Once again, we used Go-Today to book our hotels and flights for a week in London and Paris. They are convenient and offer great prices as a consolidator. Originally, their package was 3 nights in each but I added a 4th night in both cities. The trip also included the Eurostar through the Chunnel.

London

We left Thursday, and arrived London around 0600 Friday. We checked into the Jarvis International Kensington on Queen’s Gate. We walked down the street to Harrod’s and wandered through a few floors then went to the Tower of London.  We bought tickets to see the Crown Jewels and saw those first, then visited the rest of the grounds, toured the White Tower, and saw a special display of the making of the Crown Jewels. I love wandering the grounds here, seeing the Traitor’s Gate, the Ravens, and the Yeoman in their great uniforms. We stayed until it closed at 1730 then went back to Harrod’s for Alex.

We were a little late getting up Saturday so put off Windsor and went to Buckingham Palace. We got tickets to go inside on tour, something you couldn’t do in 1989, when I first visited London.

The Queen only opened it to the public in order to pay for the repairs from the 1992 fire at Windsor. We visited from 1130 to 1300, then went back to the hotel to change for our matinee show of Cats. We caught a taxi to the show which Alex really enjoyed.

We both loved the show, the costumes and music were fabulous. We wandered around the area of Charing Cross Road, Alex got a henna tattoo, and we had dinner before catching the subway back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we made the 0847 train from Waterloo to Windsor. We arrived in just an hour and walked up the curving hill to the castle entrance. We entered just as Windsor Castle opened at 1000. Windsor is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. Unfortunately, there was no changing of the guards ceremony today but we bought tickets to Queen Mary’s dollhouse and the State Apartments.

Alex loved the huge beautiful dollhouse. We walked around the grounds and visited the shops. We were unable to visit King George’s Chapel because there were services in progress. After leaving the castle we did some window shopping and had lunch before heading back to town.

We visited Tower Bridge. The bridge offers great views from the walkways and it’s interesting to see the engines that raise the drawbridge.

We went to the Cabinet War Rooms but arrived too late for entry. We walked over the Westminster Bridge, saw Big Ben, Parliament, and London Eye. Alex got another henna tattoo then we went back to the hotel.

On Monday we took the “Original London Sightseeing” tour. We stopped at Westminster Abbey, right next to Buckingham to see the Changing of Guards ceremony. We had a great spot right on the curb & saw the guards, horsemen, and a band. We got back on the tour bus to go to Oxford Street where we got off to do some shopping for Alex, Marks and Spencer, Scottish House, Godiva.

After lunch, we went on to Kensington Palace and saw the State Apartments, a display of royal clothing that Alex really enjoyed, and the beautiful gardens. A return to Harrod’s just so Alex could say she bought something. We tried to catch up with our tour, it was too late in the day and we missed the last bus, but we got the “blue line” tour and saw some other less busy parts of town. We got off at Trafalgar Square, visited Nelson’s column, then had a bad dinner at Garfunkel’s. We went back to the hotel to pack for Paris.

Paris

On Tuesday, we caught a taxi at 0800 to Waterloo for our 0930 Eurostar to Paris.   What a great train, nice and comfortable. We had great seats but Alex moved up one row to get a big table and did homework for the entire 3-hour trip, since she was missing a week of school.

I was rather excited about the Chunnel but it was just dark and absolutely nothing to see. Paris is one hour later than London, so we arrived at 1330 at the Gare du Nord or North Gate. We caught a taxi to our hotel, the Tulip Inn Elysee Foch on Rue Lauriston.

After dropping off our bags we went back out. We were only a block from the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees. We went to the Arc de Triomphe first. We climbed to the top and saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the middle of the base. We went to the Metro station and bought a 3-day pass then went to Montmartre. We had dinner and bought some t-shirts, and, after walking down the hill, caught the metro back to Champ Elysees. We got out at the Franklin D. Roosevelt stop and walked down the famous boulevard, window shopping on the way. Alex enjoyed looking at all the clothes even if she didn’t buy.

We slept until 0800, Wednesday, then walked down to see the Eiffel Tower. We bought tickets and went to the 3rd level by elevator. We walked down the stairs, visiting the 2nd and 1st levels on the way down to see the displays and enjoy the different views. 

Around 1100 we went down to the Seine, had lunch at a little café on the waterfront, then caught the metro to Notre Dame. We walked all around the outside first to see the flying buttresses then went inside. I didn’t remember the inside at all from my visit in 1988. What gorgeous stained glass! We climbed the bell towers after waiting in a very long line, then visited the rest of the church and all the chapels.

Around 1530 we walked down to the Conciergerie, the medieval palace built during the reign of Philip IV, or King Philip the Fair. It was used until the end of the 14th c. It became the Palace of Justice then a jail during the French Revolution. This was where Marie Antoinette was held. It closed early so we had to go back another day. 

We went on to Pont Neuf and took the river tour, Vedettes, for an hour-long tour of the Seine. It was a great day for a cruise. We disembarked at Pont Neuf and walked across to the Louvre. On the way we stopped for dinner and had some vegetable soup, which looked awful but tasted very good, and small steaks.

The Louvre was open until 2130 on Wednesdays. We spent 3 hours there and saw just a very small part of the huge museum. We saw the Egyptian display, Etruscan pottery, Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, and much more. We caught the metro back to our hotel but stopped to see the Eiffel Tower at night. They had it all lit up with sparkling white lights for the millennium, not just the usual spotlights. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Thursday morning, we took the metro to Place de la Concorde. We saw the obelisk that Muhammad Ali (Egyptian ruler not the boxer) gave to France in exchange for a clock that never worked. We had just seen the clock at the Citadel in Cairo in March, and heard this story from our Egyptian guide.

Then we walked through the beautiful Tuileries Jardens. Started by Catherine de Medici in 1559, designed by a landscape artist from Florence, they were redesigned in 1664 to a formal French Garden by the same person who designed the gardens at Versailles. The palace that used to be here was burned down in 1871.

We continued through the gardens and down to the Ile de la Cite to return to the Conciergerie. Our ticket was also valid for Sainte Chapelle so we also visited the church. Amazing! I hadn’t heard of this church, but so glad for the opportunity to visit, it’s truly stunning. From the 13th c, there are 15 windows, each 15 meters high, that contain over 1000 scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

We had lunch at an outdoor café, then went to Montmartre to see the gorgeous Sacre Coeur. We visited the church, climbed the dome and wandered the hill before catching the metro back to Barbes Rochecourt to go to a store Alex wanted to visit. Then we went to the Bastille, nothing to see really, just a big square. We caught another subway to the Charles de Gaulle stop on the Champs Elysees and walked down the street to the hotel. We picked up a pizza for dinner in our room then went back to the Eiffel Tower for more views of it all lit up. Beautiful!

We caught the “C” train to Versailles on Friday. We got on the wrong train and it took us a while to get back where we needed to be. It was on the same track, I wasn’t paying attention and thinking it was like the metro or subway, one train going one direction but this was a busy railroad track and I should have looked at the sign on the engine or the arrival/departure board. We arrived at Chateau de Versailles around 1130. I purchased tickets and we toured the State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors, and the superb gardens.

After lunch, we caught another train to France Miniature but missed the signs pointing to the bus stop so after waiting an hour we went back to catch the train.  THEN we saw the signs but returned to Paris anyway. What a frustrating travel day. I don’t usually get lost like this. 

We stopped by the hotel then went to Victor Hugo Boulevard to find Kookai for Alex. It was hard to find but we eventually did and Alex got about $150 worth of clothes, was she thrilled! Back to school clothes. We returned to the hotel and had dinner at the Chinese restaurant we’d been passing every day. It was raining after dinner so we skipped our trip to the Eiffel Tower and went back to the hotel to pack. I remembered I never got an Eiffel Tower statue for my niece, who asked me to buy her one, so we did go back out to the street market.

We were picked up Saturday at 0945 for our trip to the airport. We had a long layover in Pittsburgh and finally got to Chicago. We had a two hour drive and arrived home around 2100.

I didn’t have enough time in either city to see all that I wanted to, both have world class museums such as the British Museum and Albert and Victory in London and the Musee d’Orsay or Picasso or Dali Paris, I will have to make another visit. Both cities are definitely worth repeat visits.

** All photos property of Lisa, not to be copied or reproduced **