The German based tour operator Panoramica Touristic International offers a 10 day escorted Christmas tour which looks particularly interesting. Departing on 19 December from Paris, this coach tour will take a tour of romantic winter venues in southern Germany and Austria. It takes in overnight stops in the most picturesque southern German cities of Heidelberg, Würzburg, Nuremberg and Munich before crossing into Austria for a visit to Innsbruck. The return journey to Paris is via the Black Forest and the 'cuckoo clock' city of Freiburg. The package offers nine nights in three- or four-star hotels, with dinner and breakfast; sightseeing tours, (including some famed Christmas Markets in Germany), and a sleigh ride. The tour costs Eur.1285 ex.Paris. We shall travel to Paris on the new high-speed Eurostar service from London, which went into operation at the end of September.
Paris by Eurostar
My Lady is rooting for this particular tour as I suspect she intends to inveigle me into agreeing to a couple of days in Paris on our return to see the New Year in. I confess that the prospect of Paris at New Year is inviting and I suspect that my Lady has her eye on the after-Christmas sales there. So the 10 days could well extend to a full two weeks.
Travel time on the Eurostar between the London and Paris is now just two hours and thirty minutes, following the belated opening of the high-speed stretch of railroad line between London and the channel tunnel. With new relaxed Eurostar booking conditions enabling us to book £59 cheapest weekend-day-return fares on departure rather than 21 days prior to travel, Paris beckons invitingly as the romantic place to take my Lady out for the day when we take a short break in London. We can be there in time for lunch and I can accompany her afterwards to Galleries Lafayette for a quick shopping spree and then enjoy her delightful company over a leisurely candlelit dinner before we hop back onto the Eurostar. It will have us back before midnight in The Goring, our favourite London hotel situated across from the Royal Mews behind Buckingham Palace.
