I was one of the first people to breakfast today, because of the early-ish train. I felt confident enough to use the Metro to get to the station, but that did involve a lot of carrying a 20kg load up and down stairs. But I got there and on the train, as did a lot of other fans. When I went back to the cafe car, I found what amounted to a rolling dead dog party going on.
The views from the train were lovely and I hope to post them later, but I did end up falling asleep for much of the last two hours into Paris.
I did not have dinner at this landmark restaurant at Gare Lyon, partly because it's expensive and partly because I worried about getting to Gare du Nord for my Eurostar connection to London. Despite misadventures at getting onto the RER and having to do more stair lugging, I made it to my train with an hour to spare, and food service post security isn't much. But I managed.
I'm now settled in to my favorite London hotel, albeit that I can only afford it on IHG points, the Holiday Inn Camden Town. The view from the balcony is much better than the one below, which was the room in Barcelona: