In 6 short days I will be headed to Paris France to begin a 47-day vacation. My trip wasn’t initially planned to be so lengthy but my son Brian and I had been chatting over the past year about spending a couple weeks in Europe with his adorable family of 4, as well as a trip I had been planning with my friend Anne that included a walk in and through Great Britain’s Cotswolds.

After playing with dates it went like this: The first 10 days include Paris and London with Brian; the next 19 days have me back in Paris where Rick (hubby) joins me for 10 days. The rest of the 19 I’m exploring Paris on my own and/or in Rennes and St Malo in the Brittany area of France before taking the ferry to Portsmouth UK.

The last 3 weeks, after meeting Anne at Heathrow, we head to Canterbury for a couple of days and then north of London for the start of our Cotswold adventure. That portion will begin in Chipping Camden and end in Bath. We added a couple extra days in London before heading to Heathrow for the return trip.

I’m amazed everything came together so nicely. It will be a long time away from home but I’m excited Rick can join me in the middle of the trip so we can explore Paris together. Spending an extended time in Paris has been a dream of mine for a while. I’ve been to Paris three times in the past 17 years and never spent more than 3 days each time! I have no idea what I was thinking when I carefully planned each of those visits, but this trip I’ll have a total of 17 days in this most beautiful city and I can’t wait to just sit and people watch!