Final train ride home

Now we're on the final stretch - car is gone, suitcases are bulging and were heading for customs!

Naturally I take longer to get thru, however as we're in Paris a few hours before our train the Eurostar attendants offered to put us on an earlier train at 3pm!

Unfortunately due to Covid all the food on the train, as well as in the Eurostar section of the station (like behind customs at an airport) were shut - so we were carrying around a little bag of sandwiches which we munched on whilst watching the trains come and go.

Eventually our train came, and we headed down to board - as before there's approx 1-2 people per 6 seats; so Lou and I have out own little section.

Goodbye 29 degree France!

Hello rainy 20 degree UK! Lou did not want to be in this photo!

Next train is from London to Cambridge and with any luck we'll home in time for dinner!
The final map:

All the maps were made with Travellerspoint
https://www.travellerspoint.com/


And the final costs were approx: £5,000 all up - a bit more than we'd been aiming for!

• £2,500; or about £150 - £180 per night for accomodation - some places were more expensive and we tried to balance these with some being a bit cheaper to offset. Lots of the places on the Cote d'Azur were 50% to 70% below their stated rack rates which would have ruined any chance of staying if they were asking full price. A few places charged more for parking and breakfast too.
• £600 for the Eurostar & Cambridge trains return; a little bit more expensive than flying depending on where we could have flown too & from - but we didn't have to enter an airport! Plus the Eurostar was last minute which is the worst way to book!
• £560 for the hire car for 14 days, unlimited millage, this was going to be WAY more if we took a really cheap flight to a regional airport - so roughly flights & car was going to end up being £1,000 - £1,200 any way we cut it.
• £900 for food - we tried to ensure we only bought one meal a day but failed on this a bit! Doing lunchbox salads and homemade picnics for lunch and dinner where possible plus bringing our own granola and yogurt to hotels where breakfast wasn't included kept this from being much more!
• £400 of fuel and tolls in about a 60-40 split; the French toll roads are really expensive to get out of Paris fast but save a load of time.

And thats it! Covid roadtrip over - £1,000 over budget and we managed to negotiate a new place to live in London whilst we were at it!