4 days pre-tour in England (london) right when King Charles is being coronated!

Are you going to Bath the day your tour starts? Asking because I’d probably give yourselves an extra day there.

Sorry for asking a picky question but to me 4 days means 5 nights. If you’ve got 4 nights, that is 3 full days to me and a partial day on arrival when you may be jet lagged.

I love Paris but with a short time frame I probably would not try to go. Plus as much as I love France they have strikes this month and am not sure how long they will continue.

There may be some London Walks available on Monday May 8. I have not looked by have looked for the week before and see quite a few.

Hopefully some British people closer to the action can respond and give you their take.

If it's any guide, we ended up in London during the Jubilee last summer and outside of the area around the palace life pretty much went on as normal. Crowds thronged the area near Trafalgar Square and some streets were blocked off but London is a big city and we didn't have a problem finding other areas to visit.

If you’re up for the train trip, you could head north to Edinburgh for a couple nights, and stay in York on your way back to London and/or Bath. Get a wee bit of Scotland in on your UK visit!

Monday 8th is just a Bank Holiday - ie. the banks, financial and general commercial businesses will be closed but most shops, restaurants and attractions will be open. As the coronation will be well over by Monday, there shouldn’t be unusually large crowds in town.

As long as you have accommodation already booked then you will be fine in London. Just avoid the area around the carriage route or whatever he’s doing. You can probably tell I’m not interested in it. The rest of London will be going along as normal and everything will be open including on the Monday. Bank holidays only mean that offices and schools etc are shut. Anywhere that can make money off people with free time to spend will be fully open!

I'd say that if you want to escape the crowds in central London on Coronation day take the river boat up to Hampton Court that day,
https://www.thamesriverboats.co.uk/info/index.asp?page=westminster-to-kew-richmond-hampton-court-service-130
then the frequent London Bus R68 to Richmond, where you can explore the huge Richmond Park to your hearts content, then District line tube train or main line train back into London.
Another option is the same boat part way to Kew Gardens, followed by Richmond (1 tube stop away from Kew).
You will find recent threads on here with a lot more detail about the delights of Richmond, from one of the regular American posters (my apologies to that contributor- my brain is on my strike, I can't remember who you are, or I would gladly put a link through for you, I love your passion for Richmond)

just walk and explore before heading to Bath the next day?

There are 3,000 parks to walk around. But I would avoid St James’ Park until after the crowny thing. Otherwise life will be going on much as normal.

As long as you aren't in the center by Buck House or Westminster-you should be fine. While many things could be closed, most people will probably treat it as a holiday rather than a coronation. I might go out to Hampstead or Highgate to walk around the park or the cemetery if I were you. Perhaps there's a even a London Walk going on.

As others have noted, the monarchy is not universally loved and there will be a lot of people who think it's all a load of tosh(every Scots person I know).

every Scots person I know

You should meet some Glasgow Rangers fans.

“Cool out of the way places”

Define cool?

Hampton Court: train to, take boat back
Bletchley Park: home of the WW2 codebreakers
Crystal Park dinosaurs
Horniman Museum and Gardens
Go to Selfridges instead of Harrods. Selfridges history far more interesting.
Visit the Thames Barrier https://www.visitgreenwich.org.uk/things-to-do/thames-barrier-information-centre-p1368561
Visit Greenwich Observatory and see the Painted Hall
Walk in the massive Richmond Park
Explore the Walthamstow Wetlands
Highgate Cemetery
Hampstead Heath ( search for the Jim Henson bench)
Walk along the Thames River Path

Or take the Eurostar train to Paris ….or fly to Amsterdam or Barcelona or train to Edinburgh

Lots of choices as you have no interest in the King’s coronation….

So, is your stay 5 nights which yields 4 days, or 4 nights which equals 3 days? Not clear. It is always best to list nights.

You have time for a day trip to Oxford or Cambridge or Canterbury or Winchester or Brighton or Salisbury (+Stonehenge) or somewhere else outside London. Greenwich or Hampton Court would be good. And I agree that getting to Bath a day before the tour starts would give you a chance to see more there. I think Paris deserves much more time than you'll be able to give on this trip. Keep it simple.

thanks to all for the fantastic advice. Selfridge's is a great suggestion over Harrod's and I appreciate everyone's ideas so much. I am canceling the hotel in Paris and hanging around in England (and we have three nights before arriving in Bath for the start of the tour, good call on counting nights!)
Most sincerely,
Becky