From London to Paris - c. 1900

Text reprinted and translated from:
Travel Guide for Americans
Paris artistic: Indicateur des salons russes, anglais et américains en France par C. W. Jarrett Knott
Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Philosophie, histoire, sciences de l'homme

Today we have the Chunnel making London to Paris travel direct and dependable. But in the early 1900's, the distance, currents and trains all created a difficult journey. Just how difficult? Read this first-hand account.

​"The comparatively short journey (modern editors note: 7 - 10 hours) between one and the other of the great European capitals is one which has demanded almost all the resources of modern science to overcome the natural drawbacks attending its peculiar features. Paris is, by rough calculation, about 260 miles from London which distance must be covered by the voyager in three stages.

• First, the railway journey to the Channel,
• then the Crossing thereof, and finally,
• another railway journey to destination.

The Channel is a notoriously fickle expanse of water, its calmness or commotion ​

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