Paris in a day

In July 2005, I flew to London for an executive board meeting. Garry accompanied me to undertake some initial recognizance for our eventual relocation three months later. It proved to be an eventful trip. In addition, to a week in London, we also visited my brother Hamish and his family in Austria, as well as enjoying a day in Munich. 

My company gave us a limited budget for Garry’s travel costs. He took this on as a challenge, did some hardcore research online, and found an incredibly cheap business-class airfare courtesy of SWISS airline. The final route we booked took us via Singapore, Zurich, and Munich to London. The fare was so rare that my hardcore travel agent struggled to find it in her reservation system. In the end, I had to send her a copy of the fare conditions we'd sourced from the web.

The only negative about these discounted fares was the SWISS business class seats. They didn’t fully recline so our dreams of a lie-flat bed were thwarted. Despite this drawback, we slept reasonably well in our flat, but sloping, beds. Although, a group of passengers seated in the cabin's bulkhead row was rather creative. They convinced the cabin crew to elevate their footrests into a near-horizontal position by propping them up with eskies from the galley.

Source: Getty Images

A few days after we arrived in London the city was shaken by the deadly 7 July suicide bombings on the Underground. 52 people lost their lives on that fateful day. Another 700 were injured as four suicide bombers struck during rush hour. The wreck of the Number 30 double-decker bus, pictured above, has become a defining photograph of the attack. It was blown apart in Tavistock Square by the fourth, and final, suicide bomber.

I was in my board meeting at the Baglioni Hotel when the news broke. Upstairs, Garry was preparing to take the tube into town for exploratory meetings with recruiters. He was understandably shocked by how close to home it felt. His appointments were canceled soon after as public transport shut down citywide. Not an ideal introduction to life in the UK capital.

The following weekend, on a sunny Saturday, Garry and I took time out from our hectic schedule to enjoy a more appealing aspect of London life. We caught an early morning train to Paris for a quick day trip. This was my second time through the Channel Tunnel on Eurostar. My first trip was another day trip in 1998. If you ask me, it’s still mind-blowing that you can board a train in London and arrive in the City of Lights three hours later.

Our day trip started with a visit to Notre Dame. While we didn’t climb its iconic bell towers, we did stop to stand on the Zero Mile marker in the plaza out front. This is the point from which all distances are measured from Paris nationwide. From here we walked across the Seine to Place de la Concorde via the ornate Hôtel de Ville, the Louvre, and the eternally exquisite, Jardin des Tuileries.

We then embarked on a metro rail tour of central Paris featuring some of its more distant sights. This included the Arc de Triomphe, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. Looking back we covered an impressive distance in a relatively short space of time. Undoubtedly, one of the more memorable moments that day was a postcard-perfect view of the Eiffel Tower framed by Baroque-inspired buildings on Rue Buenos Ayres.

Finally, before dashing back to Gare de Nord, we completed our French excursion with a brief visit to Montmartre. It was here, on the steps of Sacre Coeur Basilica, that we joined the tourist hoards for a classic sunset view of the Parisian skyline. Then, shortly after 10:00pm, we were back at Waterloo Station in the heart of London. 

I must admit that 18 years later I can’t recall many details about the trip. For example, did we venture up the Eiffel Tower? I don't think we did. If I recall correctly the queue to climb it was insane. Did we stop for a drink while wandering along the Avenue des Champs Élysées? I'm sure we bought at least a cold drink. After all, it was a July Summer’s day.