Trying to decide between Paris and London this summer or fall? With the arrival of the Eurostar train, why not visit both? From London's Victoria's station it's only three hours to Gare du Nord in central Paris.
I found myself in London not long ago with a day to kill, so I wandered over to Victoria Station and boarded the 6 pm train, which gets up to speeds of 180 mph., and pulled into Paris around 9 pm. It was the strangest experience--bulleting through the darkness from one world, one language to another. Suddenly I was sipping caf?u lait, and everyone was speaking French.
I checked into a serviceable hotel near the station and woke up in Paris. First, I visited Les Catacombes--a 1,000-yard tunnel lined with some 6 million ghoulishly arranged skeletons. First opened in 1810, this empire of the dead is now illuminated with overhead lights--a lesson in mortality narrower and deeper than any Sunday sermon. Not having had enough of underground Paris, I headed to the Pont de l'Alma (Metro Alma-Marceau) and descended into the sewers of Paris, and wondered through miles of underground passages. And, no, the smell is not so bad.
In the early afternoon, I made my way back to the Gare du Nord and caught a 4pm train back to London. By 8, I was in the theater in London's West End.
The Eurostar has really changed the face of travel in Europe. A trip is as easy as a call to 800/Eurostar or keying in www.eurostar.com.