I Woke Up Early,

at 05.00 as it happened,

so I caught up with a few emails, then all of a sudden the alarm went off at 07.00 the couple of hours just flew past, time for a shower for both of us, and we were off, to Beckenham Junction, just in time to miss our train so we caught the 08.04 to St. Pancras,

where we had a quick breakfast,

then into the queue to check in our baggage and go through customs, as we left England and entered France,

for a romantic weekend break to Paris,

on the Eurostar,

like our afternoon tea in the Ritz we had booked this trip some months ago,

so it was time to settle down and get connected,

as the on screen instructions said,

the screen also told us that on the UK side we were travelling at 266 km/h,

rising to 288 km/h on the French side.

the train was huge, 16 carriages, the only problem was there was only one buffet carriage and with 80 or 90 people in each carriage there were a lot of people after an hour or two wanting a drink or a snack, that was the problem, only one person heating food, making coffees and teas, selling food and cold drinks and working the till, true she did have two supervisors that called in occasionally to check she was working, but neither helped reduce the queue of people waiting to be served, minus 1 star Eurostar,

on the plus side I then noticed our speed had increased to a staggering 293 km/h!

the French countryside just raced past,

we arrived in Paris, then made our way to the Metro, it is just like the tube in the UK, and cheap too, just €3.20 for both of us, 

14 or so stops later and we were walking towards our hotel, no not this one,

ours was a bit further up the road, the Hotel Concorde,

and nice it was too,

after checking in,

we went for a walk, 

to have a look around the area,

surrounding the hotel,

the we saw it, Diana's dream has come true, she has seen the Eiffel Tower in real life,

I then continued to take pictures of the local architecture,

everything slightly askew in the reflections in some of the buildings,

a quick pose from Diana,

and we were on our way, past a second hand military surplus shop,

I liked the double breasted sailors jacket, but too warm for Thailand!

we were looking for somewhere to eat, and the first we found was a Thai restaurant,

we decided against that one, 

and ended up here,

one of many in the area and had a beer a little further along the road,

and this was what we both thought Paris would look like,

wide boulevards,

with trees on both sides of the street as far as the eye could see,

we passed a florist,

as we made our way around the block and back towards the Pullman Hotel, a useful landmark,

I noticed this beauty, a 900cc Triumph Thruxton Bonneville, what a bike, for this years specification have a look here,

we ended up here, L'Express 27 for our evening meal,

starting with a glass of medicinal red wine,

our main courses arrived,

a cheeseburger and chips for Diana,

a extra large baked salmon for myself,

the food was excellent, one thing I did notice was the size of the coffee machine, it was huge,

on to desserts, a nutella crepe for Diana,

a crepe lemon for myself,

on to coffees a cappuccino for Diana,

which looked delicious, a latte for myself,

bill paid we both made our happy way back to the hotel,

the Eiffel Tower in the background as the sun set,

this is a bar/restaurant opposite our hotel,

we may give it a try over the next few days, also there are a few more on the roads from this roundabout next to our hotel,

so many to try,

having said that our hotel has a nice bar, 

but we were tired after a busy day, so past the reception,

along the corridor to our room, and we were off to bed.