My Paris Travel Experience Day 1 – From Gard du Nord to Montmartre

Oh my…, I think I need another half a year to complete writing whole of my travelogue in Europe travel last Spring. After 6 months, I have just posted about my London travel and am only now starting my writing about Paris travel! 🙂 There were so much other commitments as well as other emergency subjects to blog about during this period to have hindered the progress of my travelogue in Europe. Fortunately, it is progressing, though slowly.

I wrapped up my London travelogue in last October. Within this 2 month period, I did also blog about few Paris attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower, Sacred Coeur Cathedral, The Louvre and also The Notre Dame cathedral. Now let’s continue my Europe travel experience in Paris…

I talked about how I booked the Eurostar train tickets online before reaching Europe and how I collected our tickets in St. Pancras station in London. On the departure date in the morning, we left our hostel in London with reasonably good memory, and walked to St. Pancras station. We reached the station by 8:30AM to check in. (Tips: How could we know we would reach the station within 15 minutes by walking? Try the route before that!) Taking Eurostar train as a non-European traveler would need to check in 30 minutes minimum before departure, just like how we did in airport check-in counter.

After checking in, we stayed in the departure hall and waited to be called upon for boarding. Hmm… quite a process, unlike the much easier and smoother boarding process we experience in Thalys train ride from Paris to Amsterdam. Just wondering how ‘close’ is the relationship between UK and EU…

One way ticket price cost us £55 and the journey took 2 hours to reach Paris Gard Du Nord station at Northern Paris.

Departed from St. Pancras Station in London at 9:30AM…

…and arrived at Gard Du Nord station in Paris at 12:40PM local time.

It seemed to me initially that the trip needed 3 hours, but only 2 hours in actual as local time of Paris is 1 hour ahead of London.

Travel Tips: Remember to adjust all your important timing devices at this moment. Paris time is 1 hour ahead of London. I adjusted my watch but missed out my Nikon D60 camera. So all my photos in Paris were actually taken 1 hour behind of Paris local time.

As usual, I looked for Tourists Information Centre in Gard du Nord station to  get a local street map and asked for direction to our hostel. Good news! The map is free. Out of my expectation, the officer speaks  fluent English. He told me how to get to our hostel in Montmartre. ( I already booked our hostel in advance online, following my guidlines to choose accommodation in Europe) Before I walked away, this nice gentleman reminded me to keep an eye on our belongings and beware of pick-pockets! This had alarmed me as he really stressed that.

We walked out of the station and I felt his word immediately. It was Tuesday noon in Spring and black guys are seen wandering in the area outside of Gard du Nord. I’m not being racism but the way they looked at us made me uneasy and I felt like leaving this place as soon as possible.

However, other than a bit of uncomfortable feeling, the street view around there was awesome!

Don’t you think so? 🙂

Actually Montmartre is not far away from Gard du Nord station. Following the map we got, we were able to reach there in 15 minutes by foot. But wait! We couldn’t see any Regent Hostel.

I did ask one of the local shop keeper for direction and his French accent English told me that we were not far away but I still couldn’t see any address signage on those buildings facade.

Until we reached to foot of Montmartre Hill where the Sacred Coeur Cathedral resides where I saw another Tourist Information kiosk. So I went in to ask. (I needed to queue up outside for 10 minutes as there wasn’t enough space to squeeze me in behind 2 other tourists in front) While I was waiting for my turn, another guy rushed in and asked where to find a policeman. He just lost his wallet! Oh my god! Is pick pocket really that serious in Paris??

Finally, we found our Regent Hostel! It’s just across the road! It was already 2:00PM but we couldn’t check in until 4:00PM. So we dropped off our heavy luggage (thankfully the hostel receptionist allowed us to store our luggage in their store room) and went out again for our first lunch in Paris, kebab, at nearby cafe. (Kebab is always a good and budget option for lunch in Europe)

Jean, Bobo, Foong and John were relaxing on settee while waiting for checking in. At 3:45PM, 15 minutes earlier than official check-in hour, we paid the balance of our room charge (I paid only 10% when booking online via Hostelworld) and managed to check into our room.We booked 2 double bed private suite and 1 dorm bed. The rooms condition are only so-so (average) for the hefty bucks we paid (€45 per person). I think we paid premium for its spectacular view of the white Sacred Coeur cathedral from my room balcony!

We took a rest… and went back out onto the street. This time round I brought along my tripod for night shooting. Where did we go next? The Eiffel Tower! Stay subscribed to my Feeds for upcoming Part 2 of my stories in Paris travel Day 1. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

Click HERE for all photos in original size via Flickr.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.