This past summer I was lucky enough to get to travel to France, England and Wales with my family. At the end of 2021 my dad approached us all to get our thoughts on doing a canal boat trip through England and Wales. Of course, we were all on board! Boats and history and family fun? Who could say no!
The last time I was in Europe was in 2006, to visit Brittany while she was studying abroad in England. Before that, in 2004, I went to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales with People to People, a student ambassador group. So I was super excited to go back after over 15 years. I’ve always loved how old everything is there. In the US, we have old-ish things but compared to a lot of Europe, it’s really not that old! I also love architecture, so combining old and architecture is one of my favorite things to photograph.
At the end of April we flew from Houston to London via Newark. The flights were all good, but when we arrived in London, our bags did not :/ Thankfully I had put an airtag in my suitcase, so I could see exactly where they were, which was Newark Airport. We filed some stuff with the airline and then headed out to the train station because our first stop on this trip was Paris, France. I have wanted to go to France for pretty much my whole life. I took french in high school and college and while I can’t speak much, I can understand a fair bit. After buying a few essentials and some pj’s we got on the 3:10 train to Paris. Quick note about lost luggage purchases: I have had lost luggage with United and American and both airlines refunded all of my purchases, no questions asked. Be sure to save your receipts as you’ll need to send those to the airline.
After arriving in Paris we checked into our hotel, La Bourdonnais. It was literally across the street from the Eiffel Tower! We didn’t have great views, but we could walk over in just minutes. We ventured out to find dinner and our noses took us straight to a little pizzeria, Gusto Italia 218, right around the corner from the hotel. There is just something about pizza outside of the US. It’s always so light compared to American pizza. I want to call American pizza claggy, like Paul Hollywood would on The Great British Bake Off. We also stopped at a little bakery to pick up some brioche for breakfast the next day.
On day two we wandered the city all morning and then headed to the Champs Elysee where we went to Le Fouquet for lunch. This is where I had the best Croque Monsiour of my life. It was AMAZING! Like the stuff of dreams. I’m not sure another will ever live up to it. So, if you are in Paris, be sure to stop by Le Fouquet. Everyone in our party of 5 loved their meal. Since it’s on The Champs Elysee, you can also see L’arc de Triomphe (check out the underside of it…) and pop in to a La Duree in the same trip.
In the afternoon we went to the Eiffel Tower where my brother, SIL and I had tickets to go to the top and have a glass of bubbly! While the glass of bubbly was fun, we only ended up doing that because it was the cheapest ticket left to the top even though we bought them early. We booked these tickets directly through the Eiffel Tower website because they had the best prices and availability. The elevators at the Eiffel Tower are super fun. If you’ve never been, they go up the inside of the legs of the tower, so they move diagonally, which is super unusual and fun to watch. Quick note on souvenirs: I bought a sweatshirt with a super cute Eiffel Tower emblem on the chest. But it’s not in the center and obviously so. So if you go and are thinking about a sweater, check before you buy!! I didn’t realize until later on in the trip 🙁
While in Paris we decided to do a Hop on Hop off bus so that we could see as much as possible in the short 4 days we were there. Along with that we got a boat tour. It wasn’t a super long boat ride but it was really nice to see Paris from the water. There were a few things that we wouldn’t have seen had we not done that tour, like Ile Seguin and Ile St. Germain. If you don’t have a ton of time in Paris, I would recommend this, just because you can see a lot in one day. Definitely plan things out before you go though so that you know which stops to take. After our super long day we were all pretty tired and went back to the hotel.
On day three we went to Versailles! I really wanted to see Versailles even though it would take up the majority of one of our precious days in France. Because of that, it made the most sense to have a car pick us up at our hotel and take us directly there and then drop us back at our hotel. Through Viator I found a service that had a private or semi private van pick you up and drive you to Versailles where you then got a semi private tour. Our van had one other family in it, a grandmother and her grown granddaughters. They made good travel companions!
Once we arrived at Versailles, we met our guide who took us and 5 or 6 others through the house. I was shocked at how full and busy it was inside. There didn’t seem to be any limit on the number of people allowed in each room and sometimes there was barely any space to move within the room. Thankfully we had headsets to be able to hear our guide give us information on each room. Once we finished the tour we had about an hour to explore the grounds before heading back to Paris. The grounds are so large that an hour wasn’t quite enough. If you have the time, a full day is the way to go!
We visited Versailles on May 2 and the majority of the gardens around the house had not been planted yet. The guide mentioned that we were a week or two early to get to see that. One of my favorite parts of Versailles was the gallery of mirrors. Of course I had heard about it and seen photos but our guide shared something that never occurred to me: mirrors were extremely rare at the time that Versailles was built. Since Versailles was always open to the public, the people could come in and see themselves in the mirrors, as well as see the royals in their every day life.
After we got back to Paris, we had to attempt to buy clothes, because our bags had STILL not arrived. I had always dreamed of shopping in Paris, but it’s not fun when you’re desperate! We went to Galleries Lafayette where we were all able to find something to get us through. We had dinner at the restaurant in Galleries Lafayette and then slowly made our way back to the hotel. Lucky for us, our bags arrived at our hotel later that night.
On day 3 we had breakfast at Angelina. It was wonderful! We didn’t have a reservation, but we got there early enough that we were able to seated immediately. Most of us got the Parisian Breakfast which came with their famous hot chocolate, orange juice, a baguette, 2 croissants, and a pain au chocolate. So much tasty food! The building is so pretty and old. It was fun to just look at everything! Even the ones in our group who thought this was a silly outing, ended up loving it.
We chose to go to Angelina on Rue de Rivoli because it’s super close to the Louvre. I found a private tour of the Louvre on Viator and that was by far the best thing we could have done. The Louvre is massive and seeing it all in one day is pretty much impossible. We met up with our guide Valerie, who was fantastic! If you see a space to request a guide using the link, ask for her! Since we had a guide we were able to use the reception room for groups which was really nice, the bathrooms weren’t as busy and we had lockers where we could put our coats and additional bags. At the start of our tour Valerie asked if there was anything specific we would like to see, and then she created our tour based on our feedback. Valerie was full of little stories and had tons of knowledge about the art. We were also very happy to hear from Valerie that as a french child, going to Angelina was considered a special treat. Nice to know it isn’t just a tourist destination!
After our tour we went to lunch at a restaurant overlooking the big pyramid of the Louvre, Cafe Marly. It was a huge restaurant and thankfully they were able to seat us immediately even though it was the height of lunch time. I got croque monsiour again and it was a close second to the amazingness of Le Fouquet! Next we walked down the Seine towards Notre Dame to look at art. And to end the evening, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower to watch the lights come on. C’est manifique! It was super fun to see it all lit up and then to watch the light show. This was the perfect way to spend our last night in Paris!
Check out Part 2 where we head to England to get on our Canal boat! And then part 3 for London!
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