Good, Bad and Ugly of Paris to London

Flight on Singapore Airlines were full from Singapore to London last week, so I took a little detour through Paris to take the Eurostar train to London.

The GOOD
The eurostar experience was brilliant. 2 hours and 20 minutes from Paris to downtown London. It was smooth and simple, the service was terrific, the food was tasty and the experience was wonderful. The people I met on the train were engaging, friendly and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (and that was after a twelve hour flight from Singapore)

Advice – book early as the eurostar was fully booked and while I wanted to get on an earlier train that was not possible.

The BAD
Immigration into Paris – our flight arrived at 730am and it appeared that the folks at the airport did not have a CLUE about service, welcoming visitors, and the logistics of processing a few aircraft. It simply felt that the folks at CDG airport were being put out, and actually found us passengers to be a nuisance. Does Paris not want tourist, visitors, people to stay and spend money? The CDG airport experience was so bad, that I had to laugh and giggle as the experience was surreal.  Escalators were backed up, there was no room to exit the escalators, the directions to get to immigration were unclear, and people were squished together until, a few extra immigrations centers opened and the crowd were able to disburse into the airport.

Advice – have a good sense of humor when traveling in CDG airport, laugh and be grateful it is only a short visit.
The UGLY
Exchanging money at the Nord Train station where I transferred to get on the eurostar was an UGLY experience. I had  30GPB to exchange and the agent at the exchange booth offered me 30 EURO and then ran into a tirade about “not worth his while” and that for such an amount he was not interested. WOW, quite a surprise and probably one of rudest experiences that I have experienced traveling anywhere.
Advice – Look for banks or cash machines or ATMs to withdraw money in Paris. I confirmed with a few people and most suggested using machines is much better as the rates are more accurate and the customer experience is much warmer.

Happy Travels!