Our son did a student exchange in Germany and his return for us turned into an extended-family trip (wife’s parents, sisters/sister’s family) to London for a week, Provence for a week and returning to England for 5 days before flying home from Frankfurt. The trip was disjointed due to family logistics and my son’s return ticket was out of Frankfurt. We flew into Heathrow, took the Eurostar/TGV to Avignon, TGV & ferry to England and flying to Frankfurt the night before we left.
In London we were a group of 8, and that is a challenge, and we mostly did things in smaller groups. It took a couple of days to feel OK about that. The first day we went to Holland Park and Hyde Park, which is a little clunky wandering these wonderful parks with 8 people in a little mob. It got much better. My wife’s fitness tracker clocked in about 8 to 10 miles of walking per day. It adds up, all that walking. Walking to and from the underground stations, in the stations, between sites, at sites, so plan on walking a lot more at home before leaving. Our dog got a lot of long walks before we left.
We stayed in a semi-detached in Hammersmith area. The house was 5 floors in a nice neighborhood. Lots of stairs. Highlights for me in London was visiting Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath (no entry fee to this gorgeous house with amazing art), wandering the heath, strolling with my wife along a canal near the zoo in Regents Park, seeing a Shakespeare play at the Globe, watching the Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon, and being a fan of real ale, visiting pubs. The night we went to the Globe, our group of 8 needed to find a place near the theater for dinner, and the place we found, The Anchor was a sprawling pub that could handle our group. While ordering a beer at the bar a guy next to me asked if I was American, we chatted a bit and he said he was drinking outside on the patio with his boss and invited my wife and I to join them. We did and had a wide-ranging discussion on our respective governments, kids, life, all that good stuff.
Our group of 8 swelled to 13 in an old stone house south of Avignon. The house we stayed in was close to Boulbon, and we went there daily for provisions and loved wandering the little village. We got a box of local wine that was the equivalent of 12 bottles of wine for about $25...I am now a fan of Rhone’s red wines. One thing I didn’t know was how buggy Provence is. Cicadas were deafening as the temperatures increased, and my 13 year old daughter was a tasty food source for bugs. She did not like Provence. We rented three vehicles. I was concerned about driving in France, but it was very easy...though there must be a chapter in their driving school curriculum on tailgating. No matter how fast I would drive or how busy the roads were, someone would settle on my bumper. We did the bullgames in Arles, where arriving in town a few folk fleeced a few euros out of my aging in-laws ‘helping‘ them find a parking spot. I don’t need to see bullgames again, though it was entertaining. Arles was a pretty place to walk around.
We visited Avignon and after doing Rick’s walking tour of the city took a free ferry across the Rhone to Le Bercail, a riverside cafe that Rick said nice things about in passing in his guidebook. They seemed nervous about our pidgin French, but once we got started it was a good time. We ate outside right on the river, watching boats and had a great view of the city. My daughter got a few bug bites.