Strasbourg – Day 1 – Travelling Leila

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June 18 2026 – Thursday

I woke up at the crack of dawn today, at 5am, and headed to St Pancras station to catch the Eurostar to Paris. There isn’t much to say about the journey, except that the Eurostar had air conditioning, which was quite important considering the heatwave awaiting me in France.

I had a few hours to spend in Paris, so I had booked luggage storage in advance at a hotel right next to Gare du Nord (and to Gare de l’Est, where I would later catch my train). Free from my luggage, I set off in search of food – naturally, a sacred mission! More specifically, I went in search of the famous TikTok sandwich, the one people supposedly queue for an hour and a half, sometimes even two for. Luckily, I got there fairly early, before noon, which probably explains why there was hardly any queue.

I ordered a sandwich with Cantal cheese, jambon cru (similar to Italian prosciutto), and vegetables. Well, I have to say, it was an absolute monster of a sandwich. It arrived as two halves of one enormous sandwich, containing what must have been at least 100 grams of cheese alone. In short, that sandwich completely knocked me out for the rest of the day, and afterwards I had absolutely no desire to eat anything else.

I still had some time to spend in Paris, so I decided to head towards the Eiffel Tower. I’d looked up a couple of photogenic viewpoints beforehand that offered great views without being the usual (and very familiar to me) Trocadéro-type spots. The journey took about half an hour each way. One Metro train had air conditioning, the other didn’t. Paris is unbelievably hot at the moment – around 35-36°C – and it’s expected to get even hotter over the next few days.

Back in the station area, I took a walk along the Canal Saint-Martin, where people were actually swimming to escape the heat, and then stopped at a specialty coffee shop for an iced cold brew.

After that, I collected my luggage and headed to Gare de l’Est to catch my train to Strasbourg. The station itself was unbearably hot – naturally, there was no air conditioning whatsoever. The train did have air conditioning, though it wasn’t particularly powerful, so it was still fairly warm. Somehow I ended up with a single seat that felt almost like a royal throne (it looked like first class, although I’m pretty sure I’d booked an ordinary ticket).

Half of the train was only going as far as Strasbourg and would be detached there. The other half – including my carriage, interestingly enough – continued into Germany, all the way to Munich.

All in all, this train journey wasn’t particularly memorable either, except that the ticket inspector was having some sort of argument in German with a few passengers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Strasbourg, unsurprisingly, was also roasting – 35°C. My hotel was only about a ten-minute walk from the station.

The hotel happened to be hosting some kind of rooftop party, with a DJ, drinks and fish ceviche. That worked out rather well, because for dinner I only had enough appetite for a small portion of the ceviche with a glass of white wine. Afterwards, I simply went for a walk around the area.

I saw Place Kléber and the cathedral, and when I first saw the cathedral, I genuinely stood there with my mouth open. It’s absolutely breathtaking – an incredible example of Gothic architecture.