Temple to Temple (Paris/London)

[michael_churchill]

On my way home from France last Sunday, I decided to make it a journey between Temple and Temple, the only stations with EXACTLY the same name on the London Underground and the Paris Metro.

Sunday 21 May 2017
Start at Temple
Line 3 to République, dep. 11:40:14, arr. 11:41:09
Line 5 to Gare du Nord, dep. 11:44:52, arr. 11:48:57
Eurostar to London St. Pancras International, dep. 12:52:29 CET, arr. 14:20:48 BST
Victoria line to Victoria, dep. 14:38:00, arr. 14:46:57
District line to Temple, dep. 14:48:28, arr. 14:55:21

Elapsed time = 4 hr 15 min 7 sec

[Going Underground]

Nice going

[A Challenge]

The problem is the necessary dead time at Gare de Nord or St Pancras for security!

[michael_churchill]

The problem is the necessary dead time at Gare de Nord or St Pancras for security!

They tell you to allow 30 minutes to check-in and get through security for Eurostar. I allowed about an hour for my 12:43 departure and was met with an enormous queue. At Gare du Nord, you have to pass through the check-in gates, French passport control, British passport control then the baggage x-ray security. I eventually made it through and straight onto the train, only a minute or two before the scheduled departure time. It took another 10 minutes before we could leave - I presume the rest of the queue behind me got processed eventually.

It seemed to be British passport control was the biggest hold-up. If you are not an EU citizen (which I still am at the moment), you have to fill in a landing card, as you do if you arrive in the UK by plane. I heard a lot of non-EU in the queue (i.e. Americans), so that might have been the problem.

By the way, it was the first time I've been on one of the new e320 Eurostars - very nice!