We took the Euostar to Paris. It was a good decision for a couple reasons. First, it was one less flight on a trip that had four (which turned into five) in six days as it was. Second, it was just kind of cool to go by fast train. I'm used to the El as far as train speed goes.
Save for some really misbehaving kids and inattentive parents, it was a great way to get to France. I will say that I was a tad disappointed by the Chunnel though. I was kind of hoping for a Jaws III type clear tube around us, minus the killer shark. Instead, it just seemed like another tunnel we went through. There was no fanfare or even announcement. You only realized it was the Chunnel when it was much longer than your average tunnel -- about fifteen minutes.
A side note on transport by train in Europe: it is great BUT a pain for Americans to buy tickets. The Eurostar is the exception since you can buy them online. But for every other mode of public transportation, American credit cards don't work because they don't have some sort of chip. So, you have to wait in line with people who want to have their hands held every step of the journey when you just want to buy two tickets and get on with it. That said, if you're used to one public transportation train system, you can easily figure out others. Although, would it kill people to put a little "You are here" dot on their maps?
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