Paris to London question and question about Versailles

1. Use googleflights https://www.google.com/flights/ as it lists every possible airline prices and filter your search to show nonstops and then book directly with the airline. Chose in your search Paris all airports to London all airports. it is a 1 hr flight so Let the price including baggage allowance for non stops dictate your choice of airline

2. I've taken that route once so based on that experience now I would compare the cost of taking the train versus the airplane and go with the cheaper option

It only take 30 minutes on RER regional train to Versailles from Paris
so you should stay in Paris and, take the train out to Versailles and back easy.

Versailles is well outside Paris. I would never get that far from the airport on the day of a flight although it depends a bit on where you are going and how big a tragedy it would be to have to buy a walk up one way ticket home. Do that in the first part of your trip before London. And next time fly open jaw into London and home from Paris or wherever. It is not more expensive and saves the huge expense and time suck of wasting your last day rushing back to home base for your flight. We have been doing this for 35 years; last year into Moscow/home from Paris; the year before into Vienna/home from Paris; the year before into Rome/home from Amsterdam. It is easy to do. If you do Versailles, then you have to stow your luggage somewhere and then line up to pick it up before heading for the airport, another hassle and time suck. Versailles easily take a day if you do the grounds.

I don't like the rundown Eurostar BUT it is the best bet for a quick trip to London as you don't waste the time getting to airports well outside Paris and London and you don't have to be there hours in advance. You show up for the Eurostar 45 minutes ahead, immigration is handled outbound so when you arrive in London or in Paris, you just walk out of the station -- no customs or immigration. Get round trip tickets several months in advance and it is inexpensive.

Just to clarify, we would be doing Versailles our last FULL day in Paris and then flying out the next morning. Not trying to do Versailles on the day of our flight home. Haven't totally lost my marbles yet. Haha

I would stay in Paris two nights - a full day for Versailles and the evenings in Paris. Versaille to CDG by train goes right through Paris anyway, and spending the evening walking along the Seine would be more fun than a night in the town of Versailles.

Eurostar is so easy and fast I am not sure why you would fly between Paris and London.

You would only fly between these two cities if you were already at one of the airports. Otherwise, getting from central Paris to an airport, then from one of the London airports to central London, will take as much time as the Eurostar between them. And that, of course, doesn't include the flight itself, or the amount of time before the flight you have to get to the airport to go through security. As for cost, you have to remember to include the cost of getting to and from the airports at each end (expensive if you're taking taxis, time-consuming if you're not).

If you book in advance and can accept non-refundable and non-changeable tickets, the Eurostar is not expensive. Tickets go on sale about 6 months in advance. Look here for your dates, and book as soon as you are sure of your plans. Someone recently posted that the price in pounds or euros (I forget which) was cheaper than in dollars, even accounting for the foreign exchange fees, so do look at all options. http://www.eurostar.com/

If this issue is cost, the cheapest way is by bus (the bus goes on the ferry). These take most of a day (10-12 hours), but can be as cheap as £25 if you book ahead.

To me, flying between Paris and London is "worst of both worlds"; it has both high cost and high hassle factor, and the only thing it's faster than is the bus.

No reason not to do Versailles the day before the flight I just misread. I would stay in Paris rather than Versailles.