London to Paris Hungover

Rita on the stairs of our 4th floor Paris apartment


Wake-up to an 08:00 alarm and know its not going to be a good day. My mouth feels like it is stuffed with cotton batton and my head feels like its been used as a battering ram all night long.

Shower, finish packing, have some toast and tea, say farewell to my Aunt, cousin and Holly and head off to the Beaconsfield station to catch the train into London. We miss the direct train as I thought an extra 10 minutes sleep was a great idea and ended up on the train doing the milk run (stopping at every station). Get to Waterloo station in time to catch the Eurostar to Paris. While Rita is standing in line to check-in I go and grab some coffee, water and sandwiches for the trip. Get back just in time to go through the check-in counter and we are told that you cannot bring open beverages through security. After one sip, dump the coffee and proceed to security. Rita and her luggage pass through but my bag is stopped and am pulled over to a side station where they remove everything from my luggage, send it through in 3 seperate containers and then check it for explosive materials. Nothing is found and they ask if I want to repack my bag. I said no and watched the security person put everything back into my bag. Both of us were not happy. Finally get to the train and our seats to find out we are sitting looking backwards. This is not normally a problem for me but after we started moving I realize I do not like this positon when hung over. After an uneventful 2 1/2 hour trip we arrived at the Paris train station. Grabbed our luggage and got off the train and saw that the station was heaving with people. I then realized the impact of France hosting the World Cup of Rugby was having on this city. We went to get a taxi to take us to our apartment as we were advised that the Underground has lots of stairs and it not very good if you have luggage. Got to the taxi area and saw the line for cars weave around the building and decied that we would tackle the underground even with our luggage. This was a mistake. We thought that London underground had a lot of steps but Paris has steps everywhere and vey limited escalator service. Found the ticket machines and only one was working and that only took credit cards. We figured out how to get the ticket machine to work and put in my Visa and guess what, it was rejected!! Went and stood in line at the Information desk and after about 15 minutes we ordered our tickets with the same credit card without a problem. Started the process of climbing up and down stairs to get to our platform and got on the train only to find out we were going the wrong way. Get off at the next stop and climb up and down stairs to get to the correct platform and get on the correct train. Get off at the right stop to catch a connecting train (that's right, up and down more stairs). By this time, I was sweating quite heavily and everyone else on the train were wearing coats and jackets. Finally got to our final stop and made the final exit up a couple of flights of stairs and int0 fresh air. After a 10 minute walk we found our apartment and guess what, its on the 4th floor and the building does not have an elevator. Rita was finished and made it up to our apartment without her luggage. After lugging mine up the very steep stairs I went back down and brought up Rita's bag. Collapsed onto the couch for a few minutes rest and then went right into shower.

The apartment is very nice and the neighborhood is fantastic with lots of great cafe's, restaurants and a pedestrian street with a daily market of fruits, vegatables and meats.

Went for a walk about and ended up at a small little restaurant and had a very nice dinner with a bottle of wine and back to the apartment where we were in bed by 9:30. Will be ready for a great day in Paris tomorrow.