I was on a Paris train, I emerged in London rain…

Travel day yesterday. We rode the Metro to Gare du Nord in Paris and then the EuroStar to London, the first time in England for Jim and Claire (it wasn't raining when we emerged). Thanks to a 30-minute delay approaching the Chunnel, then construction on the tube that forced a detour as we moved from one London train station to another for our trip to the Cotswolds, we had to hurry a bit. But we are now in the town of Painswick, which epitomizes “quaint” every time we turn a corner. We explored the town and a few “public way” paths along the outskirts last night. Today we’ll walk between towns in the area, and, according to one guidebook, our main duty will be to decide how much clotted cream to add to our scones as we sit in the pub between walks.

So we saw several train and tube stations in London but nothing of the city – that comes later. Meanwhile, it’s hard to imagine a greater contrast between Paris and Painswick. From jostling crowds and lights and sounds all the time, to quiet and dark (we had to make sure we left from dinner in time to make it back to the B & B in time, with no streetlights here). We almost felt like we had to whisper while walking down the streets. But as Claire pointed out, she has now been in two towns in her life where (a) you can stand in buildings that date from before 1600 and (b) you have gargoyles on every church – Paris and Painswick. So there are more similarities than one might think.

Bonus points to the first person who recognizes the reference in this post’s title (without Googling it).