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Day 4: May 28, 2024
Today we travelled from London to Paris. To do this we took the Eurostar train through the Channel Tunnel from London St. Pancras Station to Paris Gare du Nord. We were booked on the 7am train, and as it’s an international train they have airport-style security and you have to arrive 2 hours before departure, and our hotel was some distance away, so we had to leave at 4am, meaning we had to get up at 3AM!!! The group was amazing, and everyone was down in the lobby with their bags by 3:55am. Some people managed to catch up on the train…
When we arrived in Paris the chaos we had been warned about began! (Paris is preparing for the Olympic Games at the end of July). The traffic everywhere is completely mad, and some roads have been closed completely. We dropped our bags at the hotel, then another bus picked us up and took us to the stunning Château de Versailles. After a lunch break we joined our wonderful guide Janice for a tour of the chateau. Unfortunately we had a dose of that famous Paris chaos here too - we had to wait for 40 minutes in the rain even though we had a timed booking. Once we were inside the palace was amazing though! We saw the State Apartments and the famous Hall of Mirrors, and then went for a wander around the gardens.
Afterwards we took the RER (a double decker suburban train) into the centre of Paris for dinner, which was couscous in a North African restaurant. As it was Tommy’s birthday today, the restaurant gave him a birthday candle that was more like a firework! He tried to blow it out and almost set light to Deedee!