Ali's maiden voyage on the Eurostar

Amazingly, a train journey lasting 40 minutes from St Neots to London is more expensive than the ticket from London to Paris! And the government wants us using public transport a lot more...we get to St Pancras and I can see Ali getting edgy to go through to departures asap. However, Eurostar is like getting on any other train, although you have to put your case through a scanner and show your passport and then wait. And what's the worse thing you want to see at the departure gate, a group of 60+ english teenagers on a school trip...then we were hoping we weren't in the same carriage. The hope didn't work.

We picked up Brigitte in Ebsfleet, then after 20 minutes in darkness, we were in France and then in Paris. The Monna Lisa hotel, off of the Champs Elysee is marvellous, I've never seen a room use space so wisely. What we thought was sliding doors for the wardrobe is a toilet, it's like going in a cupboard. then the shower is in the other cupboard. The wardrove is the crevasse behind the headboard. Typical Parisian windows and juliette balcony. A short rest and then off to the Champs Elysee for a coffee and trio of desserts before heading to the end of the metro to Ali's cousins appartment for dinner.

My GCSE french ears pricked up, it's a lot easier to listen and understand than it is to speak. I'd never met Ali's family before, and lucky her other cousin was visiting from Germany so it was a mini reunion, we drank, we ate, we chatted and had a great time. We discussed idioms and now Ali and I are discovering so many more. It's really hard to translate english into english explaining 'cat out the bag', 'pot calling the kettle black', 'raining cats and dogs', 'ants in your pant's and getting your 'knickers in a twist'.

On our way back to the hotel in Jeromes car we did a new thing for me in Paris, we went around the roundabout below the Arc de Triomphe where there are no rules, it's whoever dares, wins. I video'd it I was so excited. A very long day, ending in the small hours of the morning.