Our return to London was a little frenetic, leaving us somewhat tired and emotional!

First return of rental car to central Paris. Although we had allowed 3 1/2 hours to return the rental car, a journey that should only take one hour we used every bit of that time trying to find the Gare de Lyon and the public car park beneath it. Over two hours of going around in sort of circles, but not actually getting closer to our destination. Lots of arguing, swearing and white knuckle driving!! Ahh Paris, roads clogged during the morning peak. I'm sure that we drove down the narrowest, tiniest streets in Paris, with delivery trucks parked hodge podge everywhere, buses and scooters and those wretched traffic lights. Never actually knowing where we were.

Eventually station sighted, car park entrance located with minutes to spare. Then the search for the lift to return us and luggage to street level and the rental car office. It only took two flights of stairs to locate the lift!

Keys returned to Europcar, to the same surly woman who gave us the car a week earlier; the same surly woman who took 900 euro from our credit card when we refused the extra insurance; the same surly woman who did not have any maps showing how to get out of Paris or how to find the car park to return the car; the same surly woman who insisted that the car be returned full of fuel, but supplied it only 3/4s full.

Part two of the journey to London comprised purchase of metro ticket from Gare de Lyon to Gare de Nord to catch the Eurostar to return to London. Ticket purchase simple, location of the platform endless, first the ticket seller gave the wrong platform number, then we were directed to an RER platform (or country train rather than metropolitan underground). Eventually correct platform located, and correct train boarded for the two stop journey.

But Paris wasn't finished with us yet. At the first stop there appeared to be an argument on the platform as the train pulled in. This turned out to be a brawl between one very large and noisy black woman and another woman. The smaller woman was trying to escape and eventually made her way into our carriage. Only to be followed, there continued angry shouting from the platform into our carriage which developed into lunges into the carriage in an attempt to make contact, until eventually the black woman was in the carriage pushing through the other passengers who were trying to restrain her. Much yelling, much scuffling, people trying to fight, people trying to get between them, people alighting from the carriage to avoid the violence, people getting on not realising what they were stepping into. And here were we locked down with our enormous heavy cases and three additional bags; unable to escape and unable to understand all that was being said. Eventually someone pulled the emergency handle and the driver came to see why the handle had been pulled and was not at all happy about it. How he had been unaware of the scuffle, I've no idea.

Eventually police arrive and the two women, by now they are in the centre of the two-storey carriage; the aggressor seeing that her target had been shielded into the middle of the carriage returned to the platform, only to re-enter from the other door. Both women are removed to the platform.

But still the train doesn't move. And that's how we came to miss our train to London!!

Of course, now that "we're all in Europe" we hadn't expected to have to fill in arrival documents at the station before departure, combined with passport check, security check, ticket check ... we were late.

We were transferred to the next train, three hours later. But we did have some time to gather our thoughts and impressions of France and make ourselves presentable again

Arrived in London at 6.30 instead of 3.30, in one piece and located our new London hotel.