大象传媒

Wednesday 14th November

0810: Taxi from 大象传媒 Radio York to York railway station.

0835: Depart York railway station for London.

Start the clock... our journey has begun, the stopwatch is ticking.

GNER train

The first leg, York to London, should be fairly straight forward. We're due to arrive at Kings Cross at 1045, allowing us an hour and three quarters to get to St Pancras and the first ever Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris.

1040: Arrive London Kings Cross.

Our GNER train from York to London ran to time and in fact arrived at Kings Cross around five minutes ahead of schedule. We were told it would now be a short walk to the new St Pancras International station next door.

1045: Arrive St Pancras.

It couldn't have been easier to get from Kings Cross to St Pancras. The two stations are right next door to each other and it really was just a short walk - it literally took us two minutes. Our Eurostar service to Paris is not due to leave until 1230, which gives us more than an hour to look round the refurbished St Pancras station which really is stunning.

"It's the most wonderful station I have ever seen" says Richard Reynolds. We also had chance to chat to the Chief Executive of Eurostar, Richard Brown, and Peter Picaso - one of the train drivers who drive the Eurostar trains between London and the Continent.

Because we had so much to do, the one thing we didn't get chance to sample was St Pancras' new champagne bar. At just over 97 metres (300 feet) it is the longest in the world. I don't know who was more disappointed about this, Richard or me. On second thoughts it was Richard!

1210: Passport control. St Pancras International.

Safely through passport control, the Eurostar trains are all lined up at the platforms. The building looks "awesome" with sunlight streaming through the station's huge glass roof. I'm getting excited about the journey ahead of us, but Richard says he's "really excited"!

1230: Depart St Pancras International by Eurostar.

Bang on-time our Eurostar - the first ever passenger service to leave St Pancras - pulls smoothly away from platform 5 - it was locomotive No 90240. It was Richard who made a note of the number, not me, he must know more about trains than I do! Having said that I think the seats are extremely comfortable, and the material is nice and stripey!

Eurostar trains

Our journey to Paris should take two and a quarter hours. Around a minute after leaving St Pancras the train enters the first of a number of tunnels which take the line under north London.

听Just over 18 miles of the 68 mile journey between St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel is through tunnels. This is the first time a scheduled service has used the full high speed route between London and the Channel Tunnel, which allows it to travel at speeds of 300kph/186mph.

We weren't the only people on the train from North Yorkshire. Dave and Hannah were celebrating Dave's birthday (Happy Birthday from us) and were enjoying the free champagne and party atmosphere! Geoff and Tony, who are from Northallerton, had travelled direct from Northallerton to Kings Cross. They told us it was so much easier to get to the Eurostar terminal than on previous occasions when they had had to get a taxi to Waterloo.

1545: Arrive Paris Gare du Nord.

Bienvenu a Paris! Welcome to Paris. Stop the clock. Our journey took just over six hours, but that included a safety net of almost two hours (to make sure we caught our connection at St Pancras and allow for passport control/immigration). Our trip could have been at least an hour shorter if we'd taken a risk and caught a later train from York to London.

Gare du Nord, Paris

It was ironic that after all the high speed travel between York to Paris, our journey ground to a halt as soon as we left the Gare du Nord. A strike meant no public transport was working and we were plunged into the worst traffic jam in the world ever! Our taxi ride from the station to the cafe where we were broadcasting from the next morning should have taken 15 minutes, it took around an hour and a half.

Thursday 15th November

0530: Up early!

We need to prepare for 大象传媒 Radio York's Breakfast Programme, which we're due to present from a cafe on Rue Fauborg St Honore!听

0600: Arrive at the cafe.

We're based at a cafe on Rue Fauborg St Honore, just off the Champs-Elysees. We ring through to the studio and make sure we've got a link back to the rest of the team in York. We go through all the last minute stuff which would usually be done in the office, today it's done over the phone. I scribble down cues which are dictated over the phone, Richard has a crash course in how to read my writing!

0630: On-Air!

It's actually 0730 in Paris, the cafe isn't open yet, but traffic is already busy - today is another strike day! We're sat in the cold at a table on the pavement. I can't wait until the cafe opens so we can get a warm cup of coffee and a croissant or pain au chocolat!

Reynolds & Co in Paris, listen to highlights of our programme from the French capital.