Paris breaks and Eurostar breaks to Paris

Friday, July 11, 2008

Can you take your own drinks on board the Eurostar to Paris?

Since alcohol has been banned from public transport in London some people have been wondering if it's OK to take your own drinks on board eurostar trains to Paris.

Here is a run down of the Paris Eurostar situation:

As it was Christmas Eve, and we’d already missed half the family-fun, we decided have some Christmas Eve fun on the journey – Eurostar to Paris and then a train to Normandy.
When I went to Paris with the marvellous other half who surprised me for my birthday we enjoyed our own croissants and champagne all the way there, at 8am, and apart from some disapproving looks about our early morning boozing from passengers, no one else said anything at all. Yes, I’ve certainly seen it done, in fact the couple opening their bottle managed to spill/spray it all over the place, the Paris Eurostar staff even helped clear it up, which is a fairly strong indication that they’re ok with it.

Ask for double rations each time the trolley goes past, so long as the train isn’t too packed they’re happy to give you as much wine as you can drink (8 of those little bottles in my case tho that was before the high speed line knocked half an hour off the drinking time to Paris). Ages ago we held a dinner party on the way to Brussels by Eurostar.

I’ve had the misfortune to share a carriage with a very large and raucous hen party, all knocking back copious amounts of champagne in a most indiscreet manner (pink, natch).

So yes the overwhelming majority opinion is that yes, you can be as anti-social as you like and the won't touch you for it on the Eurostar to Paris