From Lille to Paris

Saturday lunchtime, Paris

Laurent and Maryse treat me to a farewell meal in Lille, par excellence. Their friends Denis and Sylvie run the excellent ‘Le Champlain’ restaurant. We have the ‘Menu Gourmandise’ which is truly wonderful. I have rather neglected France in recent years, but am reminded of the excellence of the cuisine. It’s not just the décor, the presentation of the food and the ambience. It’s the careful selection of the wine to accompany each course, an unbelievable ‘chariot de fromages’ and a hostess who pays attention to the tiniest detail. The evening is spent speaking French which, I am sure, has improved in only 24 hours, but for a time I even manage to speak some Spanish with the restaurateurs’ daughter, who has recently returned from Mexico. Why Denis has not been awarded a Michelin star is a complete mystery to me, the quality of his cooking and the flair of the presentation of the dishes is truly sensational. I am sure that, at le Champlain, I have experienced one of the top five meals of my life.

After breakfast, I bid farewell to Manou and Andreas on the Lille Flottante. The dinosaur has doubled in size overnight, so it’s perhaps just as well; I am not sure if the barge will have room for me tomorrow!

Lille Tourism has really excelled. Their final port of call for me before I leave for Paris is a visit to ‘Les 3 Brasseurs’. This is another Lille success story. In brief, daddy sold his brewery, which includes the well-known Pelforth brand and he, with his two sons, now run a chain of 33 highly successful micro-breweries cum restaurants. Each pub produces its own beer which of course cuts down hugely on delivery costs! The regional boss, Laurent, is from Rouen; he is impressed I know so much about the place but I confess that I was for many years an enthusiastic member of the Norwich Rouen twinning association.

I’ve largely been left to my own devices during this trip, but the businesses I have visited in Lille seem keen that their PR people should be involved in everything. I am flattered by their hospitality but, as someone who specialised in the craft for many years, I sometimes get frustrated when you ask the interviewee a direct question, full eye contact and all, and the PR person pipes up with the answer!

This is not the case with Myriam from Les 3 Brasseurs. Laurent, she and I, together with Stephanie from the tourist office, have a silly lunch making up slogans for the company´s marketing. As Myriam is drinking what I describe as a ´Ribena beer for kids´, cherry flavoured, Laurent suggests ´My Cherry d’amour’, which I think is brilliant. I have come up with ‘Toulouse Ma Cherie’, which perhaps does lose something in the translation. Myriam, who came up with ‘Happy Beers’ Day’ last year, is not quite as enthusiastic about our excellent suggestions as are we chaps. But Laurent and I have, strictly for research, been sampling the products.

Lille is very popular with Brits, especially since Eurostar got faster; London is now only 80 minutes away. One on four of Lille’s tourists are from the UK and, even with the economic downturn, the city has seen a growth of visitors this year.

As we leave the restaurant, it starts to rain. It’s the first I have experienced since I left Malaga three weeks ago.

The TGV from Lille to Paris takes just one hour. At peak times, there is a train every 30 minutes. I am sad I can’t spend longer on it. It is a relatively new one and a lot better than some of the French high speed trains I have experienced.

At Gare du Nord, the rain means a huge queue for taxis and, together with my arrival time, the cancellation of a proposed tour of Paris by electric bike. Olivier from Paris Charms and Secrets rings me to discuss rescheduling but has not contacted me again, so I guess that’s a no-show, which is very disappointing.

My Paris hotel is the Saint-James and Albany, part of Great Hotels of the World. It´s got a great location, within a few steps of the Tuileries Gardens. August is holiday time in Paris, some bosses are away, and I think the left hand and the right hand are somewhat disconnected. Maybe my view is jaundiced by being kept awake in my supposed ‘quiet room’ until half past midnight by an over-amplified jazz band in the lounge bar three floors below.

Breakfast is taken in a very attractive, but acoustically very noisy, crypt; my omelette takes an eternity and then arrives without any mushrooms, which they don’t have. A kitchen in a quality hotel without mushrooms? They will be running out of white bread for toast next!

The high-spot of my trip to Paris is a wonderful tour of the city in a Citroen 2CV. Now of course I love the deux cheveux; my very own 22-year old Didier is currently in storage in Norfolk and much missed. My driver Vincent is new to the beast. He studies applied maths, which is quite clearly no help at all when I am trying to convert my miles travelled by rail into kilometres. Just weeks into his summer job, he was caught in the 2CV jumping a red light and had to pay a fine of €135 as well as losing 4 points. I think it´s terribly funny but Vincent is working over the summer to earn money, not to pay fines, and it still hurts.

The trip in Geraldine, with roof down in glorious late-summer weather is brilliant and Paris Authentic´s trips give me a perspective of the city I have never had in all my years of coming here.

My heavy case is packed for the last time. Tonight, I rejoin the Elipsos tren-hotel for the overnight journey back to Madrid. Having learnt from my first journey, I have prepared a little overnight bag for the compact cabin and will put my enormous case into the luggage van. It will be nice to be pampered in Gran Clase shower-equipped cabin and enjoy an excellent a la carte dinner as the train speeds south towards home.

In a little over three weeks I have travelled 5683 miles and visited 14 cities in 9 countries. Every train has left on time and the only delays were due to a serious train crash in the Czech Republic. I have not shown my passport since the last Elipsos overnight train from Barcelona to Milan and have not had any hassle from security checks (and none at all) since I checked in for my first AVE at Malaga.

The biggest challenge has been the booking of actual seats and I do think some of the supplements for making a reservation have been outrageous (For the half hour trip from Brussels to Lille I was charged an extra €20).

It´s been a wonderful experience, required a lot of planning, but it´s been worth every moment.

European Rail travel has truly come into the 21^st century.