Date: 06 March 2013 Wednesday
09:50 AM St. Pancras International Station
A: ibis London Euston St. Pancras
B: St. Pancras International Station
Total travelling time = 9 minutes
We took the tube to King’s Cross St. Pancras Station, which is 1 stop away from Euston Station. We don’t think we will be back to London anytime soon so we returned the Oyster cards and got our deposits refunded.
Making our way over to St. Pancras International Station.
We cleared London Customs and proceed to the waiting area.
Waiting… waiting…
Time for boarding! I was hungry so JR bought soup & hot chocolate for us to share before having our breakfast on the train.
10:25 AM Boarding Time
Ready to board cabin 8.
Eurostar is a high speed railway service connecting London with Paris. The train traverse the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France.
Our first class seats on Eurostar. We were in the silent cabin and we had to control our excitement quietly.
Me & my baby bump ♥
Enjoying our breakfast before the train departs for Paris.
Breakfast was served not long after we finished our “first breakfast”.
Simple breakfast
14:05 PM Paris Gare du Nord
We arrived in Paris 14:05 PM (CET). The journey took about 2 hour 15 minutes, with the maximum speed of 300 km/h.
We took a cab from Paris Gare du Nord to the apartment that we would be staying for the next few days.
14:40 PM Antoine et Chocolat
A: Paris Gare du Nord
B: Antoine et Chocolat
Total travelling distance | time = 4.4 km | 15 minutes
 I was only suggesting to JR that we could try staying in an apartment since we haven’t stayed in one before and he went ahead to book the apartment. I was paranoid and got suspicious thoughts every now and then ever since we made the booking, wondering if it was safe. We arrived at Antoine et Chocolat, a 37 sq metres apartment, near Saint-Paul Station. Vincent, the guy who was supposed to hand the keys to us, was already waiting for us. He brought us up to the apartment and showed us around.
Living room
Kitchen
Bathroom
Bedroom
15:20 PM Touring Paris
We left our apartment after taking a short rest. It was our first time in Paris and we realised that not all stores have English speaking salespersons. We tried asking for pre-paid cards with data plan from the teleco shops opposite our apartment. It was so disappointing as nobody could understand us. We finally found an English speaking salesman in the 2nd telco shop we went and was told that there is no pre paid cards in Paris :(. Is that true? Never mind, we decided to forgo the cards and find our way around Paris by referring to the directions in my itinerary.
15:40 PM Berthillon
A: Antoine et Chocolat
B: Berthillon
Total walking distance = 0.55 km
The first stop on my itinerary is Berthillon. Berthillon is a French retailer of luxury ice cream and sorbet, said to have the best ice cream in Paris. There is one Berthillon store within walking distance from our apartment. We got a little lost at the beginning but we managed to find our way in the end.
Long queue!
While queuing up, JR realised that there was a shorter queue 2 stores down the street. Both stores have the same signboards. JR investigated and found that both stores are the same. The one with the longer queue is Berthillon’s ice cream store while the other is the restaurant, which also sells takeout ice cream but has limited flavours. We were hungry so we went for the shorter queue.
JR ordered mango and peach ice cream but we couldn’t be certain if the ice cream guy got him correctly. He had tried his best to make his words sound french.
16:00 PM Saint-Paul Station
We walked back to Saint-Paul Station and bought a carnet of t-tickets. A t-ticket is the standard single trip ticket for Paris public transit. It is cheaper to purchase a carnet, i.e. ten, t-tickets.
To our next destination!