute little sidewalk café and sat down to have a very late lunch. We shared a charcuterie board, and each ordered something to go with it, plus a drink. We really enjoyed just relaxing and people watching.

We checked out all the shops up and down the street. One was a pharmacy. Now at home a pharmacy had a variety of items....medicines, toiletries, snacks, and a few office supplies. The pharmacies here are a small drugstore in the back complete with your over the counter medicines but then it becomes a combination souvenir shop, candy store, bakery, grocery store, book store and just about everything you could want.

We walked back down the Champs Elysee and when we had walked our legs off, we stopped at a little stand in a park and had ice cream and crepes. We sat and watched the traffic. I have driven many times in New York City, but I'm here to tell you that I don't think I could drive in Paris. Pedestrians don't appear to have the right of way. Cars will zoom up to a street crossing and then slam on their brakes even though there is a red light and time for people to cross the road. It makes you be very careful, for sure.

As we were sitting on the bench, I looked at my watch and realized it was 7:30 When I planned this trip I scheduled a private tour around Paris at night. Our driver contacted me a couple weeks ago and said he was in an accident and broke his foot. He was awaiting surgery and would have to find someone to complete our trip in his place. He asked if we could change our time from 8-10 to 10-12 or do it on a different night. I told him we'd do anything necessary to keep this tour around Paris. I got tickets from the company but never noticed if they changed the time. So when I noticed the time I said "Gotta run girls. We have to be at our meeting place in 20 minutes! We took off,, not necessarily on a dead run, but a pretty brisk pace. When we got to the meeting place, we waited for about 15 minutes, then decided we were supposed to meet at 10. We headed back to the hotel to rest before we took our private tour around the city.

At 10 we met our tour driver, Roman. He was driving an antique French car from the 1930s. It had an open roof that we could stand up in and take pictures. He took us all around the sites of Paris for two hours. He shared history, showed us places on the map, drove around the sites and stopped so we could get pictures. He even stopped the car as key sites and had us all stand up through the roof so he could take our picture. I can't tell you when I've had so much fun! Everyone took note of this car. It seemed more people were taking pictures of us than we were taking of the sites! We certainly got a lot of attention. The final stop was at the Eiffel Tower for the hourly lighting! It was so worth what I paid for the reservation.

When you look at the pictures note the ones around the Arch de Triumph. There were 10 lanes of traffic and no lines marking the lanes! It was unreal. I hope you can see that in the pctures.

Once we were back in our room, we took our showers, had a snack and headed for bed. It was 2:00 am.

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