back from London and Paris
 

We had a great trip. Just a quick report. I booked this as a package on expedia...which I haven't done before. Usually I do everything myself. It worked out great.
In London we stayed at 10 Manchester st. It is a simple but nice hotel located in Marlyebone between Marlylebone High St. and Baker streets. I liked the location...quiet but close to good restaurants. We used justairports car service...reasonable at 40GBP for 5 us us. We at at 2 restaurants on Baker street...Royal China which was very good and crowded and a Lebanese restaurant close by...also good. On Marlebone high St. we at at an italian restaurant Strada which was very good with excellent pasta and deserts. We had good fish and chips at the Lamp and Flag. One great thing to do is to take tea on the 7th floor of the Tate modern. The sticky pudding was excellent and the view even better.
We took eurostar to Paris which was very easy and enjoyable. I had gotton the tickets prior to the trip.
In Paris we stayed at the Le Grand Hotel Intercontinental. It is really a nice hotel with beautifully decorated and very comfortable rooms. My daughter especially liked that it was a block from the Galarie Lafayette. Actually my sons liked the food court there and ended up eating there for 3 lunches.
I had made reservations the week before to eat at la Florimond. It was a good choice. Everything...the pate fois gras, soup, veal shanks, pork, desert was very good and the service was attentive and pleasant.We all had the menu which was around 32 Euros. For the other restaurants I simply called the day before. The next night we at at Le Pamphlet. The menu there was 30 E. Again the food was very good and the people very nice. We had the seafood risotto and asparagus appitizers. I had lamb for the main. The third night we ate at la Fontiane de Mars. Here they don't have a menu. The portions are very big. I had an excellent mushroom soup with fois gras and my son loved their pate fois gras. My main was rabbit in mustard sauce...great and my husband had a hugh and yummy cassolet. Our one big lunch near Montemarte was at l'ete en pente douce. (as you face sacre cour go down the steps to the right. it is in a square with 3 restaurants on the right). Anyway we really ate well. My husband would look at the small restaurants and wonder how I could have found them...so thanks all for the recommendations.
We did the usually touristy things. One that I enjoyed is going up in the dome in the panthenon. It is a amazing view. (there are around 200 steps to climb but worth it).
We brought home great cheese from Grande Cremerie des Carmes on 47 Bd Saint Germain and crossants from Gallarie Lafayette also rasberry filled pastry.
Shopping: Besides Galarie Lafayette, we visited Bon Marche. On rue Trochet I liked alittle boutique called Christine Laure and there was a good purse store LMP. My daughter had to bring back a longchamp bag. My sons did their shopping in london at Merc, Ben sherman, the beatles store and the hugh record stores around picadilly square.
We took the roissybus back to the airport. It stops at the am ex across from the Le grand intercontinental. It is very easy...took about 35 minutes and cost 8.2 Euros. The busses leave every 15 minutes. Otherwise we got a 3 day metro pass and rode everywhere.

It sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing and bringing back wonderful memories of my trip.

Welcome back. So Easter Sunday didn't prove a problem? The weather was wonderful I heard.

I am so envious!

Great trip! How long were you in each city? (sorry if you mentioned it and I missed it) and I know there is NEVER enough time on vacation, but did you feel you had an adequate amount of time in each wonderful place? I'm only asking because I have seen these packages and have often been tempted by the London/Paris offerings. Tea at the Tate sounds like something we would enjoy too - how was it structured (for want of a better word!) did you just order tea and pick a dessert or was there a pot of tea and pastry tray. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!

I also just stayed in the Marylebone area (4/2-4) & found it to be quite convenient. Lots of good food shops inside the Marylebone train station including a Marks & Spencers food hall. Thanks for the report.

Hi, At the Tate you can order just tea and a desert or an entire meal. The amazing thing is the view of the river and city from the floor to ceiling windows. The people next to us were having champagne and appitizers. The view was just fantastic. I also really liked the Marlebone area. It was easy to walk to most places and convient to take the bus. There are so many bakeries and cafes for breakfast and lunch. We had lunch at a great french bakery on Marlebone high street.
We actually flew on Sat. morning from NY...getting to London around 9pm.(we did this because of my sons college schedule). It worked good because we ate dinner in London late, had a good nights sleep and were ready to go on Sunday. We stayed in London till Wed. Am and took the train to Paris. We left Paris Saturday afternoon. In spite of the limited time I am amazed at all the things we had time to do.

I'm curious about your experinece at Intercontinental Le Grand. Did you look at the Intercontinental Paris, as well? Is there anything in particular that drew you to the Le Grand? Would you recommend it? I hear that it can get quite noisy, the rooms are small, it can be smokey, etc. Please share any and all thought you may have on this place -- I'm looking to book a trip very soon, and am basically debating between staying at the Intercontinental Paris or the Intercontinental Le Grand -- the Paris seems to have a better location, but the Le Grand may be a bit nicer -- is that your sense? Thanks.

We really liked the le Grand. The rooms were beautiful...extremely comfortable with great bathrooms. I liked the location. We had the standard rooms and I didn't feel they were small and they were not noisy. We walked past the intercontinental, but didn't go in. That is a nice location too. I liked seeing the Opera Garnier everytime we went out...and being right next to the metro was helpful.

Cparris, well,it's good to have your views about the standard rooms. According to comments on tripadvisor.com, standard rooms are on the small size. Comments have been mixed too. It could be that it's due to the renovation and some things don't work as they should have. Not sure, but anyway, good to have a differing comment.

You mentioned that you purchased your eurostar ticket to Paris previous to the trip. Did you buy them from your home town? Or in London, before you headed out to Paris. Did you mind if I ask how much you paid. I'm trying to figure out if purchasing a eurostar ticket in advance will save me money.

Thanks for loading on your trip it was great to read.

Glad to hear of somebody enjoying Le Pamphlet. It was one of our favorites last year, and I hope to get back there next year again.