I'm bookmarking this because someday soon I hope to have summoned the psychological strength to approach the whole Eurostar conundrum. Since I have only looked far enough into it to see its many complications and areas of potential confusion, it may take some time to get up the nerve to face it head-on. My thanks to those who contribute to clarity.

British Midland no longer flies the London to Paris route.

'I'm bookmarking this because someday soon I hope to have summoned the psychological strength to approach the whole Eurostar conundrum'

Don't whatever you do visit the Trenitalia website then!

Trenitalia - funny that the automatic computerized booking machines in Italian stations are so easy to use - all in English and you have your ticket printed in a matter of minues and American credit cards OK

yet www.trenitalia.com is so so so confusing and frustrating - why don't they just put the system used in stations on www.trenitalia.com.

Yes that site is no doubt the very worst online rail booking site!

<British Midland no longer flies the London to Paris route.>

Eurostar has managed to capture about 65% of Paris-London-Paris travel i read - or thereabouts - less and less flights and probably with greenness growing in Europe more incentives will be given to taking the train

Like not publically funding additional runways to make more flights possible

And another good reason to go by train - go green - causes a lot less degredation of the atmosphere - much more energy efficient than planes, which supposedly emit about 15% of the pollutants that some attribute to global warming

Luton airport is not that bad for getting into central London.

One easy and cheap way - take EasyBus from the airport to your preferred London stop. This can be as cheap as 2 pounds. We just used EasyBus from the Baker Street area to Stansted last week, and it was like being driven in our private minivan. From the EasyBus stop, you will probably want to take a tube or taxi to your destination, unless the stop just happens to be close to where you are staying.

A possibly faster but likely more expensive way - take the free 5-minute shuttle bus ride to Luton Train station. Take the train to Kings Cross. Then take the tube or a taxi to your destination.

<<< Take the train to Kings Cross. >>>

Or any of several stations in London - Farrigndon, London Bridge

Or the train may go to St Pancras instead - but that's next door to KX