May 3, 2023 - London to Paris and return in one day!!

So when I took my crazy pills and decided to book this last minute trip to London, the craziness extended to booking this group excursion to Paris from

London all in one day! 

The excursion was run by a tour operator.

We were up at 4.30 and got ready for our 5.45 Uber pick up to take us to St Pancras International train station where we met our tour leader, Anna at 6.30 am. She checked we were all there and then gave us all our train tickets to Paris. We had to clear immigration and then we had a wait before the train started boarding. The train left at 8.01 am.

This train trip is on the Eurostar fast train which makes the trip from London under the English Channel to Paris in 2.5 hours. This train can travel at over 300km per hour. 

The train ride was good and there is a cafe car where you can get coffee and other snacks.

We arrived in Paris at 11.30 local time (Paris is one hour ahead of London). We then boarded a coach and had a 1 hour guided tour of Paris.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Paris, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Paris on the other hand surprised me, dirty and smelling of urine. The guide told us everyone is protesting by throwing garbage on the streets and people who need to urinate when in public places won’t use public toilets as they have to pay for them so the result is urine filled streets that the government has to wash regularly, not regularly enough for me, yuk 😂😂

The Moulin Rouge 

The Ritz Hotel

We then arrived at the Eiffel Tower.

We took some photos, just a few 😂😂.

After a bite to eat, we boarded a river cruise on the Seine. The cruise went for over an hour and was definitely worth it. We got to see many landmarks and it was a relaxing cruise.

After our cruise we rejoined our tour leader on the bus and went to the Louvre. It was booked out so we didn’t go in. 

After a another quick stop we made our way back to the train station to catch our 9.00pm train back to London.

By this time we were worn out so we settled in on the train for a well deserved rest.

We arrived in London at 10.30 pm London time.

What a huge day. Needless to say, I had a big sleep in and got up at 11.00 am the next day.

It was nice to say we went to Paris, even if it was a quick visit.

May 2, 2023 - our visit to Harrods

We have been before but I can’t come to London without a visit to Harrods. I am obsessed with their gift shop considering most of the stuff on the other floors are unaffordable but it’s good to dream. 

We started with a visit to the Coffee Bar and had a nice coffee and croissant to start the day. 2 coffees, 2 croissants - over £30!!! That works out to $60 Australian with our terrible exchange rate.

Then we went to the kids floors to see toys and clothes.

It was amazing to see kids Gucci, Armani, Fendi, Dolce and Gabbana and much more. A pair of sneakers for a 3 year old from Gucci was £300! 

Here are some pics of the cute kids clothes.

The kids toys are out of this world. I wanted to be a kid again and get this toy car to play on.

These are actually for kids to ride in!!

Then off to the Harrods gift shop, my happy place. I love this shop so much!!

We bought so much that we had to also buy a suitcase to bring it all back in!!!

April 30, 2023 - Visit to the Tower of London

Today we had an excursion to the Tower of London. We have seen so many shows on TV about this place, so to be there and take it all in was amazing. We had a skip the line guided tour so we got in ahead of the crowds.

We were greeted by a Beefeater who told us about the history of the Beefeaters.

We then went to see the Crown Jewels. Many were not available fir viewing as they were being prepared for the coronation of King Charles III this weekend.

Anne Boleyn’s bedroom