Journey home
The bars outside my window were quiet overnight and I was ready at 7 am for my breakfast and my journey Metro ride back to the Gare du Nord. Breakfast was again in the cellar of the hotel.
At the Metro station I realised where I had made a wrong turn on Thursday as I had hardly any walking to do on the platform. The Gare du Nord was again a tourist nightmare with the Eurostar signing sometimes there and sometimes not. Luckily my ticket was able to get me ‘back in’ to the Metro station when I left through the wrong exits twice!
There were no niceties at the Paris end of the Eurostar and no announcement boards. I walked down to the gates and was told a very Gallic “Non”. It seems I was 30 minutes early for passing through. Then 30 minutes later I walked down again and was refused again as the train was delayed. This time my ticket was ‘helpfully’ scribbled on that the delay was for 10 minutes! After waiting again (in the cold) and walking back down again(!) I was finally allowed through.
French security required the lifting of all baggage up onto a waist high belt for the security scan. Once through I bought a coffee and waited in a sparse cafe. Once the platform was called I went there joining a large throng of passengers by the doors.
My interest was fixed on a Chinese lady with two huge wheeled suitcases who stood and blocked the entrance and was impervious to be the instructions to move and clear the passage.
One the doors opened she ran with her cases to the lists and that was the last that I saw of her. My seat was again an aisle seat and once through the tunnel I did manage an image of the clouds as we passed through Kent.