I think the parent might mean eg. travel from the UK outside of London to Paris, and France outside of Paris to London. In that case you'd probably spend longer traveling to the Eurostar in your own country than on the Eurostar. The same would be true if you traveled to an airport in London/Paris to fly, but there's the alternative of flying from a regional airport direct to London/Paris instead.
Nah, I was just overestimating Paris's status as a flight hub. Although I do wonder if connecting in Paris might make more sense from some of the smaller London airports.