lfox02

Hi all,
First time poster here, but have great appreciation for the advice given here. My wife and I have a two week trip to Europe coming up for our 10 year anniversary. We felt like we had our itinerary set, but I realized today that the trains from London to Paris still have no schedule posted due to scheduled maintenance, so I think I need to rearrange the middle part of our trip, and need some input. Current itinerary:
May 1: Leave US after work
May 2-8: London (not booked yet: day trip to Bath)
May 9-11: originally planning two nights in Reims to drink champagne and be out of the hustle of London and Paris
May 11-16: Paris (day trip to Versailles)
We are early 30s, from the Midwest, and have some experience in Europe from previous trips. We are wanting to take our two city visits leisurely, taking time to enjoy pubs, food, and people watching in addition to the rush of museums and lots of walking tours. Now that we are likely flying somewhere instead of the quick train ride to Paris/Reims, where would you go for these two nights? I could see staying in Bath and instead doing day trip to Cambridge, flying to Porto, going to Amsterdam, a different wine region in France that is best flown into from London, or algarves/somewhere warmer for a little more fun in the sun.
I know that is a lot of options, and we are open to other suggestions. We are looking for affordability, ease of getting to the new locale from London and into Paris, and an overall relaxing break from these two world-class cities. Our hotels in London and Paris are set in stone and non-refundable, so no need to talk about changing those portions. Please tell me what you would do or what info I can provide to get some good advice from you.
Thank you!

thursdaysd

It's only the Eurostar to Paris that is not running on May 9th. You can take the train to Brussels or Amsterdam (Brussels is closer).

jpie

One of the places that came to mind for me was Nice. Normally May is very pretty there and you could visit some of the surrounding area. If you haven't already booked your trans Atlantic tickets you might even be able to just fly back from there to the US since it has a number of cities it serves. And it would be an easy flight from London.

Tulips

How about a quick flight from London City to Antwerp, landing practically in the city center. Spend 2 days there, then Thalys to Paris.
You can do the same with Eurostar, it will take a bit longer but not much.