" I'd opt for a village within an hour train ride of either one,"

As one of the very few people on earth who lives in what Americans would call a village (we've been calling it a town for the past 800 years) within an hour's railway journey of either, a slight puncturing...

To "insure" a Eurostar booking in conjunction with another railway journey (ie to guarantee you'll be booked without extra payment on the next Eurostar if your arriving connection is late: the railway equivalent of an airline "safe" interline connection), the domestic connection must be scheduled to arrive 90 mins or more before the Eurostar departure, and vv on return.

I's a seven minute walk from our house to the station. So it's at least 5.5 hours from our house to Paris by train - which in effect makes it virtually impossible to do a same-day return.

For just a meeting or a trade show, we still fly. SE England is surrounded by airports with Paris flights, and for the overwhelming majority of us, driving/flying is still faster if speed is essential. Trains almost inevitably require an overnight

THE DOUBLETREE HILTON and a peek into THE CELTIC

MC had to return to France after five days in London, and H and I switched to our prebooked Hotwire deal at the Doubletree Hilton on Southampton Row, just around the corner from the British Museum. We got requested twin room, and were able to check in early.
http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hot...BDI/index.html

Newly redone and very comfortable, well run hotel in a good location. Our room was on the 4th floor, with a sliver of a view to the east, and was perfectly quiet. H was glad to be back in the ensuite bathroom class, and ours was very nice. Well equipped gym.

It's well located, with bus lines running both north and south as well as the ones on High Holborn Street. Halfway between Holborn and Russell Square tube stops. 24 hr convenience store, small Tesco, three chain coffee shops, and a small pharmacy within two blocks. Easy walk to Covent Garden, West End, Fitrovia pubs.

In the past I had considered Celtic (merged with St. Margaret's) Hotel on a walk in that neighborhood, so looked in for future reference: http://www.stmargaretshotel.co.uk/W_e_l_c_o_m_e.html
It's a half block off Southampton Row on a quieter side street near Russell Square. The clerk let me peek into a room. Clean, two lounges, white tablecloth breakfast room on the first floor.

Oh, that's all right, Flanner. In this fantasy I'm happy to spend several hours in Paris at a time.

make that several nights

And days? ;-)

LOTS of days.

" I'd opt for a village within an hour train ride of either one,">>

<<It's a seven minute walk from our house to the station. So it's at least 5.5 hours from our house to Paris by train - which in effect makes it virtually impossible to do a same-day return>>

we used to do day trips to France from our Kent village [which was within an hour's commute of london] but by car through the vehicle tunnel. and we didn't attempt to go to Paris; we saw Lille, Amiens, Arras, St. Omer, Calais, Boulogne, [the latter we went to quite often when there was still the hovercraft service] and generally explored that bit of France, which was surprisingly nice.

sadly it's much too far from where we live now to do less than a long weekend - it's 1 1/2 hours to the port at Plymouth, then a 6 or so hour crossing to Roscoff, which is quite a long way from the main part of Brittany - say 10 hours or so before we get to anywhere we want to be.

COMEDY, THEN TRAGEDY. LUCKILY, ALL ONSTAGE

Please do yourself a favor and see One Man Two Guvnors, currently at the Royal Haymarket. Our tickets were in the upper regions, the kind where you ask the usher inside and then embarrassingly must go outside to a separate poor person's entrance and climb some stairs. So worth it, though, and so fun.

First, and here and there throughout, a skiffle band. The play, set in Brighton, starts in non-BBC accents difficult for outlanders to understand, so it was fully five minutes before H, MC and I were collapsed in helpless laughter. We remained that way for most of the evening. James Corden was there that night as Francis, and whoever played Alfie was great.

Then, Thursday evening we went to the Royal Opera House to see La Boheme. I've seen it several times before, but especially wanted to see Rolando Villazón as Rodolfo and had gotten our lower slips tickets months before. As the time got closer I knew it was chancy that Villazón would sing, and sure enough he was ill and replaced for that performance. No matter: it was a wonderful production, and I can't have been the only one dabbing at my eyes towards the end.

In the last scence, though, the loudest display of psychosomatic coughing I've ever seen. We're always hearing about how silent European audiences are, so these can only have been out-of-continent-ers. Mimi comes to the bohemians' flat, dying of consumption. She coughs. Within 30 seconds, throughout the hall, and for the rest of the opera, unstifled, deep-chested, full-throated hacking from at least six different people. If it hadn't half drowned the gorgeous music it would have been almost humorous. Afterwards, filing down stairs, people commented on the "bloody audience."

lol, stoke, love your description of psychosomatic coughing.

perhaps it's catching like yawning.

>>perhaps it's catching like yawning.<<

Perhaps their tiny hands were frozen.

(Unlikely at the ROH, but you never know).

stoke- perhaps it's the "la Boheme" effect - when we saw it in Budapest, quite a few of the audience left before the end. I couldn't believe that they could be so rude.

perhaps they knew what happened at the end!

Maybe, Ann!

My first ROH visit was more than twenty years ago, with my mother to see Cosi Fan Tutte. She had whispered a question to me just as the overture started, and I leaned over to barely breathe a few words into her ear -- honest! barely! And was immediately and thoroughly shushed. There might have been stern facial expressions too, but I didn't look around to investigate.

So I thought, "Excellent! high audience standards!" Compared to some not-even-sotto voce extended conversations at operas and symphonies here, I thoroughly approve.

Where were those militant shushers on January 3? Did sympathy for poor dying Mimi extend to all others afflicted? Or solidarity with Villazón's respiratory infection.

FOOD

MC had been craving Mexican food the past few months. She says the French don't understand it, and after seeing Paris description of a "Mexican" dish featuring ketchup and mayonnaise I saw what she meant. At one point she considered going to a Chipolte Grill chain in Montmartre, but I held out promise of the real thing in London.

Yes! Thank you, Seamus, for recommending Lupita's. That place conclusively ends their making fun of my fodors habit.

We made Lupita's our first food stop pre-1Man2Guv: an easy bus ride to Trafalgar Sq and another block up the Strand. Easily my favorite Mexican restaurant. As we ate that first meal we plotted at least one more. 1Resto2Days for us, great both times. I had the tortilla soup.

My favorite pub food was at The Fitzroy on Charlotte street. Everything being carried past us looked and smelled good, too. We had the fish cakes.

Stoke, your DD would have serious ethnic food withdrawal symptoms in Cornwall. Throughout the whole county there's one decent chinese restaurant and really no good indian restaurants, though there are a couple of nepalise ones. a couple of Thai restaurants aren't bad and there was a Japanese, but it closed down. OTOH you can get decent Italian food and loads of good fish from the poshest fish restaurant to the smallest chippie.

but no mexican food so far as I know.

I'd be happy to make do with loads of good fish and the occasional Thai. If our ancestors could live on porridge, dried crusts of bread and dandelion greens, it should be good enough for this soft younger generation.

My favorite tea time was at Cocomaya, across from and a little east of the V&A while we were waiting for the girls' time at the ballgown exhibit. (2 for 1 with our Eurostar ticket. I didn't care so much to see it, messed around in other areas and walked past E.F.Benson's house in Brompton Square just for fun.) Cocomaya serves tea in mismatched jumble pots and cups, has a soothing atmosphere.

tinyurl.com/b4m2bn2

We had afternoon tea at Richoux in Mayfair one afternoon; very nice.

tinyurl.com/bz9477j

I like your tea-shops, stoke, especially the one with the mismatched china.

so like home!

The "free cuppa" at Twining's on the Strand, at the back of the store, a few sips they sold in neighborhood of £18 for 100 g loose, was delicious, and will probably be my acme lifetime tea fanciness. We bought various individual packets, the better to slip into our suitcases.

tinyurl.com/baznjsu

a bit of refreshment at Borough Market

We stopped and watched the skaters at Somerset House on our way from Trafalgar Square: Twinings, through the Temple grounds, across Blackfriar's Bridge and then to Borough Market. A classic walk.

tinyurl.com/a2tfwsn

tinyurl.com/am3tbyv

tinyurl.com/ag3za3f
My girls liked her style despite maybe underage lipstick.

tinyurl.com/ajo4lja

If I'm in the V&A (and if I'm in London I will be, at least once) I always have "tea" there. I can't pass up the opportunity to sit in the gorgeous Arts and Crafts tea rooms, and the scone and clotted cream is generous. Unkind to mention the ball gown exhibition, though... ("tea" because I drink coffee, or jasmine or white tea, not black.)

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT FOOD

H bought us dinner at Tas Bloomsbury. We'd never had much Turkish food before, and liked it very much. Delicious mezze, hummus and soup. White tablecloth atmosphere, attentive waiters.

I signed up online as a "Friend of Brown's", got a coupon for dinner for two, two courses each and a bottle of wine, for £29. http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/...covent-garden/. It was their January-February special.
The Covent Garden location on St. Martin's Lane is a handy walk from Southampton Row, so H and I went later in the week, enjoyed it very much. We had a friendly Transylvanian waiter. I admired the graceful -- almost Chaplinesque -- way he dodged with trays around patrons and tables, and though it was busy he hung around awhile, exchanged origin info, chatted. (This chatting happens more often when I'm with my daughters, somehow.)

One day H and I took the bus to Kensington High Street to drop her off for the shops. We got carryout, the only option, at The Sandwich Shop halfway down Gloucester Road towards Cromwell Road. Cheap, ethnic and fun, and my spicy chicken baguette was very good. We ate as we walked, enjoyed seeing another kind of neighborhood.

Hummus Bros, (motto Give Peas a Chance) on Southampton Row just southeast of Great Russell St. in Victoria House. Good place for lunch when visiting British Museum, and very handy to our hotel.

Hi, thursdays,

I agree! We looked in the gorgeous V&A tea rooms, hoping to stay there, and they were mobbed. This was January 3, I think, still school holidays, and the atmosphere was far from the serenity I most value in a tearoom.

My young fashionistas enjoyed the ballgowns a lot, if I may be unkind one more time.