Arriving late in London via a flight from Glasgow via Easy Jet and the train from Luton to St Pancras, we walked to a nearby (very average and expensive) hotel.
Eurostar tickets to Paris departing at 7.55 am meant we arrived in Paris Gare du Nord station at 11.17 am (8.10.12) and booked in at our hotel, Hotel Gare du Nord Suede.
Our hotel was near one of the four tour routes for the Paris L Open Tour so we hopped on the Monte Marte bus to Ste-Marie Madeleine where we changed to the Paris Grand Tour route.
This tour took us to Musee Du Louvre, over the Seine past Place De La Concorde, along Av. Des Champs-Elysees, through the Arc De Triomphe towards the grandulous Tour Eiffel.
With the weather a little overcast, there was no line up for the Eiffel Tower, so we took the lift, which runs diagonal along the pillars, up to the second floor and then all the way up to the top with outstanding panoramic views. The experience of seeing and going up the tower was surreal and the structure is an amazing engineering feat.
Past the impressive Grand Palais and Petit Palais, plus Moulin Rouge we went back to the hotel and then ventured out for dinner, using our ‘limited’ French (complete with accent and lots of smiles from the restaurant staff) to order a French meal.
“Trying out my French, about to explore the city on an open top bus”.
On the second day in Paris we took the bus to Notre Dame and went shopping in the souvenir shops along the Seine. A 3 course meal in the Latin quarter for 10 euros was great value before finishing the open top bus tour, heading back to the hotel, picking up our luggage and catching the train back to St Pancras around 6.00 pm – a whirlwind Paris highlights trip!
Here are the photos from Paris – album 1 and album 2.
Arriving back into London around 7.45 pm we caught a tube and a train back to Purley to see our cousins for one final night.
The flight home with QANTAS to Adelaide via Sydney departed from Heathrow (9.10.12) at 8.30 pm so on our final day we visited the school that Lynne works in and had lunch (burgers instead of a pub for a change!) with Chris and Harry. A relaxing final day and then heading out to the airport this side of tea time; we said our goodbyes and got prepped for the long flight home via Singapore.
“we have had an amazing holiday and done so much with 4 countries in 2.5-3 weeks, I think it will take a while to process, looking forward to seeing Aimee Perry, Jean Baker, plus all Baker’s and Perry’s”
Written by Wendy Perry, Innovator | Thinker | Speaker | Writer