You know that when you book a holiday or a trip away that thing can often go a bit wrong. However, Social News Assistant Editor Samantha Bartlett wasn’t prepared for how much her plans were going to be scuppered after booking a trip to Paris on the Eurostar recently
When you book a holiday or a trip, you’re very aware that things can often go a bit wrong.
Maybe you’ll forget to pack your socks, or your flight will be a bit delayed – there are always a few hiccups in your plans, unless you are very lucky.
However, I wasn’t prepared for how much my holiday plans were scuppered after booking a trip to Paris on the Eurostar recently.
I decided I was going to head to the French capital for a little weekend away back in January after noticing that there was a Eurostar sale on. I managed to get return tickets for me and my friend for just £100 each, which I thought wasn’t bad at all.
After watching the latest series of Netflix hit Emily in Paris, I also had grand plans of posing in front of the Eiffel Tower in my red beret and enjoying a fancy coffee while looking a chic Parisians going about their daily life.
However, after busily packing and heading to the train station to catch my train to London, I wasn’t expecting the email I was about to read while waiting in a cafe next to it.
“Hello, We’re contacting you about your journey with us from London St Pancras International to Paris Gare du Nord,” the email from Eurostar started.
“Due to the discovery of an unexploded bomb from the Second World War near Paris Gare du Nord, we’ve had to cancel your train.”
To say my jaw was on the floor would be an understatement. I mean, how unlucky is it to find an unexploded World War 2 bomb from 80 years ago on the one day you’re heading to Paris.
Me and my friend looked at each other in disbelief and tried to come up with an alternative way to get there after seeing the news that had everyone talking on social media. We searched for flights at nearby airports however everyone was frantically booking them and we realised that we would have to pay around £400 just to spend one day in Paris as we’d have to come back early on the Sunday.
Being based in Portsmouth, we also looked about getting a ferry but the logistics of it all were just too tricky as we didn’t know how we would make it to Paris without a car or where we’d park with a car.
At this point, we’d missed our train to London so decided to head to a nearby pub to have a quick think about what to do. There was no way I wanted to sit at home all weekend while I was meant to be in Paris so we quickly had a think about where we could head in the UK for a quick break away.
At first, we thought about the Lake District however settled on Cornwall and quickly found a lovely cottage with a pool which was £250 for two nights – which is the money we got refunded for the Eurostar pretty much.
After that was booked, I contacted the Paris hotel where we were meant to be staying to see if we could get a refund as it was meant to be non-refundable.
Luckily because of the odd circumstances, they said we wouldn’t be charged for the room. I was especially grateful for this seeing as we’d forked out a lot to have a view of the Eiffel Tower – it didn’t come cheap, let me tell you.
After quickly re-packing and exchanging my beret for a few pairs of hoodies and trainers, we embarked on the four-hour drive to Cornwall.
Luckily when we got there, the cottage was absolutely lovely, with a picturesque view of rolling hills and a shared swimming pool we could have a dip in. We just happened to be 10 minutes down the road from the Eden Project too so we headed there on the Saturday to have a look and went to Newquay beach on the Sunday.
I also got to bring my son along, as he was meant to be staying at my mum and dad’s while I was in Paris (as I didn’t think he’d enjoy it), so I got to spend more time with him.
All in all, it was still a great weekend and just shows you can still have fun even if your travel plans get messed up by some random incident.
I also pretty much got everything refunded so I’ll be booking back up to head to Paris soon. My beret will get an outing this year, you mark my words!
