Travel photographer and journalist Keith Kellett introduces you to the comfortable way to travel from London to Paris or Brussels.

It’s said that Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to conceive the idea of a tunnel under the English Channel. However, I’d suspect that the motives of ‘le Petit Caporal’ had nothing to do with getting people quickly from London to Paris without waiting for ages for the weather to get better. More probably, the idea was to sneak across a couple of battalions of poilus to hit les rosbifs from the rear while they were watching out to sea for the invasion fleet.

Anyway, he’d been dead for four years when George Stephenson’s Locomotion wheezed out of Stockton, with the world’s first fare-paying rail passengers!

‘Boat trains’ to France were operated from London’s Waterloo station for many years, but it wasn’t until 1994 that the Eurostar service, through the Channel Tunnel to Lille, Paris and Brussels was inaugurated.

Incidentally, let’s not confuse Eurostar, which is a pure passenger operation, with Le Shuttle. The latter is the service on which you load your car, truck or coach at Dover to go through the Tunnel to Calais … and which offers a level of style, service and comfort found elsewhere only on military cargo aircraft. Take sandwiches and a flask of coffee and stay in your vehicle is my advice here!

Eurostar trains were designed from scratch for their particular purpose, which gives them an advantage in terms of comfort and efficiency over most other railways in Britain. Unfortunately, at the moment, they have to ‘make do’ with the same tracks as ‘ordinary’ trains have to use, which restricts the trains to 60 mph. in Britain, only a third of what they are capable of!

However, that will change in October 2003, when the first section of the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link is scheduled to open. This is part of a new refurbishment programme, the first stage of which I saw last month, when I was invited into the new Phillippe Starck- designed First Class departure lounge at Waterloo. Eventually, the programme will introduce more lounges, new interiors on the trains, new staff uniforms and improved terminals, check-ins and ticket offices. Maybe I’ve been lucky when I’ve ridden Eurostar, or maybe I’m just easily satisfied, but many of these measures seem to me to be fixing something that ain’t broke!

For true hassle-free travel, you will have bought your ticket in advance; if you book 14 days in advance, you can, subject to certain conditions, get a return to Paris from London for £79 (compare to business fares of £298 in Standard Class and £405 in First Class).

As an Experienced Traveller, you are not, of course, carrying everything you own with you; your ticket is in an easily accessible (but not too accessible) pocket, as is your passport, with a bookmark at the appropriate place. (I often wonder why they put the page with the photo and personal details in such a stupid place, rather than on the easily-findable pages 2 and 3 on the old blue passports)

You check in by simply zapping your ticket through the automatic turnstile, just like on the Underground or a Continental bus or tram. Then through Security, where they’ll X-ray your baggage (which stays with you, or near you at all times). They’ll also look after your mobile phone and keys, while you go through the metal detector, go back and take your cuff-links out, go through the metal detector, go back and take your spectacles off … etc.

At some stage, you wave your passport (preferably the page with the picture on it) at a uniformed person, then you get on the train. Someone will check your ticket, and either tell you where your seat is, or tell you this is the Brussels train, and the train for Paris is over there, monsieur!

And, that’s it! Just sit back and enjoy the ride … and the food and drink, if you’re in First Class. There is food in Standard Class, too, but it’s not included in the price, as it is in First Class. Essentially, you’re in France already … if I don’t think about it, I start speaking French as soon as both feet are on the train! But, don’t forget to keep your passport handy for checking when you get off. London-bound passengers’ passports are sometimes actually checked on the train, but I’ve yet to find that facility going the other way.

Paris trains terminate at the Gare du Nord. So, if it wasn’t possible to transfer to a TGV train to your eventual destination at Lille, your onward journey might still involve the legendary odyssey across the city to another station.

However, Eurostar is extending its field of operation beyond Paris and Brussels. If it’s your thing, there’s a daily service direct to Disneyland Resort, Paris. During the Winter holiday season, two services a week operate from Waterloo to the ski resorts of Moutiers and Bourg St. Maurice in the French Alps, and, in Summer 2002, a direct service from London to Avignon will run every Saturday.

Can we, I wonder, look forward to a ‘Eurostar Sleeper’? Will we, one day, climb into our bunks at Waterloo or St. Pancras (scheduled to operate services from 2007) and awake the following morning to behold the shining Mediterranean through the window? Wouldn’t that be great? Unless, of course, you were supposed to get off at Lille, and they forgot to wake you!

For further information, time-tables, online bookings and all sorts of other stuff, go to www.eurostar.com  or ring 08705 186186 if you’re in the UK; +44 1233 617575 if you aren’t.

Editor's Note. US citizens should check the Rail Passes link as well as Eurostar's website. Sometimes they have interesting promotions.