My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

To Greece by train - and other journeys of the mind, body and soul

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It almost feels like we are on holiday already…

July 17th, 2009 by Chris · 9 Comments · Greece

…that was Callum’s com­ment when we arrived in Paris last night.

Breakfast this morn­ing at the Place du Tertre in Montmartre, next to the Sacre Couer, in a phe­nom­en­ally expens­ive tour­ist cafe. You pay for the ambience…

Last night we ate felafel and pommes frites on the banks of the Seine and then exper­i­enced the most ter­ri­fy­ing hail­storm — freak weath­er! Lightening flash­ing all over the city, tor­ren­tial rain and wind.

This morn­ing is much fresh­er than the sul­try heat (32C) of last night. We are soak­ing up the ambi­ence and munch­ing croissants.

Callum: The Eurostar was a lot bet­ter than I expec­ted. It was like a lux­ury coach inside. Tua Mia [teddy bear] got his pass­port stamped by a friendly French bor­der guard.

Jane: Such a high-class exper­i­ence. So smooth, so quiet, it glides grace­fully onwards as those dis­tinct­ive pop­lar groves and then the sprawl of Paris come into view.

We got a record­ing of the flap­ping timetable board at Gare du Nord for the BBC lost sounds archive (it was very excit­ing, Margaret!). Pink, rough loo roll told us we were truely in France. Eurostar seats were com­fort­able enough to sleep in. Callum and Jane par­tic­u­larly liked the toi­lets. This is such a civ­il­ised way to travel!

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9 Comments so far ↓

  • Kerry and Athena // Jul 17, 2009 at 9:24 am

    Good to get a pro­gress report already — keep them com­ing! Athena and I are get­ting our euros ready to meet you’ steen Athena’ (ima­gine Greek script for that one)

  • sally // Jul 17, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Hi guys — sounds like you’ve got off to a great start! Enjoy the next part of the trip — look­ing for­ward to track­ing your progress.……
    Look after Tua Mia & make sure he does­n’t lose his passport!
    xx

  • beth // Jul 18, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    Bonjour, or maybe buon­giorno tutti by the time you get to anoth­er com­puter, if you have already passed from the land of cour­gettes to the land of zuc­chini. Write more soon, I’m glad you’re hav­ing a good train experience.

  • Kerry and Athena // Jul 19, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    come on where’s the Venice blog — you are slacking!

    Only 1 more sleep before we join you…

  • Gordon & Martha // Jul 21, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    Your allot­ment is full of red­cur­rants, not to men­tion eels. Luckily the rain here obvi­ates any need to water your veget­ables. Glad you’re mak­ing steady pro­gress towards your destination.

  • Jennifer // Jul 22, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Mmm — the best fela­fals I ever had were also in Paris; and, of course, the best cof­fee too. Oh, and def­in­itely the best croissants.

  • chris // Jul 24, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    there arn’t any inter­net cafees in venice

  • callum // Jul 24, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    we did­int have zuch­iny* in venice but we did have some nice lem­on ice cream.….. HMMMMMM.…YUMMY!

    *how do you spell it?!

  • callum // Jul 24, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    when you get to grees ther is greek keys on the keyboard!

    P.S. i wrote this just after you left on the ferry to Paros!