David's Diary: Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Eurostar To Paris

Little did we know as we started our day that a simple trip to Paris would prove so taxing on our little group. We were up early, had breakfast, finished packing, and on our way by 9:00 AM to Waterloo station. We were taking the Eurostar train, which travels from London to Paris in three hours by traveling through the Chunnel under the English Channel. Today, the trip was going to take more than three hours.

On Sunday, a train broke down on the track that carries the Eurostar trains. It took many hours for this train to be cleared. This backed up all of the Eurostar traffic and resulted in people arriving in London eight to ten hours later than expected. The follow-on effect continued on Monday. By Tuesday, we had hoped that the backlog would have been cleared, but such hopes were dashed when we arrived at the station. We were an hour early for our train and initial indications were that our train was on time.

It was a test of patience for everyone in the waiting area, but a special challenge for us as we tried to keep Kevin and Allen entertained. It might have been easier if the delays for the train were accurate, but we had to suffer through delay after delay. New boarding times would be announced and then fifteen minutes later a further delay would be announced. It got to the point where the actual announcement for boarding resulted in a round of applause from the waiting passengers.

Kevin As We Enter The Chunnel

We successfully managed to get our entire luggage on the train -- when you travel for a year you don't exactly travel light. On the way to the Chunnel entrance the train was delayed once again due to mechanical concerns. This delay then meant that we missed the scheduled exit window from the Chunnel, which meant more delay while the driver waited for permission to leave. Through it all, Kevin and Allen squirmed and complained, but on the whole behaved very well in the conditions.

On arrival at Gare du Nord in Paris, we had more than a half-hour wait for the two taxies that we needed. We had to travel to Renault where we would pick up our van for the next three months.

Our Van

This van is to be our transportation until mid-October when we expect to be away on the boat. We were lucky and arrived at Renault only minutes before it was closed for the day. It was over an hour before all of the paperwork was completed, things were packed, and we had a tour of the van. This was a brand new van with only ten kilometers on the odometer when we left.

Our destination was a small village South of Paris. Our close friends Pierre and Pascale Senant have a home there that we will be sharing for the next five weeks. Thankfully, Pierre had provided us with excellent directions, but it took more than an hour for us to work our way through the Parisian traffic. Ten hours after we left our flat in London we had finally arrived at our new home-away-from-home.