So I am on the train with the emphatic purpose of not visiting Paris. And you don't need to go far at the other end: Terminus Nord, a classic brasserie next to the station at 23 rue de Dunkerque, is a firm favourite with those in the know.. or arrive in time for dinner If you catch the 16.12 out of London Waterloo, you will get there early enough to eat out. There will be plenty of time to pig out in Paris, so pace yourself and have dinner on the train.
Club Class offers a decent if unspectacular meal, but copious champagne and wine (included) get you in just the right mood for the weekend ahead ... Bond also travelled to Istanbul to spy on the Soviet embassy from the city's underground cisterns in From Russia With Love, and to catch a cat-fight between two gypsy women, rivals in love.. Dine on Eurostar ... Early in the 20th century, Agatha Christie came here to hole up in the Pera Palas; so did Graham Greene and Mata Hari, though sadly not at the same time What a scandal that might have been. Later, Peter Ustinov travelled to Istanbul with the vampish Melina Mercouri to win his second Oscar in the exotic - but unusually bad - heist movie, Topkapi. If they're not, the airline will move to other destinations.". With one foot in Europe and the other across the Bosphorus in Asia, Istanbul has always offered a sense of accessible otherness.
There will always be people who fancy the chance of a good-value holiday and are prepared to take the risk, but others will think it's not worth the trouble. British Airways will support routes as long as they are economically viable. "Our premiums haven't gone up because of this year's hurricane season but that's not to say it wouldn't change in the future."Two years isn't quite enough to put people off but we are seeing a huge increase in people going elsewhere, to Dubai and Mauritius. One insurer, who declined to be named, said premiums could in theory become prohibitively expensive or be withdrawn altogether during the hurricane season."Our insurance is spread across a range of businesses and areas so the impact is lessened," said Lesley Harvey, head of products at British Airways Holidays. In the US, lawyers are scrambling to establish high-risk insurance pools to spread catastrophic losses from hurricanes over time. What if 2006 is as bad? And 2007?Travel companies, hotel owners and, crucially, insurers are quietly assessing whether it would be worthwhile to continually spend vast sums to restore infrastructure. "When it does, our goal is to have our buildings and infrastructure improved and prepared to handle such a storm."But what troubles the tourist industry is the fear that 2005 may not be a one-off.
