Relax, you're on the fast track to Paris

The Eurostar Channel Tunnel train takes little more than two hours from London to Paris. Photo / AP

Looking ahead or looking back? Having tried both, I'm a convert to the benefits of hindsight. I don't know why, but I find it more soothing to sit on a train watching where I've just been recede into the distance than seeing where I'm going arrive and pass by.

The London to Paris Eurostar TGV (train à grande vitesse) is indeed a train of great speed - apparently up to 300 km/h and slowing to 160 km/h in the Channel Tunnel. But it's hard to tell the difference. The section under the waves was over so fast I hadn't realised we had submerged. And the ride is so smooth, with the background sliding by sedately, it's only the foreground blur of regularly spaced power poles zipping past that indicates a breakneck pace. Plus, of course, that the 495km journey is completed in a little over two hours.

Sitting in Eurostar's Leisure Select Class munching on a fine breakfast and trying to ascertain the essential difference between the French and English countrysides, there is time to reflect on the benefits of rail over flying. Rail wins: no hassle getting to and from the airport, shorter checkin, no waiting around for baggage, plus a carbon footprint so light, one feels like an environmental saint.

London's St Pancras Station sets the example for rail's renaissance. The 800 million ($2.126 billion) restoration of William Henry Barlow's train shed rediscovers a spectacular feat of Victorian engineering. When the station first opened in 1868 the shed - 210m long and spanning 75m with 30m high cast-iron rib arches - was the largest enclosed space in the world. The cast iron work - now painted sky blue - secondary rib rafters and diagonal cross-bracing are all beautifully restored. But it's the sky's light from 14,080 panels - nearly 10,000sqm of ridge and furrow glazing - that makes the space so dazzling.

Shame about the lean to addition necessary to keep Eurostar's long trains undercover - a flat, bland attachment that seems like it was designed by a committee of engineers. The "Meeting Place" statue, of a giant couple snogging, apparently to put the romance into rail, is a mistake too. Too big, too kitsch, too silly.

Europe's longest champagne bar is more promising. Here you can fortify yourself for the journey ahead with a glass starting at £7.50 (De Nauroy Brut NV) and up to £33.50 (Krug Grande Cuvée NV). If you really want to splash out, why not go for Jeroboam of 1995 Dom Pérignon White Gold at £6500?

But a drink to calm the nerves isn't necessary. Waiting in the St Pancras departure lounge is so pleasant you actually feel relaxed when it's time to climb board. Take a sofa seat at one of the touch-screen coffee tables and explore highlights from the National Gallery's collection of Western European painting. Zoom in for close-up details of a Caravaggio, Constable, Van Gogh or Monet, then send an art e-card to friends or relatives to make them feel jealous.