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We drove to Lille via Eurotunnel and stayed at a budget hotel, leaving the car there the next morning when we took the nearby metro to Lille Flandres station.

This was because Eurostar and the train from home in Gloucestershire would together have been the most expensive part of the trip, and we could also bring back a decent quantity of wine!

Lille to Paris by TGV then Paris to Perpignan by TGV and a night there in a hotel near the station.

Lovely, intriguing chat with fellow travellers and a chance to explore a French Catalan city that evening.

Train next morning to Barcelona, which I think had come from Switzerland.

After a week's stay we reversed the trip and didn't feel the slightest bit travel-weary when we got home. We had to juggle around with train times on the SNCF web site to get best fares, but being accompanied by our young son seemed to give us cheaper fares than if we had only been a couple.

Roll on St Pancras to Barcelona without a change!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/13734 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/10304 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/10304 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/7847 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/7847 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/7656
But the Metro here is an aggressive one. Not the smoothness of Paris, nor the quaintness of Prague or Budapest, but instead, a hostile machine that only seconds before the doors close, sounds a peremptory signal. If by chance the safety device is triggered by a late-comer, the doors jerk open again with an angry hiss of hydraulics. There are no straps to hang onto and these trains stop and start violently.

It’s bad enough being in a crowded Metro in temperatures of 30 plus, but it’s your very worst nightmare come true when it grinds to a halt in the tunnel. Not an experience to be repeated. But it could happen in any Metro, London, Glasgow, Paris…]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/7656 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/7456 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/7456 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/5178 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/5178 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/5183 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/5183 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/5063 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/5063