Off To Paris... Again!

For the last few days I've actually been feeling sick with excitement!  You know the feeling you get in the build up to Christmas?  Like that... only worse!
Just a side note that I normally pack my suitcase a week before we leave.  How else do you get time to make sure you've got everything you need?  You might need to wash and iron something, right?  John, on the other hand, likes to pack at the very last minute, so the washing machine was hard at work at midnight before we were due to leave.  You have to ask yourself sometimes, don't you?!

We jumped in the taxi and sped to our local station and got on the train to London.  We had a fair wait there so went into Le Pain Quotidien on St Pancras Station.  We checked in for our trip on the Eurostar, which takes a bit of time, I didn't realise it was the same as going through an airport check-in.
We'd decided to go on the Eurostar because I hate flying, and all I want to say about the train is that it's absolutely awesome.  It was so relaxing and easy, I would definitely do it again and would highly recommend it to anyone.  I did have a moment of wondering if I'd like actually going through the tunnel, but to be honest, I was absorbed in a magazine and didn't even realise we'd done it when suddenly John said, "We're in France!" and that was it.
I'd checked before on how to get to our hotel from Gare du Nord and it didn't take long at all.  Our hotel is a bit of a disappointment, the room is very small (and the walls are very thin!)  There isn't even a bath, only a shower.  Hmmm.  We're also in the 20th arrondissement, which is a bit far out of things, but I don't mind.
We dumped all our stuff (tiny wardrobe, so I am living out of my suitcase!) and decided to go out.  Last time we came to Paris (two years ago) I know I was ill, but we were so tired when we arrived we fell asleep for two hours, so it was lovely to hit the ground running.
I did a lot of research before this trip and have made a massive list of things I want to see.  I thought, to save walking too much, the best thing to do would be to make a list of every single thing I want to do, then group everything into arrondissements so we get to see as much as possible without too much time on the metro or walking (I'm not averse to walking, but I'd rather be walking around inside a museum, not the outside).
After a lengthy discussion, we decided to jump on the metro and get off at Les Halles and go to St Eustache and look around.  It looks like this:

We were actually very fortunate as there was a special service going on.  The singing was amazing.  This is such a beautiful old church, and we've never been here before.

This is outside, and the main reason why I wanted to go:

 I just love it.  I could quite happily sit here (with a coffee!) and stare at it for hours.  How sad am I?  The other thing is, if you look up St Eustache in the guide books, it shows loads of grass in front of it, whereas in reality it is still surrounded by the building works for Les Halles station, just like it was when we came in 2003.  Les Halles will look fabulous when it's done though.

Notre Dame Cathedral isn't far from here, so we decided to take a walk.  We'd actually come on a mission to buy a Chat Noir umbrella and we found one practically straight away, for 13euros, so we were really pleased.
Off out to find somewhere for dinner now.
Back tomorrow 
Jane xx