Another Pano & A Tour Guide

We were quite fortunate that all the tour guides we met in our 18 days abroad were excellent. Our guide to Paris joined us on the Eurostar and we discovered that she is a young French woman, now living in London and taking several tour groups to Paris each week. Charlotte is quite knowledgeable, organized, and more than willing to answer questions. And I also recall her answer to a question of mine.

She had come down the aisle of the train, taking attendance and introducing herself. We had settled in for the trip, enjoying the British scenery and noticing that we went through more than one tunnel. Since the Channel Tunnel is 45 miles long, it would take some 15 minutes to "undergo" the crossing. When our guide introduced herself, she had a soft voice with a relatively indeterminate accent to American ears.

We were a bit less than an hour from Paris and I was pretty sure we had made the crossing. As I noticed the farm fields looked much the same as they had earlier, I noticed our guide was coming down the aisle. I asked if we had indeed arrived in France. She smiled, gestured toward the window, and said, "Look out and see how beautiful it is and you will know, of course we are in France."

After she walked on, I mentioned that she had a definite French lilt to her accent. A clear French accent. Just as soon as we had emerged from the Chunnel!