12yr old DS solo on Eurostar?

[TooManyPlatesInMotion]

My son is desperate to go to a language summer camp in France. Staff from the camp can pick him up from Gare du Nord and travel onwards with him.

I have checked Eurostar's website and he is old enough to travel solo with written parental consent.

Has anyone's DC done this at a similar age?

I can accompany him as far as security I think. My concern is not the journey itself but the other end.... It is years since I took the train to Paris.

Can someone remind me how simple or otherwise the arrival in Paris is? From memory it goes straight onto the concourse and you just follow everyonr else to the ticket gates. Staff can meet him the other side.

Thanks v much!

DS travelled to Brussels on the eurostar alone when he was 12. He was met by family friends at the other side.

Apart from nearly getting on the train to Paris all was fine!! To be fair, I would definitely make sure your DS knows how to read departure boards and if confident enough to ask if he is unsure. At least on the way there he can ask in English and on the way back they all go to London.

It was a straightforward handover at St Pancras with the approved form and ID. We took him to the initial security gate but then he went on his own. He had been on the eurostar to Brussels once before with us six months beforehand and is quite used to airport travel so was quite fine with security checks etc.

Make sure that you also have the form prepared for the return journey. In fact when we came back from Brussels with him six months earlier, we tried to send him through on his own for the experience but they stopped him and asked where his accompanying adult was.

What an exciting trip for your DS - hope he enjoys it!

@sewerrat He's 12, not three!! Massive difference.

@TooManyPlatesInMotion well done for booking the tickets! I'm impressed he wants to go & I hope he has an amazing time.

he's a kid that's used to public transport - the school know what they're doing. Of course I'd be a wee bit nervous until I knew he'd been met by them, but you have to let them live life, take small risks & grow!

PM for the language school please!

Eurostar v easy and the staff are so helpful even for me as a solo adult with small children so I'm sure a child alone would be prioritised.

"absolutely not. has no one learnt their lesson leaving children unattended in foreign countries?"

This is a seriously unhinged take.

@ClarificationNeeded I'll PM you tonight with the info!

Made me spit my drink out 🤣🤣🤣

I'm glad OP booked it, I would have done this with my sensible 12 year old. My 14 year old flew solo last summer (no special air crew help or supervision). Negotiating an airport much scarier than just getting off a train and being met by an adult.

All the people saying what if something goes wrong seem to be ignoring the fact that mobile telephones exist. I stayed in constant contact with my daughter while she was airside until dhe was on the plane and I could see instantly on life 360 when she had landed. In case of literally any problem the child can contact their parent instantly!

I'd also love the details of the language school please

But he CAN speak the language! He won't be going to French language camp at age 12 to learn French as an absolute beginner.

I think it's fantastic that your DS wants to do this, and it's great you've booked it! Hope he has a great time.

@yourenottheboss "What if the person meeting him at the other end got held up?"
He's not being met by a random person- he's being met by a representative of a educational organisation used to dealing with young people. If someone's held up they will call/text him and tell him where to wait. This is France- not Outer Mongolia!

Well done for booking this, sounds like a great opportunity for him.

He can speak s

Gah, rubbish phone! Ds can speak some French. He is in y7 and so will have been learning for a year by Aug, plus there is always google translate....

I mean yes, stuff could go wrong and I will of course talk him through that. He will have the mobile number and photo of the member of staff coming to meet him and they will have his too.

sorry I think you're being very naive. this isn't a 5 min bus journey its a long journey with lots of other passengers where a lot could happen

I have dm'd those of you who asked for details of the camp DS is going to.

It's going to be a proper adventure - he's never been to France before - and i'm very pleased for him. He's generally a bit of a lazy so and so and has been a bit disinterested in school to date, but has discovered he likes languages, so I am hopeful this will be the start of a life long passion!

Arrival at Gare du Nord is super easy. You get off the train and walk down the platform to the concourse. There are always loads of people waiting to meet travellers and I would assume that the camp reps would be there. There are also Eurostar reps hanging around (they help direct people to the taxis, for eg), so there are people he could ask for help if need be.

Once he’s on the train, he’ll be fine. It’s a relatively short journey and, bar perhaps going to the loo, he’ll be in his seat the whole time. Get him a sandwich from M&S for the journey (on the way back, there’s a Monoprix at Gare du Nord) so that he's not needing to walk through the carriage. The seats for two are better than the tables for four …. aside from being more spacious, he’s more likely to have the seat to him empty.

People on the Eurostar tend to be a mix of people returning home, business, and tourists. There will always be someone to ask for help if necessary. My son once spectacularly puked everywhere just as we pulled into GdN and a super nice lady insisted on driving us all the way home!

I honestly wouldn’t. You don’t know who will be on the train or loitering at the station in Paris waiting for exactly this kind of teenager alone.

I used to work for an American summer camp and it was pretty standard for kids to be flying there alone. My god daughter also did a similar European camp and flew to Greece for an a classics one when she was about 14. I would be incredibly surprised if he is the only young person arriving in to the station on that day - we would usually have an agreed meeting spot and team would wait at agreed spaces and accompany young people from them to the meeting spot. Learning skills like this is SO important to do and it’s significantly easier to not be doing it for the first time when you’re 30 or something!