Saturday through Thursday April 22-27, I was with some of my best friends from the US, Mark and Nick, who live in Nashville. They came on a European holiday for the next two weeks and they are visiting me as well as friends of theirs that live in Switzerland. They started off in London and will fly out of London at the end. But they will also visit Paris, Marseilles, and Switzerland. I was with them for London and Paris. Mark is a great trip planner, so we had a great time, ate amazing things, and enjoyed each other’s company. It’s also been nice for me not to have to make so many decisions. That’s one thing when traveling solo…you make ALL the decisions!
We were all in London together from Sat afternoon through Mon morning. Saturday, we walked around the Shoreditch area and ended up having lunch at a burrito place in that area. I was shocked at how many people were there…so many more than we’re here in January. I guess that’s to be expected, but wow! It was a bit overwhelming.
We also walked around the Little Venice area, which Mark found. I had not been there. It was named Little Venice, because there were a bunch of house boats on it, as well as a few very cool canals. A pretty cool part of town!
That night Mark had made a dinner reservation for us at a restaurant called Trullo which is in the Islington area of London. I had not been there before. The dinner was amazing and we had a fabulous time catching up and talking about everything.
On Sunday we woke up late because we were all so tired. I was so happy to sleep in! I have not slept in since well, last Sunday. But last week was kind of non stop, staying with Matthew and going in to school so early. And I had to wake up early on Saturday to travel. All of that was quite tiring. So anyway we got going around lunchtime and went exploring. Sadly, it was raining and cold today so, typical London weather, but not fun for touring. We did the red bus tour so that they could see some of the main sites quickly. Oh, and we happened upon the London Marathon, which diverted a lot of traffic since it was right in the middle of the city. Pretty cool to see it but unfortunate that we weren’t on the regular route for the bus tour. Eventually, we got off the bus near Piccadilly Circus so that they could walk up and see that part of town. On our way we happened upon this place of wanted to go for a while. It’s called “Buns from Home” and they have these square croissant types of things. We each got one and…so good! I only ate half and have the rest for breakfast the next day.
And we walked up to Piccadilly Circus took some photos and then walked on to Covent Garden. I wanted to show them that part of town because I just think it’s really cool. We walked to the Seven Dials Market in that area and sat and had a drink. We continued on, and walked around the Apple market until it was time to go to dinner.
Mark had again made us a reservation for a seafood restaurant called the Seashell of Lisson Grove in the Marleybone area. It was a beautiful restaurant and had an amazing octopus structure at the front by the bar. The food was OK. We had fish and chips. We were so tired. We went home and went to bed.
Monday morning, we had to leave to go to Paris on the Eurostar, which leaves at the London King’s Cross St. Pancras train station. It was a bit of a cluster because we weren’t quite sure where to go or what was going to happen, and there were so many people! But we eventually made it on the train no problems and it was a quick I think 2 1/2 hour ride to Paris underneath the English channel. That was a first for me so I thought it was cool that we did that! Although it was not cheap. For me there and back cost about 260 pounds.
When we got to Paris, we put our stuff in our Airbnb and went exploring. We walked around the Tuileries Gardens, took a picture of the Place de la Concorde, and walked down to the Arc de Triomphe. All of that was a little over a mile and a quarter one-way. But we stopped on the way and saw some of the beautiful sites.
That night we had dinner reservations for a dinner cruise on the River Seine. What a great experience! It was a Michelin-style meal on this amazing boat cruise. 2 1/2 hours down and back. Unfortunately, it was raining so that was a bit of a bummer but still it was so beautiful and an incredible experience with the food and being on the river in Paris. Pretty magical. I have never seen the Eiffel Tower at night. I had been to Paris, once before in 2009 on a trip with music students, but we only got a few hours during the day to be in Paris. So it has been a real treat to be here now with much more freedom and time. When we arrived back at the dock around 11, it has stopped raining, and we were able to take some beautiful photos of the Eiffel Tower, all lit up. And to see it sparkle!
Tuesday was our day to wander around Paris and see as many sites as we could. After breakfast at a cute café, we started at Luxemberg Gardens. Then we found a lovely street to wander down, and we just enjoyed looking at the shops, cafés, and architecture. I took a lot of pictures of the random cafés because this is what you always see, and we were there!
We stopped randomly at one of them called Metro Café. I had a crêpe Suzette and a hot chocolate. That hot chocolate was everything but the crepe was…disappointing to say the least. But it was what I had been wanting to try, so I checked that off of the bucket list.
We continued walking, ultimately walking toward the Louvre, but wandering so we could take in the sites. We stopped at the Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s under construction still from the fire in 2019. Really sad to see how much damage was done. But it is also fascinating to see how much care they are taking to rebuild it to look as close to the original as possible.
We then took in the Palace of Justice, and continued our walk on to the Louvre. Once there, we were just in awe at how beautiful it was. We didn’t plan to go in because we knew we wouldn’t have enough time. And for me, I really appreciate the outside architecture. So we walked around and took photos and just stood there and looked at it and took it all in. It’s amazing to be here and see all of the beautiful buildings.
After that we went and sat at a restaurant and had a cheese plate and a couple of drinks. We were very tired because we’d been walking all day. Once rested, we decided we want to go to a different part of town because I wanted to go see the Moulin Rouge and we all wanted to go see the Sacré Coeur. They are near the same part of town. The Moulin Rouge was well, a great photo opportunity. It was quite a hike from there up to the top to see the Sacré Coeur. So we had to stop for a drink on the way. But when we got there, it was really beautiful, as well as an amazing view of the city. And there was a dog park! We sat and watched the dogs for quite a while just enjoying being there.
For dinner that night we didn’t have anything planned and we were really tired from being out and about. So we decided we wanted to order some food and take it to our hotel and relax. We ordered some Lebanese food from this place right across the street from our room and got it to go. It was nice to just have a chill dinner in the room. What a fulfilling day.
Wednesday was our last full day in Paris and we had planned to do a champagne tour out to Reims. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for seeing the French countryside! There were seven of us on this tour with our tour guide, Thomas. It was an interesting mix of people to say the least. But that’s what makes these kinds of tours even more fun. Because you get to be around people you would not normally be around. We toured two champagne places and had some pretty good size pours of a few different champagnes. Thomas also gave us lots of time to see the beautiful views that were just everywhere. We stopped a couple of different times and took photos. We got back to our hotel around maybe seven or eight and were starving. So Mark found us a lovely pizza restaurant in our neighborhood and we went there and had a wonderful Italian meal. It was a great way to end our time in Paris.
Thursday was the day we parted ways. Nick and Mark were going to Marseilles and I was going back to London. They left about an hour before me and I was sad to see them go. But I’m so glad that they came to Europe, and that we had some time to spend together here! We definitely made some memories we can tell the grandkids…oh wait…. But for real, it means so much to me when friends from home come to visit. We had a great time.
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