Novel Eurostar service pairs passengers with home comforts

A special service on the Eurostar train service is helping to ensure ex-pats in Britain and France are no longer left without their home comforts.

New Eurostar service providing home comforts for ex-pats. Image by Mike Knell / CC BY-SA 2.0

Boomerang is offering to connect intending passengers with the things they most long for from across the Channel, be it Parisian perfume or English tea.

The service is already proving popular on both sides of the water. In Paris, the top requests so far from British people living in France were for Christmas crackers, spaghetti hoops, and Yorkshire Pudding.

Tastes in London for the French ex-patriate community were a touch more sophisticated: including sweet macaroon meringues, Coquillettes Panzani (tiny macaroni), and duck rillettes.

The service is simple and after signing up, a person just lists the item online which they are craving.

“Missing something?” asks Boomerang, “that moisturiser from Paris. Those scones that remind you of home. Whatever you’re missing from across the Channel. You can request it.”

They then set a price they are willing to pay and wait to pair up with a Eurostar passenger who is making the journey, and has spare luggage capacity.

The payment is made through PayPal but is held until after a meet-up and the safe delivery of the precious package.

Obviously, the service would not work without willing couriers so those booked on the train – who have room to fulfil someone’s longing – can simply browse through the available wish list and choose an item that is feasible to carry and deliver.

Other items proving popular this Christmas were Battenberg cake, Percy Pig sweets, Colmans English Mustard, with no prizes for guessing which side of the Channel those requests came from.

And proving the French can be just as stereotypical as their counterparts across the water … high on their request lists were Grenadine syrup, cornichons and authentic pain au chocolat.