Eurostar Breaks to Lille

I booked one of the best Eurostar breaks to Lille to coincide with my birthday later this summer. I was browsing around on the eurostar site and started looking at hotels in Lille when I noticed that the appart'hotel does self catering rooms for a very reasonable price.

So I'm off to the North of France for a weekend to look at the museums and art galleries in trendy Lille and enjoy some fine dining in the restaurants and cafes there. Should be very good.  The Eurostar itself only takes an hour and twenty five minutes from London St Pancras into Lille Europe and as far as I can tell teh hotel is pretty central for the attractions I want to visit while I'm there.

Eurostar breaks down in the Tunnel - FAQ

Eurostar has managed to clear the backlog of passengers stranded on both sides of the English Channel after five Eurostar trains broke down and got stuck in the Channel Tunnel on Saturday 19th December 2009. Trains were cancelled for three days leaving up to 75,000 passengers waiting.

A restricted service has now been resumed between London, Paris and Brussels and the backlog from the previous weekend has now been cleared.

"The procedures that were put in place to prioritise passengers have worked well and the backlog of passengers from the weekend has been cleared and all of the available seats for travel today have now been allocated."

Eurostar said they will run services tomorrow as well, and they are confident that there will be enough seats for everyone who wants to travel before Christmas.

Eurostar Breaks questions answered:

What compensation am I entitled to for being left stranded over the weekend?

A Eurostar spokesman confirmed that passengers who were trapped in the Channel Tunnel overnight on Friday will receive £150 compensation, a full refund on their original ticket plus free return Eurostar tickets. Anyone whose train has been cancelled will be offered a full refund on their ticket or they can postpone their journey to a later date. Customers who decide to cancel their travel in line with Eurostar advice will receive a refund but will not have their hotels and other costs paid by the company.

Can I claim my hotel costs or a flight home?

Eurostar have confirmed that they will cover 'reasonable expenses' for any passengers who have been stranded abroad, i.e. a three star hotel, food and taxis. Eurostar will no longer be covering the cost of flights home as the train service is running again.

What is the compensation phone line number?

Eurostar say they will release a number for customers to call at a later date. In the meantime you can download a compensation form on the company's website, which also provides information about their compensation policy at www.eurostar.com

More Eurostar Breaks Next Year

I'm planning to take a few more Eurostar Breaks next year. A short break by Eurostar to Lille is definitely on the cards and we can't stay away from Paris much longer. The fact there are still £59 eurostar deals available helps to mitigate the exchange rate I suppose, but we also have plans to take the through ticketing TGV route - London to Orleans via Eurostar Paris, that sort of thing. Bruges too.

Eurostar Breaks Paris - No Picasso Museum

People on Eurostar breaks to Paris for the Art museums need to take note that the Paris Picasso Museum closes for two years' worth of renovations

The Picasso Museum in Paris closed its doors on Sunday and will not reopen them to visitors for more than two years as it undergoes an extensive renovation

Eurostar Breaks

Longer Eurostar Breaks

On the subject of slightly longer Eurostar breaks, I thought I'd write about the time we decided to visit Orleans, in the Northwest of France. Having been on Eurostar breaks to Paris several times before, we wanted to see a bit more of the French countryside and in particular the Loire valley. I did a bit of research and discovered it was possible to book a through train ticket just like other Eurostar breaks, with the high speed TGV train to Orleans included.

Eurostar breaks to Orleans, France

The way it works is just like many other Eurostar deals. You get a set of tickets that cover the main Eurostar journey from London to Paris, and then the onward connection from Paris to Orleans. I think we were allowed about an hour and a half to get across Paris from teh Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse, which is more than enough really. Because Montparnasse isn't an international Station like St Pancras or gare du Nord in Paris, there's no need to turn up at least half an hour before the train departure time and check in a bit like at an airport. You just have to validate or "compost" your ticket, which is something that happens on french railways a lot. I don;t know why, I suppose it's a bit like clicking in with an Oystercard except that you've already paid for the exact journey at that time.

My research had shown that there was a nice place to stay down by the riverside just out of town at Orleans and I'd printed out the address to give to a taxi driver, never having visited that particular city before. It worked very well, and we had a lovely time walking back into the interesting historic city of Orleans along the riverbank several times during our break. Realistically you have to allow the best part of a day to travel from door to door, but it's not an unpleasant journey with an opportunity for a lunch break in Paris depending on what time you set out. I wouldn't try to do this for a weekend, that's better suited to short Paris breaks but for longer Eurostar breaks in France, Orleans is throughly recommended.