Bonjour mes amis!

Bonjour.....I am back after a fantastic anniversary break in the city of love...Paris. And what an amazing city it is. Thank you for all your kind anniversary wishes you sent, my Hb and I had a ball there. 30 years...where does it go?! I have taken SO many photos that I could not possibly share them all so I have decided to make 3 posts out of our trip which I would love to share with you all over the next couple of weeks.

Our trip started with an amazing journey on Eurostar. I have been to Europe via "Le Shuttle" (the train which takes your and your car) a couple of times but this was my first Eurostar experience and it certainly will not be the last. It is THE way to travel from where I live to Paris. We are lucky enough to be able to get to St Pancras directly from our local train station so we just wheeled our cases to the station, hopped on the 1st Capitol Connect train and arrived at St Pancras in 40 minutes. The conversion of the old St Pancras station is incredible and it is truly world class now.

We enjoyed wandering around before we checked in for our train departure. The concourse is dotted with shops (including CK no less)and has stunning architecture and sculptures.

How apt is this piece for the start of a romantic journey...if you look at the man standing in the door way to the right  behind it you can see just how large it is. It is called The meeting place and together with another sculpture....

of John Betjeman, (who was very involved in saving the old station) they make your visit even more delightful.

Once we had checked in we sat in the departure lounge and sampled the coffee and pastries of my favourite coffee house, Cafe Nero

When our train was ready to board we all travelled up the escalator and onto the platform.We then made our way to our carriage and seats.

My Hb had paid for an upgrade so that we could travel in style for our special trip and we had great seats with an unobstructed view out of the window.

We were served a really tasty light lunch (much better than airline type food) and after just 2 1/2 hours we arrived at our destination. It was such an easy, hassle free way to travel to Paris.  At the Gard de Nord we caught a taxi to our hotel, checked in and quickly unpacked, as we still had a whole afternoon ahead. Our hotel over looked a beautiful park and we were able to stroll around in the sunshine.


Here a few photos taken near our hotel

The next day we decided to hit the shops and wandered up towards the Arc de Triomphe. Printemps and the Galleries Lafayette, both shown below, were huge department stores with wonderful Art Nouveau  buildings which house them.

We walked all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe

and then decided our feet needed a slight rest (we must have walked far more than our daily 10.000 steps) so we took the metro

back to our lovely hotel. We decided on an early evening meal as we had a great treat pre booked for the next day (Sunday) - to visit Versailles. Now that warrants a whole post of its own and I shall be back to share with you the opulence of this incredible estate. It really was quite breathtaking.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

P.S Don't forget to enter my Giveaway before 8th August. The post is here and you could win a pair of silver alabaster earrings to celebrate my 1st Bloggerversary. Everyone is welcome to enter. Good luck!