The other week I finally jumped into my tourist shoes and took a day trip to Paris by Eurostar for my Mum’s 50th birthday. I have been to Paris before but mainly with work and not to indulge in the sights and sceneries of the city of Love.

Admittedly I was a bit dubious about this trip as I thought the day would just involve a lot of walking around, pointing at buildings and queuing at the attractions. I was pleasantly surprised!

Firstly the journey to Paris with Eurostar was excellent. We travelled out Leisure Select from Ebbsfleet International and arrived into Gare du Nord, Paris in just under 2 hours 5 minutes. The journey was smooth and the staff were lovely, not to mention efficient. Breakfast was served a little after departing and I have to say, I was expecting flight food. What we got was a very hot breakfast that didn’t disappoint.

Once we arrived in Paris, we took the Metro to Champ de Mars to visit the Eiffel Tower. The Metro is extremely easy to use and frequent though I do advise to use a Metro map. Although we did not go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we did have lunch in the gardens that overlook it. I could of honestly sat there for ages looking at this awe-inspiring feat of engineering. The only downside is that I didn’t take enough pictures.

A view from the Park we had lunch in.

After lunch we decided to head to “Les Catacombs de Paris” so jumped back onto the metro and headed for Denfert Rochereau. There was a long queue there but it went down very quickly and all in all it only took 25 minutes before we were walking down the long spiral stairs into the caves. It was a very interesting but eerie walk, and the levels of bones in this cave are amazing. It was easily around 6ft high x 10ft deep. The walk lasted around 30 minutes with lots of informational plaques along the way. This tour is a must for those interested in history.

The last sight we wanted to see before we left was the Arc de Triomphe but my sister thought it would be a good idea to walk the full length of the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to get there. So, we got off at Metro stop ‘Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre’ and proceeded to walk through the Garden of Tuileries, onto the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. As our day trip was on a Saturday the Champs-Elysees was packed with tourists and locals alike but you would understand why when you saw the shops that lined the street. Put it this way, it’s a shopaholics dream.

Although the walk took ages (40 minutes infact), it was a great experience and definitely worth a go if you enjoy walking. We finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe and believe me it’s an amazing historic building that is surrounded by a huge free-for-all roundabout that can make your toes curl at the sight of cars racing around inches away from other vehicles. We didn’t go up to the top of the Triomphe (partly due to being too tired) but from what I have heard from friends and colleagues it’s a magnificent view not to be missed.

While we only travelled to three sites in Paris, it took all day to do so. I would advise anyone wanting to fit all the major sites and attractions in before they leave to consider a 2/3 night stay.

We headed back to Gare du Nord in the early evening and hopped back onto Eurostar for our return journey. We sat in standard class this time and I have to say, ’standard’ doesn’t really fit the description of my experience. The leg room was spacious and the journey was as smooth and comfortable as the outbound journey. The only difference was that you are not greeted with a free food/beverage cart but there was a whole carriage where you can buy hot foods, drinks & confectionary for the children as well as the ability to mooch about freely. Ok, there is probably more differences between the classes, here is a chart provided by Eurostar detailing the comparison.

We arrived back at Ebbsfleet again in just under 2 hours 5 minutes and 10 minutes after stepping off of the train; we were in our car heading home. In summary my experience of Eurostar was second to none and in my opinion it is by far the best way to travel to Paris and other European destinations. Paris was excellent, a complete joy to wander around and soak up the sites and scenery of one of the best cities in the world. There is so much to do in Paris so I advise a 2/3 night stay to fit everything in.

P Diddy will be back in September with an album that uses Eurostar and love as it’s inspiration . The new era of train music will be based around the the time worn tale of man meets - and is infatuated with woman, man gets it together with woman, man and woman split up, and get togther a few times… when they split she moves to Paris and he goes to London… Lovestruck man realises he’s messed up and needs to get the lady back - it’s foggy so he can’t fly - the roads are shut - the only way for him to get it on is to take the 9.45 to Paris - only thing is that the last train leaves St Pancras at 20:05 so he’ll need to get slightly less romantic train at 05:30 the next day - the things you do for love. Can’t wait to hear the lyrics to this. This concept reminds me very much of Kraftwerk and their Trans Europe Express.

Following news of Guardian travel writer Benji Lanyado’s planned trip to Paris recently, the day has arrived for his departure for Paris from St Pancras, London.

For those new to the story, Benji’s actions in Paris will be influenced solely by suggestions given by his 321 or so Twitter followers.

@benjilanyardo #TwiTrip Updates on Twitter

You can follow his updates here, here, here and via this blog.

Read more…

This clip, taken from BBC’s Britain From Above series, uses GPS technology to visualise the 7,500+ aircraft that crowd Britain’s sky each day.

The below YouTube video clip shows the 400 ships that pass through the straits off Dover within a 24 hour period.

When making travel arrangements for your next holiday or short break to Paris, why not consider taking the greener alternative - Eurostar. Eurostar generates ten times less CO2 than flying the same routes.

It was reported last week that normal service will resume on all Eurostar trains from 23rd February, following the disruption caused by the Channel Tunnel fire last September - resulting in London to Paris journey times of 2 1/4 hours. This a lot quicker compared to flights from London Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport when factoring in the hefty European check-in times - so it’s not only the environmental impact to consider.

Note: You can read the latest on Benji’s Paris #TwiTrip travels here.

In an interesting Guardian article posted yesterday, travel writer Benji Lanyado asks whether the recent adoption of Twitter as the micro-blogging site of choice among the celebrity elite, tech-geeks and marketing gurus could become the solo traveller’s best friend.

Twitter - Latest Tool to Revolutionise Online Travel?

Stephen Fry has been championing the usefulness of Twitter, claiming he is always using it while on his travels. Already ranking 3rd in Google search for the term ‘Blog‘, Stephen Fry is now one of Twitter’s most followed users (85,000 followers and counting).

And so, having researched the stories having broken via Twitter before even the local media knew anything about them (Denver runway plane crash and the Hudson river emergency landing), Benji - Twitter profile benjilanyado, announced how he planned to run an experiment. At some point in the not too distant future, the Guardian travel writer will be departing for Paris. Very little pre-planning is going into his travel schedule. In fact, the writer will be relying wholly on tweeted tips from his twitter following.

Interestingly, while road-testing the system, he asked yesterday whether anyone could suggest a ‘cool/cheap hotel for Paris next week. challenge mamashelter - its story of renovation posted here back in October 2008. Hotel Particulier De Montmartre was another hotel listed on Benji’s feed, along with hotel price comparison site hotelly and Oops Budget Hotel. The Paris camp site idea would perhaps end up buried under later tweets. A real stroke of genius came only two hours of the original hotel request tweet… Brillliant Tips posted a blog entitled ‘Travel via Twitter - Looking for a Cool Hotel in Paris?‘ aiming the post squarely at the travel writer.

Paris Boutique Hotel, mamashelter

I am looking forward to establishing if Benji’s plans to tour Paris, guided solely by user’s tweets will succeed. I am putting faith into this little endeavour and believe it will provide further evidence of Twitter’s emergence as the tool to revolutionise online travel.

I will be reporting back here regularly, updating you on Benji’s progress.