My trip didn't get off to a good start, I'd just boarded the train to St David's (Exeter's main station) when I realised I'd left my camera at home. Luckily I'd left enough time to get a taxi back to my house, grab the camera then back to the station before the train to London. Because of works on the main line to London my train was diverted via a much slower route (taking the Waterloo route to Yeovil and then cutting up to rejoin the normal route at Castle Cary) which added about an hour onto the journey. All was going well until the train caught up a late running stopping service at Slough and then being held at the junction for Heathrow, arriving at Paddington about 20 minutes late.
On arriving at Paddington I made a dash for the bridge to the Hammersmith and City line station (Paddington has two underground stations, the H&C has platforms in the mainline station, other lines have a seperate station outside the main entrance), only to find it barriered off, so headed for the main station, which was also shut, just the Bakerloo Line connecting with the H&C at Baker Street. So I squeezed onto the Bakerloo, and dashed up to the H&C platforms only to find a 10 minute wait for the next train. By this time it was getting close to 15 minutes before my Eurostar departed, check-in would have closed (officially shuts 30 mins prior to departure for 2nd class) and I was expecting to have to wait for the next Eurostar that stopped at Lille. Well I arrived at Kings Cross/St Pancras station, ran towards the Eurostar check-in, showed my ticket to and told to run! Security pushed my stuff straight through the X-Ray and the French Border Police saw me running up with an open passport and waved me straight through. I made it with about 2 mins to spare!
The journey to Lille was very quick and I took the opportunity to relax. But not for long as when I alighted I realised I couldn't find my phone. Fuck! So I thought I'd try and find the Hotel then see what I could do. So I took the metro to Grand Palais, and then spent about 20 minutes struggling to find the hotel. Turned out some twat had turned their cable tied sign around. Still the room was nice, even if the view was only good if you liked Autoroutes and TGVs (it overlooked the ring road and the railway sidings). The good news was that I'd bunged my phone in my bag rather then in my pocket.
I spent the rest of the day nosing around town and admiring the local architecture and fashion (no Jack Wills and the only Uggs were on a tramp!), the French are so stylish even the chavs looked smart!
Sunday was pretty much the same. Though I made sure to visit the Palais de Baux-Art which I can highly recommend. My regret was that I didn't manage to borderhop to Kortrijk, but things conspired against me (ie I got to the station to find the next train was due very soon and the queue for the ticket office was longer then the time before the train was due out!
The journey back was very smooth with no mad rushes and I was back in Exeter about 4 hours after leaving Lille (with a 45 minute wait at Paddington) - I really want to go again! The French have a reputation for rudeness that I didn't see at all, everyone was polite and forgiving of my broken French (and fall back of Parlez-Vous Anglais) - even the Transport Police hit squad who decided to blitz one of the Metro stations for ticketless travellers were polite.
Somewhere under the Sea!
Kent at 180mph
Dartford Bridge
Back to St Pancras
more photos here
