I did a little bit of work for Eurostar recently. Not much. Just a meeting really, talking about their blog and flickr stuff, not enough to charge them anything. So I asked instead that they do something nice for my Dad, who's a bit of a train-nutter, show him around St Pancras before it opened, something like that. Instead, they very kindly offered us both tickets on the first new, high-speed, carbon-neutral train to Paris yesterday. Brilliant. Unfortunately, at the last minute, my Dad couldn't go on the actual trip, though he still came down to see us off. (Actually, I suspect he was quite glad, he spent almost the entire day at St Pancras, I think he had a great time.) So, instead, Mr Paul Colman, generously agreed to come with me.
Though, as you can see, he's not that different to my Dad.
It was a fantastic day. St Pancras is a real achievement, something I wasn't sure corporations could do any more. It's not quite finished, and some of the day had the air of when you invite someone round to your flat just after you've moved in and you can't yet find the sugar, but it's going to be a great station. The only obvious deficiency seems to be the glaring lack of bike-stands, which seems rather dumb given Eurostar's massive efforts to be green. Hopefully that'll get fixed soon.
The first train had lots of people who'd been involved in Eurostar's Tread Lightly doo-dah. And us. And John Grant. And the odd celeb.
The best new thing about the journey is the speed you get out of London, one minute you dive into a tunnel, the next you're saying 'is this Stratford?' the next you're whizzing through Ebbsfleet. After that it's a crossword and a cuppa and you're in Paris just in time for the strikes.
We only bumped into one march but it was properly French. Beneath the paving stones lie the hi-viz jackets.
We wondered aimlessly for a while, had coffee, croque monsieur and crepes (all the cliches).
We were impressed by the boldness of the local bird-life.
And by the Parisian commitment to neon.
And I was very struck, walking across the bridge at the back of Gare De L'Est, how much more beautiful rail travel is compared to road and air. I know this isn't an original thought, but a railway station is such a compact assembly of lines and crossings, all with tremendous implications of movement. Airports are too spread out to be interesting, or comprehensible. More rail travel for me in 2008, I think.
And then it was back to St Pancras, which looks stunning at night, and home.
looks awesome.
apparently the lack of cycle racks is due to the vehicle exclusion zone, set up as one of the terrorism security measures. seems odd they couldn't think a way around it though...
Posted by: doug | November 15, 2007 at 02:46 PM
Nice pictures (are those scanned in polaroid pictures? I found my old polaroid at the bottom of a box the other day and keep meaning to buy some new film).
And how cool that you get treats for your dad instead of money!
I was down at St Pancras myself yesterday, bright and early, to shoot some video for the Qype blog. Have a look here: http://en.blog.qype.com/2007/11/14/st-pancras-international-part-2/
I was pretty impressed by the whole thing, very jealous that you actually got to take the train. Think I may have to wait a while until that happens.
Posted by: Linus | November 15, 2007 at 03:11 PM
Life in the milieu.
Posted by: Ben | November 15, 2007 at 05:25 PM
Cool! That sounds like a splendid day. I got to arrive in St P yesterday morning on one of the super new East Midlands Trains. Which are not, at first glance, any different from the Midland Mainline trains they were until Sunday. But I did get to gawp at the station!
Posted by: kenny | November 15, 2007 at 06:18 PM
What a day - crepes, protests, wandering, V.I.Pness, and more wandering. Doesn't get much better than that.
Posted by: Paul H. Colman | November 15, 2007 at 07:04 PM
It was one of my dreams for this year!If it is true about the saying "be careful what you wish for", I might get to Eurostar till the New Year's Eve :) One coffee in Paris, next in UK! Friends are on the way ;)
Posted by: ankhora | November 15, 2007 at 07:05 PM
I take it you had coffee (and crepes) in the Tuileries or am i mistaken ?
Posted by: christian | November 16, 2007 at 09:26 AM
I make that Coffee site the Jardin du Luxembourg, if I recognise those greedy birds. But probably not...
Posted by: James | November 16, 2007 at 12:48 PM
I went past St Pancras the other day and saw the signage for the 'luxury apartments' for sale.
The sign says limited edition apartments, 1 of 67! The phrases limited edition and luxury seem to make me angry these days. Limited edition flats! I mean really.
Posted by: Charlie Gower | November 16, 2007 at 02:28 PM
I think they may have sorted out the bike thing to some extent http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/11/stpancras_prote.php
:J
Posted by: john grant | November 19, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Love trains. Wish we had the nice trains (and stations) you do over the pond.
Thought I'd attach a new Eurostar site a colleague worked on that's quite fun.
http://www.getalittleparis.com/
Posted by: Rusty-Chubb | November 22, 2007 at 04:09 PM