If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that Phil and I are going to London and Paris this year. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited and I can't stop talking about it and I'm pretty sure people at work and in my real life are super annoyed with me, but I can't help it because WE ARE GOING TO LONDON AND PARIS.
I, like many other people, have always dreamed of traveling to Europe, London and Paris (but especially Paris) being two destinations at the top of my list. And I always said that I would make it happen. And Phil and I have talked about it for a few years now. But every year goes by and we don't do it. Planning a trip to Europe is a LOT of work. And we haven't exactly been stable as to where we will be living so that's been an issue. Would kind of suck if you bought the plane tickets and then moved across the country... But this year we decided to actually make it happen. I've spent weeks compiling information, making schedules, deciding what we want to do, how long we're going to be there, how much this is going to cost, what hotels we're going to stay in etc. And finally I felt like I had enough of a handle on the trip to make it happen. So last Thursday we booked our plane tickets.
IT'S REAL!!!
Okay, so just to give you a quick breakdown, we're going to be in London and Paris for four and a half days each. We'll be taking the highspeed eurostar train to Paris (yes, it goes underneath the channel and yes I'm freaking out about being under all that water...).
On our agenda for London:
Old Spitafields Market
The London Bridge
Borough Market
Trafalgar Square
Waterstones Bookstore (obviously)
Regent's Park
The Tower of London
St. Paul's Cathedral
The Globe Theater
Millenium Bridge
The London Eye
Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abbey
Big Ben
Houses of Parliament
Hyde Park
Kensington Gardens/Kensington Palace
Our four days in London are packed! God, I'm so excited.
Paris:
Palais Royal Gardens
Shopping on the Rue Saint Honore
The Eiffel Tower (duh)
Sacre-Coeur
Shopping on the Rue des Martyrs
Palais Garnier Opera
Galerie Vivienne
Le Marais
The Louvre Museum
Notre Dame
Shakespeare and Company Bookstore (obviously)
Luxembourg Gardens
The Catacombs of Paris
The Pantheon
Macaroons at Laduree and Pierre Hermes
Arc de Triomphe
Champs d'Elysses
Paris is going to be a lot of wandering around enjoying the city and stuffing my face with all the food. And you guys know how much I love fashion so I'm probably going to bring back a boatload of clothes. You like how I have bookstores penciled into both cities? Obviously.
So far we have our plane tickets, our hotels and our train ticket to Paris all booked. Now it's just a matter of booking our tours and figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B, etc. We're not doing any formalized tours, just kind of doing our own thing. I think the tours would confine me too much and I want the freedom to be able to do what I want so I'm making my own schedule. Which is a lot of work, but I think will be totally worth it. Hopefully we won't get too lost!
Anyway, thanks for letting me gush over my vacation because I've exhausted the people that I see on a daily basis and I'm pretty sure they don't want to hear about it ever again. Of course they will though after we go because I'll have to show them all my pictures and gush over how beautiful and perfect everything was. And of course I'll put pictures up here for you guys to see!
Do you have big vacation plans this year? Have you been to London and Paris? Any additional suggestions of places I should see? Food I should eat?
Wow, you've got a full schedule ahead of you, but an awesome one!! I've been to both London and Paris (but I live in Holland, so it's not so far for me) and both cities are beautiful :) I have an extra soft spot for London, because I have this love for all things Tudor and the bookstores are amazing and just FISH AND CHIPS and The Tower of London was so amazing and yeah...
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you like art I'd also add Place du Tertre to your Paris list, it's near the Sacre Coeur, so it can easily be combined and it's bascially a square where you have lots of artist sit around selling their paintings and also actually painting them there. And they have this place that sells the best crepes there :)
Oh, and in London they have a massive amount of squirls, we bought a sack of nuts at a supermarket and fed them in Hyde Park, they just come get the nuts right out of your hands :)
Hope you have a wonderful time!
Thanks for the tips!! I'll definitely see if we can squeeze Place du Tertre into our schedule and I'll have to remember to buy some nuts before we visit Hyde Park. :D
DeleteHow exciting! You are planning to do so many things, that is wonderful. I've only been to London (but I have traveled a few times through Paris) London is great and I can't wait to return. I don't have any recommendations, but I hope you have a good time!
ReplyDeleteThanks!! I can't wait!
DeleteYay!!! I'm sure you're going to have so much fun. I've only been to London, but I loved it. So many awesome bookstores. The Tower of London is amazing, we could have easily spent almost all day there. And the Houses of Parliament…you can actually go in and watch them argue, etc. even though no one tells you you can. There's this one line and you just walk up and they say no but you say yes and then they let you in. That was actually really fun, we saw some people get up and rant and rave. Can't wait to hear about your trip when you get back!!! ~Pam
ReplyDeleteOooh really??? I will have to try to find this mysterious line...I'm so excited! All the bookstores! I'm probably going to be out of control buying foreign editions... Sorry not sorry in advance. Lol
DeleteOHHH MY GOODDDDDDDDDD you will have an amazing time!!! when are you going?? I want to go back to europe so badly bc when I went I was young and I want to be able to go and experience it properly now. Anyway, I loved london and paris when I was there and I hope you will too!!!! the louvre is all kinds of amazing and I adored the castles and such in London. omg i'm so jealous. HAVE FUN!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are going at the beginning of September! I am so freaking excited about it! We've talked about it for a while now and finally got our shit together this year. It's going to be so amazing. I'm definitely more excited about Paris than London (still excited for both tho). I just can't wait to stuff my face with all the amazing food in Paris!!
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