Jamie and Scott Go Francing with Bruce and Myra

It's been awhile since we updated last so I will try to do this efficiently!

We spent Sept 13 - 21 in France with Scott's parents, these are his notes and our pics:

13 Sept 2008 (London to Paris the Hard Way)

Today turned from being a short jaunt from London to Paris on the Eurostar into an epic journey, all due to a damn fire on a freight train in the north tunnel of the Eurotunnel and shut down the entire Eurostar network 2 days before our departure (Sept 11). Instead of the 8am tube ride to St Pancras for a 10:00 train ride direct to Paris, we got up at 4am for a 5:15 taxi ride to Charing Cross to catch a 6am train to Dover. From Dover we caught a taxi to the ferry and ferried to Calais, which took just under 2 hours (it seemed ike longer with a group of east London ladies on their way for a wild weekend taking up residence at a table beside us), where we caught another taxi to the train station. A quick Ricard/wine/beer break we hopped onto the Calais to Lille train. Calais didnt seem to have much character, Lille seemed to have even less.

After another train journey from Lille we finally made it to Paris. We found the Metro after buying a book of tickets and tried to reassure my dad that we were on the right train.

The Paris Metro can be a bit daunting but not compared to Rome and both mom and dad handled it like pros. After getting off the Metro it was a short walk to our hotel, Hotel St Jacques.

We checked in and quickly freshened up before walking our next door for a quick beverage, and then on to Balzar's for our traditional first night in Paris meal. I went a little off script by forgoing my usual lmab and having steak tartare (raw ground beef). Jamie and dad went for the steak au poivre and mom for the roasted chicken. I think despite their initial reservations about the french food that they enjoyed.

After dinner, we decided that it would be a good night for a boat tour of the Seine. which I think my parents really enjoyed. The rain held off the whole time, which was nice. After the tour we walked back to the hotel, Jamie and I stopped for a quick night cap before coming back in. All in all a long but good first day back in Paris!