Well first off, I can't recommend the Eurostar highly enough. We took the train from St. Pancras station (more on that in yet another post), and riding it combines the efficiency of high-speed train travel with a sort of stately, old world charm. Right before the train pulls away from the station, whistles blow, a last "All Aboard!" On the England side, announcements are made in first in English and then in French. Once you're through the Chunnel, it's the reverse. Everyone was courtly and so pleasant. Callum and Neel grabbed us a delicious (yes, really!) breakfast, and Cal ordered in French!

At the train station we took a taxi to our apartment (yes, another blog post!), and once we were settled in, we hit the town. It was on the train that I realized that I'd left our Rick Steves in Annie's flat. Have you ever seen A Room with a View? There's a great quote in there where one woman compels the other to throw out her Baedeker guide book. "We shall simply drift."

Our Metro stop came out at the Musee d'Orsay, and we wandered along the Seine toward the Eiffel Tower, which Neel continued to promise us was just around the bend.

Here's the thing about Paris. So much has been said about this lovely city (I'm looking at you, Erin!), that I hardly feel competent to add any more. We'll never be more than tourists here, and there aren't adequate words to describe how visually stunning it really is. And the Eiffel Tower. You have to wonder before you see it if there will be something of a let down, right? "The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending...." Well, not the Eiffel Tower. It's just as impressive as you'd think it should be. And it's big too.

We had dinner at a lovely cafe a few blocks away from the tower and wandered back to the Parc du Champs de Mars to wait for the light show. In the summertime, at dusk (around 10PM, isn't that great?!) the tower lights up for five minutes on the hour so people gather underneath its shadow to wait and watch. Kids and laughing and playing, men wander among the picnickers selling bottles of champagne. It's one of those, I-can't-believe-I'm-here moments.

It was great.

It was our favorite stop, can't you see why?

Our first full day in Paris dawned cool and misty. On the Eurostar the day before we'd purchased tickets for a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour. What the heck, right? We're tourists without a guidebook, and we figured it would give us a good overview of the city. We could hop off at any number of locations and linger where ever we wanted. This however, was the day that Cal started to feel really crummy. He leaned against the side of the bus for most of the ride and it became pretty clear that we'd be more hop on than off.

Still, we saw a lot of wonderful things, and as they say in Midnight in Paris, if anything, the city is more beautiful in the rain. Callum wanted to go up in the Eiffel Tower, so we made sure to do that (I only made it part way, but that was fine. Really. If I'd gone the whole way, I'd have needed at least two glasses of champagne at the champagne bar (at 14 euros at pop).) Especially when I heard that it wasn't swaying much.

My limited memory was that our guidebook had said the best time to take a Seine river cruise (included with the Hop On/Hop Off) at dusk so you can see the lights of the city come on, so our plan was to hit it at about 9:30PM. After the tower, it was clear that Callum wouldn't make it, so we hit the river early (it was still so, so lovely). Callum fell asleep on the ride.

At dinner, I felt his neck and he was burning up. We took a taxi to our apartment that night and said goodbye to our plans for Normandy. He was in so much pain from his throat, that Neel and I worried about strep, and when we got home I started Googling "Americans visiting Paris go to the doctor."

Neel has this phrase he uses when he talks about teaching medical students: an mile wide and an inch deep (now that's reassuring, isn't it?!). I feel like with Paris we were five miles wide and half an inch deep. We were around things, not in them. If Paris was about seeing the inside of every single garden and museum, then we didn't do it right. If Paris was about If Paris was about sitting in cafes and lingering over lovely meals and house wines, then we did okay. If Paris was about sitting in the sun and sailing boats at the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace, then we did that right too.

Our last day in Paris was a lazy one. We decided that we didn't want to spend it standing in line, so we bypassed the Arc de Triomphe and made our way down the Champs de Elysee instead. And yes, I got macarons at Ladurée. I also splurged and got myself some candles at Diptyque as well (and got a sample perfume that I now must have for my pains).

I wanted Neel to have some garden time, and I remembered reading that the Luxembourg Gardens were the most relaxing place in Paris, so we headed there for the afternoon. And walked smack-dab into the middle of a gay rights parade. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" blaring full blast, rainbow flag and balloons, and men in assless pants may be relaxing for some...

Heading into the garden, all was peace and quiet. After that we went back to our neighborhood in the 18th for our lovely last dinner before catching the Eurostar the next day to head back to London.

If Paris has a reputation for rudeness, we never saw it. Everyone was as lovely as could be. Callum had some fun with the language, I think, and he would have had more had he felt better. My four years of high school French (taken a long time ago) served us just fine for where we were, although Neel and Cal taxed me considerably, continually asking, "What's French for...?"

Am I disappointed that we didn't see more? Of course. But as my mom says, it's our Paris Preview.

Walking into Annie and Richard's flat was the most delightful relief. It meant we were finally there, landed at our home for the next few days. We could put down our bags and put up our feet and shift from getting to London to being in London. It also meant we were reunited with Neel after a seven-day absence.

That was nice.

Annie had left wonderful instructions for us for a quick outing that afternoon so we hopped the tube the Kensington for a quick bite and a wander around. Kensington is lovely. Lots of gorgeous homes and cafes and shops. We also popped into the Natural History Museum for a quick pee and a look around the lobby. It's an absolutely stunning building.

Back home in time to finally actually MEET Annie (How weird it must have felt for her to have us in her flat while she was at work!). She made us all cups of tea, and Callum is seriously addicted now. I remember thinking, "Wow, they really do drink tea!"

I think I'll say it over and over again that I just don't have words for how wonderful and special it was to finally meet Annie (and Richard). They took pity on our tired selves and made us dinner at home that first night, and spending the evening with them in their flat and enjoying a delightful dinner (icy cold gin and tonics, a really lovely shepherd's pie with steamed broccoli and a "modified" pavlova for dessert) was just the kind of thing I was most looking forward to about our trip. We talked and talked with an ease of people who have know each other for ages. About blogging and plans for their flat (exciting) and London and the US. It was the best welcome we could have imagined.

Many of my favorite parts of this trip were the intangibles, moments like that first evening and others I'll mention. But also, it was the light. It stays light so much later than at home, still twilight at 10PM. I loved it, and I loved how our conversation lingered right up until bedtime.

The next day, Annie took us in hand for a Special Bird-Sanctioned Tour of London!

Buckingham Palace seen from lovely St. James's Park

Can you believe we saw this guy and his dog about two hours later in a totally different location?

As close as Callum will get to a Beefeater until he's over 21. This one was particularly lovely!

Gracious, Annie must have some London connections. Gorgeous, perfect weather every day that we were there (way better than Paris and Callum still won't be convinced that it's ever cool and rainy), and each place we stopped showed itself off to its best advantage. We took the tube to Westminster to take a scoot around the Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. After that, just the loveliest (I'll probably say that too much. Shrug.) walk through St. James's Park toward Buckingham Palace.

Barricades all around at that palace clued us in to the fact that something might be up. We caught a few seconds of the Queen's Guard band and then suddenly two open horse-drawn carriages brought what seemed to be some dignitaries in to the palace. Now that was cool. Nice work, Annie! Walking up The Mall, away from the Palace (where people were literally standing in the middle of the street to take pictures!) we ran into another band!

After that was lunch at Inn the Park (I'll do another post on food and shopping later on), and we headed out for a quick boat trip down the Thames toward the Tower of London. How can one place be both gruesome and charming, I don't know, but it was.

After the Tower, we took the Tube home (home!) to Primrose Hill, where we stopped in the village for cupcakes and milk for our tea. We had a bit of a rest before heading out to the York and Albany, where Annie and Richard got married, for a lovely dinner. More on that later. It was just the best day.

We called Wednesday "The Festival of Neels/Neils." We met with two of Neel's...cousins (?), one from the Indian side (for lunch and shopping) and one from the Irish side (for dinner). It was great! Neil #1 traveled the furthest and spent the bulk of the day with us. We had a pub lunch and headed to Liberty and then Harrods for a bit of shopping and then tea. Afterwards, Neel, Cal and I hit up Cleopatra's Needles (a must-do from Callum's Latin teacher) before heading to Waterloo station to meet up with Neil #2.

First, I want to say that it was using the somewhat sketchy WiFI at Waterloo that we learned that DOMA had been struck down. That was really nice, and I felt really proud to be an American in that moment. Apart from that, standing "at platform 12 under the clock" at Waterloo station on the lookout for a man we'd never met felt a bit like being in a spy novel! Neel knew not to watch people who were looking at the arrivals/departures boards but at people who were looking out for other people. It wasn't long before we decided that this Neil wasn't at Waterloo and when Neel called him he said, "I said Waterloo? I thought I said Charing Cross!"

After that bumpy start, Neil #2 was a delight. He walked us along Fleet Street pointing out some important old London landmarks to a restaurant called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. Rebulit shortly after the Great Fire, as Neil said, he didn't bring us there for "the food or the beer, but for the building." Neil (Can I tell you how hard it is not to type "Neel?"), who spent the bulk of his career as a London police officer (and a number of years stationed at Buckingham Palace) had a wealth of stories for us. Wonderful tales about security at the Palace and the history of the city. We'd go back to London just to spend more time with him alone. And really, amazing stories aside. Isn't meeting family the craziest, best thing?

Neel's mom died when he was a kid, and Callum's middle name comes from her. Nuala, Neel's mother, grew up in Ireland, where her father had a border store. Neil #2 told Callum that you can still find the house where Cal's great-grandfather's store once stood. Next stop Ireland? Somehow, I feel certain. And don't even get me started on the Indian side of the family! That country is on the docket some day too.

We stumbled home so tired from such a lovely, full day to find that our wonderful hosts had made our bed for us. How great to just fall into it! The next morning we got to spend some time with Arthur and Evan before we bundled off to St. Pancras and onto the Eurostar to Paris.

To be continued...

pretty paris {life}

lovely london {life}