Day 11: London to Paris

Today, we said goodbye to London, just as the first rain of our trip began coming down. We had to take two taxis (as we've done several times in London) since few taxi drivers will take more than five passengers -- and even though St. Pancras was just 2.5 miles from our hotel, that short ride cost us nearly $50! Taxis are expensive in London (along with pretty much everything else).

Before I go on, one picture if forgot to post last night was of Wyatt, who got called by a street magician in Covent Garden to perform in front of a large crowd... he was shy, but stole the crowd! Here he is, getting a coin from this magician, who was really good and also hilarious:




Anyway, our Eurostar trip went flawlessly. Train travel with kids is really pretty enjoyable, much more so than air travel. Eurostar still has passport and security checks, but there's something a lot less stressful about a train station versus an airport. We boarded the 9:22, settled into our seats, and hurtled through the English countryside, under the Channel, and across miles of French farmland before arriving at Gare du Nord at just before 1pm (having moved our clocks up an hour).



Just to show how smooth the Eurostar ride is, here's my iPhone standing on end on my seat tray... not even a wobble, at over 160mph!





We then had a surprisingly pleasant experience picking up our nine-passenger van (!) right in the train station, and then met "French Papa" out front!





We had a really nice dinner in Machault at the house, met a number of Carolyn's friends, and got to hang out with family for the evening. The kids got to go across the street to the neighbor's house to enjoy some homemade apple juice (non-fermented of course!).Tomorrow we'll help the family prepare for Carolyn's wedding, and maybe visit the Chateaux of Fontainebleau (just across the street from our hotel). We're at a quaint little boutique hotel right in the city center.

Looking forward to a great and relaxing weekend here with family!