Travels and travails: London-Paris-Senlisse

Cindy and I, with Meg, Carrie and Allison took a spring break trip to London, Paris and the village of Senlisse in France. Senlisse is where Christine Viger lives with her family; we first met when she came as a school girl to see the United States and lived with us in Florida for a few weeks.

We flew to London on Friday from Boise, arriving about 1 pm at Heathrow airport. We managed a to find our hotel near Victoria station without a problem. We then walked to Buckingham palace and Hyde Park. It was early spring weather the whole trip, just a little rain Sunday morning in London. We did a walking tour to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye on Sunday morning. We saw the Lion King at the Lyceum theatre matinee on Sunday too. We walked far every day, so we were fairly tired and went to bed early most days. On Monday we rode the London Eye and toured the Tower of London. Monday evening found us at the Salisbury's in St. John's Wood. We walked across Abbey Road and had good fish and chips with them.

Inside the London Eye

Eye view of Big Ben and the Parliament buildings.

Our ride on a double decker bus with the Salisbury's

Buckingham Palace

Carrie and Allison at Wellington Arch, Hyde Park corner.

Buckingham Palace gate.

St. Margaret

Changing the guard, Buckingham Palace

Entrance to St. James Park

Hyde Park

Tuesday morning we made our way to St. Pancras Intl rail station to catch the Eurostar high speed train to Paris.

Holly House palace.

St. Pancras train station

Day five, waiting to go to Paris.

Tuesday afternoon we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and rode the Metro from there to the Eiffel Tower. The young legs climbed to the second floor and then rode the elevator to the top, they had fun with that. The sparkling tower on the hour at 9 and 10 was beautiful to see(http://youtu.be/Ir1ua4d5jZE) .

Seine River from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Wednesday we rode the Metro to near the Louvre to see some of the highlights there. Then we walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. Thursday we rode the train to Versailles, initially we thought the palace would be closed because of a bomb threat, luckily it opened and we had a chance to see the beautiful art and furnishings inside. We particularly liked the gardens near the palace. The Marie Antoinette gardens were closed for the security of a visiting Chinese official. After we finished at the palace we walked to the train station to discover that the train we needed actually departed from a different station, luckily it was a short walk, as we had our backpacks with us.

Ramses

Notre Dame de Paris

Locks of love on bridge.

Hall of Mirrors, Versailles

Versailles gardens.

From the correct train station we went to La Verriere where we met Christine and her Mercedes van. She is the best host in the world, helping us to try many French foods. Her four boys and young daughter were also very kind, even though they had to shift rooms to make room for us all. Senlisse is small and we were able to walk about it and the neighboring village. We went to local markets and to both soccer and handball games. It was a great way to get a better feel for life in France, and to relax from our walking and touring days in the big cities.

Christine also took us to Chartres to see the cathedral there. It was interesting with a marvelous Choir screen of carvings depicting biblical stories.

Stone carvings above main entrance to Chartres Cathedral.

These were our best days, too quickly Sunday morning came and we had to ride the RER B back through Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport and start our flights back via Toronto and Denver to Boise. We were very tired travelers by Sunday night, but very happy and satisfied too.