Posts Tagged ‘eurostar breaks to Paris’

We’d like to tell you about our Eurostar breaks to Paris and the Marais quarter recently. We booked the Eurostar train only via a link on the Eurostar Breaks website and by being flexible with dates and booking around three months in advance managed to secure the £69 return tickets that we wanted, with seats together and at a civilised time of day, neither departing too early in the morning nor arriving back too late at night, so that was all good. Ideally, I would have like to have travelled from Stratford International changing at Ebbsfleet international but that seems to narrow down the choice and availability too much so it was to St Pancras Station that we needed to set off for, after the 9.30 am rush hour time zone ended. St Pancras is a lovely station mind, with good quality shops and cafes so that’s no great hardship really, and if the Circle Line tube isn’t running for some reason, as sometimes happens at weekends, then there are always plenty of alternative options.

St Pancras Station for Eurostar Breaks

Since the new high speed one line was completed a couple of years ago, the journey through East London and Essex is so much faster and you wizz through Ashford and arrive at the channel tunnel entrance at Folkestone in no time. Then there’s the rush through French countryside and as you enter the suburbs or Paris, a curious thing happens. All the French people on the train get out of their seats and start getting their belongings together and queuing up in the carriage corridor. There’s still five minutes left to travel and everybody is going to arrive at Gare du Nord, so why do they do it? It’s a mystery.

Having booked the Eurostar breaks only, we had to find a hotel for our stay in Paris and that’s something I’ve done lots of times before so it’s not a problem, it’s just that there’s a little concern over getting a reasonable hotel these days since the prices have gone up a bit, year after year in Paris. If you go by the websites, then you’d think you have to pay £250 a night ( or rather two hundred and fifty Euros) but that isn’t actually the case. Simply by asking it is common to obtain a 20% discount off the advertised rate for a room, but if the first two or three hotels you look at are already fully booked, then it does make you tend to accept the first vacancy available after that so beware.

Choosing which quarter you want to stay in Paris is the important thing, and after staying in the Latin Quarter so many times we decided to try the Marais instead this time and it worked out really well. The Marais has plenty of interesting streets to wander about in, lively cafes, tasty restaurants and colourful people. It’s all there. The best way to show you how much we enjoyed our Eurostar break in Paris this time in the Marais I think is to included a bunch of photographs from the trip which I hope you enjoy looking through and inspire you to maybe visit the Marais yourself next time you’re travelling to Paris for a short city break by Eurostar from London.

Paris Eurostar breaks are fastest

Paris Eurostar breaks are the fastest way to escape from London to another country for a couple of days.  Having booked the Eurostar tickets online, you can turn up at St Pancras station half an hour before departure, check in and be away on the most exciting train in Europe. Hurtling through the countryside and underneath the English channel you arrive at Paris Gare du Nord in just over two hours and walk straight off the train into the streets of north Paris, ready to amble along the boulevards Magenta , Madeleine and rue la Fayette. In this area it is possible to wander down a side street and find somewhere to eat, drink and sleep just by walking in to a cafe, bar or hotel and seeing if it takes your fancy. There’s no need to book a rigid itinerary unless that’s what you want to do.

Eurostar breaks for Art lovers

Paris is the best place for Art lovers who want to visit several galleries in one weekend by taking a eurostar break to Paris and then getting about on the Metro or the batobus. There are so many to choose from:

• The Musee d’Orsay – A huge art gallery in a disused railway terminus
• The Picasso museum – a collection of Picasso paintings and artefacts to rival Spain
• The Louvre – The most prestigious and famous art gallery in the world
• Rodin Museum – Sculptures by Rodin in a grand house and gardens

Rodin's The Kiss

That’s just the beginning. If you can do a little bit of reearch on the ground once you arrive in Paris you can discover a whole world of little open house exhibitions, studios you can visit, events and happenings with artists converging on Paris from all over the world for it’s inspiration and reputation. Al genres are represented somewhere in this fantastic city, it’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open and being willing to explore some of the less well known areas, making the most of  precious eurostar breaks from the very start.

Eurostar Breaks from London

I have to look at Eurostar breaks from a London perspective for now, being based in London myself having access to the St Pancras Eurostar terminal within what, about twenty minutes or so. That means I can leave work on a Friday afternoon if I’m prepared, get to the Eurostar station for about five thirty and then be on the six o’clock train to Paris. So for me, Eurostar breaks mean principally weekend breaks to Paris.

Eurostar breaks to Paris

Paris is a city you can never tire of, so I try to get in several Eurostar breaks to Paris every year. Living in London, you’d think something other than just visiting another city would be called for and to be honest, most city breaks in Europe wouldn’t hold any attraction for me but Paris is not just any city. It’s the most popular visitor destination in Europe by far, and that’s for a whole host of good reasons.

Eurostar Breaks Sacre Coeur

Take the Sacre Coeur for example, illustrated above. There are always hundreds if not thousands of tourists on Paris breaks walking around the stepped gardens, the little square with all the touristy artists and enjoying the view across Paris. That doesn’t mean it’s a place to avoid though, the atmosphere is pretty easy going and it’s a place you can return to again and again whenever the busy streets down below get a bit much, which isn’t too often either, I hasten to add.

Weekend Eurostar Breaks

Eurostar Breaks - St Pancras

I’ve already explained why I like getting on board Eurostar breaks to Paris for my weekends off, and I work hard during the work so why shouldn’t I relax in France for a day and half as often as I can possibly get away with it? It may be different for you. You might be in the enviable position of having a bit of time off during weekdays and not just weekends, which means you’re in luck. You’ll be able to take midweek Eurostar breaks and have a much more flexible itinerary, avoiding the busiest Eurostar trains and getting the lowest fares.