![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN2466-17.jpg\" "\\"paris\\"")
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If you’re not staying near the airport (departure or arrival), the Eurostar<\/a> is by far the most convenient way to get to Paris from London. Even though flights are short, the time and hassle with airport transfer eats into the total travel time …and your sanity. Since we stayed mere blocks from St. Pancras Station<\/strong> in London and like wise for the Grand Hotel de Paris (review here) from Gare du Nord<\/strong>, it was a short walk to and from both Eurostar stops. We’re not overly big history buffs so we budgeted 1.5 days in Paris for a highlights tour. Too tight a schedule for sight seeing AND shopping? Challenge accepted!<\/p>\n Eurostar<\/p><\/div>\n Travel tip: Purchase your Eurostar tickets well in advance, the closer to the departure date, the more expensive they become – if they’re available. Also note tickets take into account peak periods so there are different prices for different times of different days. Adjusting your trip dates to coincide with particular days can save you considerably. Eurostar also occasionally has sales, so keep an eye out for even more savings. Rolling into Paris through a spaghetti maze of rail tracks and overhead lines I couldn’t help but to think of the Star Guitar video<\/a> from the Chemical Brothers<\/em>, cue loop. Heading from west to east we lost an hour with the time difference but the journey was surprisingly short and ride was bearable. We left London with the temps in the mid teens so it was a bit of a shock to arrive a few hours later to a muggy 27C.<\/p>\n Street signage is hit and miss and the once welcoming clearly visible landmarkers of “Underground” for the London Tube were completely non existent for Paris’ metro system. Some entry points were notable by their antique green garden fence styling but were difficult to spot amongst other bits of architecture of similar vintage. The ones that did have more visible signage was sadly only visible from front on so if you were a block or so away it was pretty tough to scan ahead to see if you’re at least heading in the right direction, b-bomm.<\/p>\n So it’s the city of lights, love and history… well it has lights, there’s things you’ll love and there’s plenty of history but if the only knowledge you have of Paris is from Meg Ryan spawned movies and stories from travel brochures, you will more than likely be sadly disappointed. Paris is like any other big first world city, its dirty, noisy, congested and polluted. Even in the short walk of a few blocks from the train station we encountered more shady ethnic types than last year in the Bronx<\/em> or Brooklyn<\/em> in NYC! But don’t let this discourage you, the history is certainly there with an abundance of sights to see and with the short stay we had, we had our work cut out for us.<\/p>\n Paris 2011 part #2 – Sight Seeing<\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSCN2437-2.jpg\" "\\"Eurostar\\"")
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\nParis 2011 part #3 – Shopping<\/a><\/p>\n