We are planning to visit France mid January and had planned for this trip to stay in Paris. My wife and I are traveling with two of our daughters who are 4 and 14. However with the demonstrations and riots at times lately we are thinking perhaps of leaving Paris for a long weekend (it seems the demonstrations have been isolated to the weekends) any suggestions of a close train trip for 3 or 4 days? It’s not our first trip to France or to Paris, but we haven’t ever done a short trip from there.
We enjoy traveling by train, people watching, food, and history.
Thoughts?
Posted by
Portsmouth
5541 posts
London via Eurostar?
Posted by
OP
2 posts
That’s a great idea JC. We’ve never been to London. Any suggestions of parts of the city to stay? When we travel we usually try to find a neighborhood and spend most of our time in it walking, sightseeing and eating.
Posted by
Loire Valley
824 posts
The Loire Valley is an hour away by fast train (or for a more picturesque trip, 2 hours by intercity train). There's plenty of what you like in Tours, and the surrounding area is good for historical visits, some of which you can do yourself by train.
Posted by
Portsmouth
5541 posts
That’s a great idea JC. We’ve never been to London. Any suggestions of parts of the city to stay? When we travel we usually try to find a neighborhood and spend most of our time in it walking, sightseeing and eating.
I'll leave suggestions for neighbourhoods to stay to others more experienced as we typically don't stay when we visit. When we have stayed overnight it's pretty much at Marriott's on points and that has been in Kensington, Mayfair and County Hall. All have their benefits as a location for exploring however London is large and the main sights are scattered about so there isn't one ideal location. A lot depends on what you want to see and whilst London is very walkable you'll need to be prepared to travel around via the Tube or bus if you want to hit the big sights.
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
6980 posts
Even with the demonstrations, Paris is still a pretty safe city. Especially compared to US cities. However, for a city trip all major cities in France are reachable by train, as well as London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Köln and Basel. Even Barcelona and Munich, but that is a longer trip. But if I where you I would use the opportunity to see a smaller town that doesn't see as many tourists as Paris, London or Berlin. Maybe Aachen, Freiburg, Strasbourg or Utrecht? Places all well worth a visit.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2707 posts
Not to discourage your visiting elsewhere but any disturbances on Saturdays in Paris have been minimal with future disruption to any degree, very unlikely.