Eurostar High Speed Train⎮Paris to London | Travelling Beneath the English Channel ⎸ UK-Europe – Travel guides for couples; romantic escapes, city breaks + worldwide adventures

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VERDICT: WE GAVE 5 OUT OF 5 TICKETS AND HERE’S WHY!

This guide forms part of our complete France Travel Guide, featuring scenic road trips, iconic destinations, practical travel advice and honest first-hand travel experiences from across France.

This article is also part of our 🚗 3-Day Normandy Road-Rail Trip series, exploring Normandy Beaches and experiencing Eurostar for the first time. Read the complete itinerary here.

▶︎ Our Normandy-Eurostar Itinerary:

A high-speed rail journey through northern France and beneath the sea to London

This trip has been on our bucket list for quite sometime. We boarded the connecting train from Paris Gare du Nord, stored our carry ons and located our seats. Our first train was the TGV to Lille. We were looking forward to what we would see on this trip. As we pulled away, we passed suburbs, apartment blocks, and then the outskirts of Paris. We crossed over canals and railway yards.

Our first stop was Lille, where we boarded Eurostar. Next came the French countryside – flat farm fields, wheat, wind turbines, we passed small ,French towns & tall church spires.

Much to Mr. MRT’s delight, the Eurostar’s speed can reach up to 300km/h (186mph) in France and in the tunnel, however our train achieved about 175 mph.

We found the big seats, tables, WiFi, power/USB all comfortable & useful. There was a café bar with coffee, wine, sandwiches, etc.

The Channel Tunnel – here was crazy, for about 20 minutes you’re under the sea! This is the main event – 50kms / 31 miles is the total length and you travel 37kms (23 miles) under the English Channel.

It’s pitch black, but you definitely feel the train hit 160km/h. You’ll see “Welcome to the UK” signs in the tunnel and the temperature display. There are no windows to look out, but it’s pretty wild knowing there’s ocean above you. There’s even a time zone change (back one hour from France).

The final leg of the trip is coming in to St. Pancras Station, London. After leaving the green fields, little English villages & the Channel Tunnel Rail Link built just for Eurostar, you see the brick buildings & urban London coming into view.

It was a cool way to travel, especially because we could relax and not worry about driving or directions. Some had laptops to catch up on business work, families travelled together played cards & games & some, like us, just wanted to fit in new experiences, to see new places & discover history everywhere we went.

Top 5 Features of Eurostar

High-speed international travel
Eurostar trains can reach 300 km/h (186 mph) on high-speed rail lines. Their maximum operating speed typically inside the Channel Tunnel is 160 km/h (100 mph).
Travel beneath the English Channel
The Channel Tunnel is approximately 50.5 kilometres (31.4 miles) long. Around 37 kilometres (23 miles) run beneath the sea—the world’s longest undersea section of any tunnel.
A remarkable engineering achievement
Construction began in 1988, and the tunnel officially opened in 1994, meaning the main construction project took approximately six years.
Deep beneath the seabed
The tunnel runs an average of approximately 40 metres (131 feet) beneath the seabed. At its deepest point, it is about 75 metres (246 feet) below sea level.
Comfortable city-to-city transportation
Eurostar offers spacious seating, luggage storage, free Wi-Fi, power outlets and onboard refreshments. Direct Paris–London journeys can take approximately 2 hours and 17 minutes.

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