Anniversary weekend to Paris & Brussels, by train
When I looked at flights and all the faff that came with them, parking at the airport, checking in etc we decided instead to get a train from Derby directly to St Pancras then caught the Eurostar to Paris. From there we would then be able to catch a train from Paris to Brussels and for an extra £7 upgraded these to first class! Our return journey was then Eurostar back from Brussels to London then train to Derby (would you believe we left our hotel in Brussels at 5.15pm and were sat having a cuppa at home before 9pm). Using the train was really easy, relaxing option and we enjoy travelling by rail. There were were so many places you could divert off to once in Europe and in hindsight, I wish we'd added an extra night in Brussels and gone to Bruge for the day or even stayed there a night. But that can be a trip for another time.
I'll be honest, I didn't expect to like Paris as much as I did. We found our hotel whilst looking through one of my Condé Nast magazines - Hotel Wallace, which was a perfect boutique hotel about 20 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower and lots of nice restaurants and bars. On entering our room, the hotel had made a lovely gesture of decorating it with heart petals and balloons. The hotel had a lovely roof terrace with hot tub and sauna on it (I'm told this is quite rare in Paris) and you could just see the top of the tower peaking over the roof tops. A continental breakfast of fruit, fresh breads, meats etc was included in our price, which at £125 per night, we thought was really reasonable.
When on holiday, and especially in cities, we tend to walk around, taking in the sights and exploring the streets and surrounding areas. We ended up walking over 20k steps a day but caught the metro at times, which was easy and cheap to use in both Paris and Brussels.
We visited the majority of the main sights. In Paris, the Champs-Élysées up to the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Louvre, Pont Alexandre III, Sacre Coeur, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Pl. du Trocadéro, walk along the Seine, but my highlights would be:
~ Eiffel Tower. An amazing structure that was being repainted at the time - not a job I'd like! We chose to pre-order the tickets to walk up to the 2nd level which I think was a good choice and only cost 10 euros each. These tickets become available 2 weeks in advance and avoided the longer ticket queues on the day. I didn't feel we'd missed out by not going to the top, but if you did want to do that, I'd recommend looking out for tickets being released on the official site as they sell out fast but seem to be a lot cheaper than buying a tour.
~ Monmartre, aside the Moulin Rouge this was a lovely area to wander around. We wandered up the hill to a lovely square surrounded by artists and had a delicious crepe. It was also near to the Sacre Coeur.
~ Les Invalides, my favourite building with it's golden domed roof. Free to access the grounds and walk around the garden and take photos but you can pay to go into the museums.
Top tip - Montparnasse tower for great views of the city especially across to the tower and there is a cool roof top bar which would be great for sunset drinks.
For Brussels, we only really had one day and generally just wandered around, a few places we made our way to included St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral, Manneken Pis, the Black Tower but the highlights:
~ Grand Place, a stunning square in the city centre surrounded by opulent baroque buildings. Lovely place to have a drink and some lunch and do some people watching.
~ Atomium, a landmark building probably Brussels' equivalent to the Eiffel Tower. A metro ride out of the city centre but there's a park nearby to stroll around too.
Obviously the overarching highlight and reason behind the trip was Coldplay in concert. Just amazing.
I certainly would recommend this as a weekend break and with lots of other destinations to incorporate just a train ride away, it could easily be made into an extended break.
