I took the Eurostar straight to Paris after Brexit – to watch the rugby

French people appeared reluctant to express a view on Brexit. It was our choice, was the closest I could get to an opinion, finds John Rentoul

A trip to Paris was a chance to assess the mood on the continent (Reuters)

I took the first Eurostar out of the country after Brexit. This wasn’t a protest, although I would have been happy to pretend to a furious Remainer fellow passenger that it was. It was in fact a long-arranged trip to watch the rugby: England vs France at the Stade de France. It wasn’t actually the first Eurostar out of St Pancras International last Saturday either; we made a leisurely lunchtime getaway.

However, it was a chance to assess the mood on the continent immediately after we all ceased to be EU citizens together. Or it would have been, if Paris had not been absolutely full of British people who had come for the rugby too.

As we disembarked at Gare du Nord, we were accosted by our angry (British) fellow traveller. She demanded to know if we were Remainers, and I wanted to explain that it was complicated, but my companions were happy to be so labelled, and she told them that she hoped it all ended in disaster because then Leavers would be proved wrong.

Actual French people, on the other hand, were reluctant to express a view. It was our choice, was the closest I could get to an opinion.

The staff at passport control (British on the way to Paris, British and French on the way back) said nothing had changed. In the hotel, the Russian receptionist thought it was “a pity”, because she thought it would make it harder to go to London, which was on her “to-visit” list, along with New York and Tokyo. I wasn’t sure how she, as a non-EU national, might be affected.

Still, I can report that Paris is still there. Everything still works. The Metro and RER have antique paper tickets with a magnetic stripe, but the networks are easy to navigate. If you need to know, the Stade de France is two stops north of Gare du Nord on the RER. There was no sign of the strikes that have supposedly paralysed the capital under the confrontational presidency of Emmanuel Macron.

The only downside of Brexit so far is that England lost the match. After an error-strewn first half, England began a thrilling but just unsuccessful fightback. The final score was 24-17, which meant, under new-ish rules for the Six Nations competition, that England won a bonus point for losing by seven points or less. But I am sure we would not have lost at all if we had still been a member of the EU.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator