Paris - surprising in so many ways
Its mix of famous landmarks, fantastic museums and galleries, bustling night life, top quality hotels and amazing restaurants make it the perfect city break destination. With direct Eurostar services to the Gare du Nord from St Pancras International and flights from all over the UK to its airports, make it one of the most accessible European cities to explore from the UK.
Since I joined Travel Counsellors in August 2017, two clients have booked weekend breaks in Paris, both to celebrate special occasions and by coincidence both 50th birthdays. And again by sheer coincidence, both wanted to keep the bookings as a surprise for their partners.
The first insisted I couldn't send e-mail quotes, text messages or even call between certain times to discuss the booking as he and his wife work together and she does all his Admin with full access to his e-mails and mobile phone messages! What to do - let's arrange secret meetings at our local rugby club, where he is one of the coaches. We crept around for 3 or 4 weeks trying to finalise the booking.
So after weeks of planning and secret meetings, we finally arrived at the final itinerary which was to travel Eurostar, stay at the lovely 4* Hotel Littré, with limousine transfers. I suggested a trip to Versailles to see the Palace and Gardens, a show at the Moulin Rouge and all topped off with a romantic dinner cruise on the Seine. Job done!
All confirmed but hang on, travel documents could not be sent to their home address or e-mailed as he wanted to keep that surprise element right to the last minute. So it had to be good old fashioned printed documents, tickets, vouchers etc with a gift of a Paris guide book thrown in from me. Could I deliver them to the rugby club before they were due to travel? No problem, said I. A couple of days before you travel? Perfect said he! Delivery day arrived but panic set in when I realised that his wife was sat next to him in the bar so I wandered past them with the ticket wallet, pretending to look for someone else. They both laughed and he said "It's OK Vince, she knows!" Surprise, surprise!
Their trip went really well - brilliantly in fact and they had fantastic weather which helped. They loved the hotel, I arranged a celebratory bottle of wine at the hotel and Versailles blew them away!! They'd been to Paris before but never like this. Full of surprises.
My second booking is for someone who wanted to take her husband to see England play France in the 6 Nations rugby in March but could I arrange it without sending any emails to their home address or calling them at home!! And could I arrange to have everything booked, packaged up and delivered to her father's house so she could present it to her husband on Christmas Day as a surprise. Bit of a theme developing here, I thought.
So to cut a long story short, the booking was made with one of our specialist Sports Travel suppliers, Gullivers. As tickets would not be released until February, they pulled out all the stops to organise a special seasonal voucher with information about the trip to add to my TC ticket wallet and Paris guide book. The package was duly delivered a few days before Christmas, under cover of darkness of course, to her father's address as requested. The parcel was wrapped and ready to give to her husband on Christmas Day. Hubbie's face was a picture by all accounts! Surprise, surprise!
This just goes to prove that we should never underestimate destinations we know well. They will continue to delight new and returning visitors in all sorts of ways. And hopefully continue to surprise us too. Doing that little bit extra to help keep things a secret, with Head Office able to join in by flagging the bookings as surprises, shows what Travel Counsellors is all about. Surprise and delight our customers!!
I may blog again about how the second trip goes but only on one condition - that England beat France!!