The Train to Paris

The second part of our trip would take us to Paris by train. One of the nice things about booking this trip through Monograms vis AAA was the tour guides that were assigned to us in each of our destinations. The London tour person met us in the morning and arranged for us to get to the train station with our baggage using one of their tour busses. We really didn't have anything to do since everything was previously arranged for us. There was a crazy baggage check in at the station which was very nice while we waited for the train. 

The Eurostar was fantastic and very comfortable. Our ears kept popping from the ups and downs of the tunnel going under the English Channel. We took a nap in the dark Chunnel and woke up in France. The train ride was about two hours. It was interesting to travel through the countryside of France and the many villages with their church steeples. It was all very picturesque and then it transitioned into the outskirts of Paris before the view changed into one of the capitol cities of Europe.

We arrived at the Paris Gare du Nord station that was located in a very downtrodden area of Paris full of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. There seemed to be lots of homeless people near the station too. A real urban first impression. We were met by the Monogram person who us to our hotel which was small but very nice. We got settled in and took a little rest before we would begin our exploration of Paris.