London to Paris for the day, good idea or bad idea??
 

My 22 and 15 year old daughters and I are thinking of taking the Eurostar to Paris for a day trip in late March. We will be staying in London for 8 days and thought since we will be so close we should go to Paris. Is this a good idea or not? Is it easy to do? Should we go on our own or use a tour? We have been to Paris before, but we do not speak the language and we certainly do not want to be late and miss the train back to London!! It makes me a bit nervous, but my 22 year old spent a summer studying in Paris a few years ago and thinks it is no problem.

It's a lovely idea....just get the train through yourselves. Your daughter can show you round!

Your daughter is right - it's no problem and makes for a delightful daytrip.

If you think you'll be visiting Paris in the future, I'd be inclined to pass. But if you don't think you'll ever get the chance, then go for it. Just realize you will be very rushed to see much of anything.

With 8 nites in London, any chance of spending one of them in Paris? Still not near enough time to explore that large and beautiful city, but you'd be able to see a bit more and not be as rushed. 7 nites in London should be plenty to cover most of the A list of things to see and do there.

PS We were leery of exploring that city by ourselves, too, not speaking the language. Based on the advice here, we hired super guide Michael Osman, an American who's been living in Paris for years now. Don't know if he's still doing tours but we loved him. Search here for updates on him. In addition to being a nice guy who's very informative on history, art, and everything else, he knows all the short cuts and can tailor a day to your tastes. You'd be able to see a lot more with him than you would on your own. Plus he's very reasonable rate-wise. If he's available, I'd grab him if you decide to go.

Touring Paris by yourself is easy - no French needed at all.

The only issue is the limited time you will have allowing for the train back and forth. You need to starrt checking train prices as soon as possible - since very early trains are often full of business travelers - and so have few bargain fares.