Paris by Train - Eurostar and the Channel Tunnel
There’s nothing quite like rolling into a famous city by train - and the Eurostar rail service connects two of the greatest cities in Europe. Shooting between the centres of London and Paris via the impressive Channel Tunnel, in it’s fifteen years of operation Eurostar has proven enormously popular with tourists and business travellers alike.
The Eurostar connects the two capitals in just over two and a half hours, of which around 25 minutes is spent in the darkness of the tunnel under the English Channel (or La Manche as it’s known to the French). Opened in 1994, the 50km (30m) tunnel is some feat of engineering - it’s the longest undersea route in the world.
But Eurostar’s main attraction has always been it’s convenience. It travels between the heart of Paris, (the immense Gare Du Nord in the 10th arrondissement) and St Pancras station in the centre of London, plugging directly into each city’s subway system and avoiding weary journeys to suburban airports. Indeed, London’s St Pancras station is a sight in itself - recently reopened after years of near-dereliction, it’s beautiful gothic vaulting has been updated with stark blue girders, its concourse peppered with sculpture, and it’s platform graced with the longest Chanpagne bar in the world…
And Eurostar is surprisingly affordable, especially if you book in advance - the prices rise according the the availability of the tickets. You can get return trips as cheaply as £59 (77 euro) but you really will need to buy early - booking of trains opens three months in advance of your departure date, and be prepared to pay upwards of £200 if you leave it till the last minute. Compared to the standards of most British (and even many French) trains, Eurostar is extraordinarily comfortable throughout, with plenty of luggage space, and you’d need to have a real taste for luxury to even consider splashing out the extra for the sparse further comforts of First Class.
The Channel Tunnel itself has a chequered past - first proposed as far back as 1802, when relations between the French and the British were somewhat frostier than today’s entente cordiale, the project took some six years to complete, and cost the lives of several miners. It also ran massively overbudget, even was in danger of financial collapse even before its opening in 1994 - only strong nerves (and financial assistance) from the British and French governments ensured it’s continued existence.
