Hi all.

Wow, another person who knows where SW8 is! Who maybe even knows the joys of the Priory Arms and the very different joys of the Swan And London's little-know Portuguese district. I love this part of town, it's a mixture of absolutely everything, and handy for Brixton & Clapham, my favourite going-out areas, and 15 minutes up to the City for work. Away with all the South London-phobes!

On the food - I have had good experiences this time, and in the past with Eurostar F food. You get a choice of meat or fish (and SPMLs pre-ordered). It's obviously not restaurant quality, but above most airline C/J food I have tasted.

My major criticism with Eurostar, coming from Paris, is the awful waiting area there. You are held there right up until 10 minutes before departure, and, if you're on a busy train, there's not enough seats to hold you all (and barely enough space). I do question the usefulness of the security checks on the Eurostar - they have none of this on the trains that go through Swiss tunnels, through Roissy and Satolas airports, across many different borders... Well, anyway, that's a whole different argument. I look forward to the day when you can just roll up to an international train to/from the UK, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

However, if you're in a premium/business first class (which I wasn't), you do get use of a newly-opened lounge at the Paris and London terminals, which is supposed to be rather nice.

On CDG - yes, it's got itself into a bit of a state. Thankfully they're finally re-doing Aérogare 1, which has descended from the avant-garde international gateway it was into an utter mess. 2B (BA's new home) was rather more impressive in its design, but the whole 'check-in just before departure' system is questionable. Transport to/from CDG is dodgy too - the buses can be convenient off-peak, but can take forever otherwise. RER B seems now to be plagued by problems, and lobbying from local groups has (justifiably) seen the express CDG to Paris-Nord trains cut. But that means you really don't want to travel on it late at night. Plus, the inter-terminal transit (a VAL system rather like in ORY) was canned and dismantled after construction - at huge waste of cost - and leaves transfer from some terminals to the RER less than satisfactory.

LCY's landing charge is hefty, but it's such a convenient airport... I don't know now, but LGW used to charge only for departure, so the smart thing was to fly LCY-XXX-LGW, if you wanted to save money...