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Published: July 28th 2006
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Part XIII
8th June - Thursday
We reluctantly left Bolton Abbey and headed for the A1, hoping we had left the van more or less how we had found it as Sandra and Paul were coming to stay in it for the weekend.
We went via the A59 over the moors to Blubberhouses and in to Harrogate, an elegant and famous spa town we drove down the Stray, an area of open parkland some 200 acres (800,000sq m), which runs through the centre of the town. Harrogate Stray was created in 1778 by an act of Parliament and is very impressive. We did not stop to try the disgusting spa waters - Linda had tried it and wanted Howard to suffer too!
From there it was on to Knaresbrough and the A1 and M1 all the way to London stopping at Watford Gap Services for our soup and bread roll bought in Harrogate. We had arranged to drop the car off in Euston for one very good reason…the Avis Car Hire place is 200 metres from the start of Ken Livingstone’s (Mayor of London) Congestion Zone. The congestion fee is payable when entering the central London area and
is £8.00 ($19.68) per day between the hours of 07:00 and 18:30. As we drove further into London there were signs saying how far away the Congestion Zone was and we were thankful we had an AA Route Finder map that we had printed out before we left home and only got a bit lost once.
We were sad to leave the very dirty car as it had served us well but we were about to start the next phase of or trip.
It was only a short walk to Euston Station and down to the tube where we caught a train to Waterloo station. As we had allowed ourselves plenty of time we had two hours to wait so put our largest suitcase into the Left Luggage Office and headed for the nearest bar for a few drinks before boarding the Eurostar. We had booked a tour so had to get our tickets from the tour leader and go through customs to wait departure.
· World Travel Awards: Eurostar has been voted World's Leading Rail Service Winner every year since 1998
· Eurostar has set the standard for international rail travel. It runs on various track
clearances and is powered by three different electrical systems. This includes overhead wires in Belgium and France and a third rail in Britain
· Each train has 18 cars and 766 seats
· On 30 July 2003, Eurostar broke the UK rail speed record reaching 208.0 miles per hour on the new UK high-speed line
· The train spends only 20 minutes in the tunnel
· The fastest London-Paris Eurostar journey time is 2 hours 35 minutes
The tunnel consists of 3 interconnected tubes: 1 rail track each way plus 1 service tunnel. Its length is 31 miles, of which 23 miles are underwater. Its average depth is 150 feet under the seabed.
We enjoyed our train trip but it was a bit hard to appreciate the countryside as we were travelling so fast. Fortunately northern France is not a particularly interesting landscape.
When we pulled in to the Gare du Nord it was dark and we were asked to follow Patrick our tour leader out to the coach (about 15 of us). As we had to get across the City to reach our hotel, which was in the southeast area of Boulogne-Billancourt, we had a lovely
Tour Eiffel & Ecole Militaire
Note the queues waiting for the lifts at the Tower. night tour of Paris including the Place de la Concorde, the Madeleine, Place Vendôme (home of the Paris Ritz hotel and very exclusive boutiques) and the Place de la Bastille. We also went through the underpass parallel to the Seine at Place de l’Alma where Princess Diana was killed in 1997. The bronze Flame of Liberty to the east, a replica of the one topping the torch on the statue of Liberty is now an unofficial memorial. We went past the Opéra just as the patrons were leaving and saw the Tour Eiffel and its light show that happens for 10 minutes on the hour (a Millenium thing). It was a lovely start to our trip
We were given our room keys and it was bedtime. Like most Paris hotel rooms it was tiny but clean and adequate with tea/coffee making facilities and it even had a fridge - most unusual. The lift was tiny - just enough room for one person and a suitcase - good job we were on the first floor.
Total Travelled (by car) Today 238 miles (308.8 kms)
9th June - Friday
We had been asked to be ready for the
coach at 09:00 so we went down to breakfast early and were very pleasantly surprised at the spread. There was even a pile of oranges to juice yourself plus everything imaginable for a Continental Breakfast.
We were being given an orientation tour of the cit this morning and then dropped off in front of the Opéra around 11:30 as this afternoon, night and all the next day/night we were free to do or own thing which suited us just fine. We would meet up on Sunday to catch the coach back to the Gare du Nord.
The coach drove us along the River Seine to the Jardins du Trocadéro. Here we had a photo stop, as there were great views of the Eiffel Tower. Patrick our tour guide was very knowledgeable and we learnt that this is where Hitler once stood to admire the tower. There is always one on any coach and we were kept waiting by a Portuguese couple for ages so this cut short further stops.
From here we went to the Arc de Triomphe and were amazed when told that cars coming onto the roundabout had right of way - hence all the
Place de la Concorde
One of the fountains in the square confusion and mayhem. We then went down the Avenue des Champs Élysées to the Place de la Concorde, which we had seen lit up the previous evening. Apparently on big holidays like Bastille Day and the end of the Tour de France cycle race this area is packed and people just park their cars in the road and walk, collecting them the next day! This is Paris' largest square and was where the guillotine was situated in the French Revolution.
We were going to go to the Louvre but the area was cordoned off and a cavalcade official looking cars whizzed past with one policeman on a motorcycle waving BOTH arms as he sped by. We think it was Tony Blair visiting to sign some really important document!!
Next it was over the Pont Neuf (the oldest of the Seine’s 37 bridges - built 1578-1604) and passed the cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris (started in 1163). In the square in front of the cathedral is ‘point zéro’, a bronze star, where distances to every part of metropolitan France are measured. We drove passed la Sorbonne - University of Paris (founded in 1253 for penniless theology students) on
the Left Bank and made our way to the École Militaire at the other end of the Parc du Champs de Mars - home of the Tour Eiffel. You can still see the bullet holes in the stonework, which have been left, as a reminder that this is where the ‘worst’ of the Gestapo and SS troops made their last stand in the relief of Paris in WW II. They had nothing to loose so fought to the end here. This was another photo stop. Somewhere around here is a row of statues in a long park, which marks the meridian line. Paris was a contender for the Mean Time line that Greenwich won - better GMT than PMT!!! We also drove passed the Rodin museum and saw The Thinker in the garden; this meant I had seen it and we didn’t have to go there! It was a disappointingly small staue too.
From here we went to the drop off point at the Opéra and we were on our own.
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