WIN your own Little Break to Paris with Eurostar
Ooh get this! After treating me and my blog buddies to a lovely Parisian day-trip a few weeks ago, Eurostar are extending their generosity to Disneyrollergirl readers*. I have been given two tickets to offer as a prize to the reader with the best answer to the following question:
What would you do on your Little Break to Paris and why would it make a big difference to you? Would you head straight for Rue Saint-Honoré and shop til your arms fell off? Or take things slowly, people-watching and pootling amongst the shabby chic knick-knacks at Le Marché aux Puces? Or maybe shopping wouldn’t figure at all and you’d just stroll away the hours in The Tuilleries, smoking seductively and being impossibly bohemian.
Leave a comment detailing what you would do (maximum 150 words) below by 2nd September. We Are Social will shortlist the entries and I will pick the overall winner. The winner will be announced here on 9th September so be sure to check back to find out if you have won.
Bonne chance!
*Alas, UK-based only
UPDATE: We have chosen a winner! Congratulations to Jessie May who wins two Eurostar tickets so she can pirouette around Paris to her heart’s content… Thanks to all who entered, that made fun reading!
20 August, 2009 @ 7:33 am
I just love the excitement of leaving London and crossing the channel to Paris. Truly on Eurostar you can just nip to Paris for the day. I think fashion would be my Paris fix for the day and with the new fashions in the stores I would window shop the designers, mooch around Colette, have a beauty fix in Printemps and join the crowds later in the day on the Champs Elysee before a cheeky steak aux frites avec vin rouge before the journey home. It would be a joy to soak up the Parisian streets in such a way – perfect in both languages.
20 August, 2009 @ 11:01 am
It still makes the mind boggle that you can visit a whole new country in a day! If I could be in Paris right now I would like to go to the Louvre during the war photo exhibition: I love the human aspect of history. After this snippet of culture I would do what I do best: shop (or window shop at least!) the designers before walking along the river soaking up the sun.
Tor
PS – I would also stuff myself full of flaky french pastry! Yum!
20 August, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
Last time I was in Paris, for my birthday, my man had a tiny little bit to much to drink the night before. The plan was to spend the day in the place that once opened my eyes to beauty, my favourite place on earth, the D'Orsay museum. Instead, I spent the day trying to wake him up and, when we finally managed to make our way, it was so late that we only had about 15 minutes inside the museum. He has since then more than made it up to me, by being an amazing husband and pretty much the love of my life. But I've never since returned to Paris…or to the D'Orsay…
20 August, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
I would tag along the street in my finest shoes and treat myself with the biggest ice cream because september 9th is my birthday. Yay!
20 August, 2009 @ 9:47 pm
Really?? You have the right to dream about Paris only if you're UK-based? :(
20 August, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
Hi JoltofDavid, I know it's a bummer but it can only be for passengers departing from any of the stations in the UK. Sorry!
21 August, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
I had a baby six weeks ago and it would be wonderful to go to Paris and do all sorts of baby-inappropriate things, such as window shopping in the Marais wearing a light-colored silk minidress and a chic little pocketbook, riding a Velib bike down the Canal St Martin, leisurely viewing the Vionnet exhibit at the Musee de Mode, taking even longer trying on clothes at the APC outlet store, having a late dinner at L'Ami Jean, playing boules against some old hands at Paris Plage, taking a very late night walk down the Seine while smoking cigarettes. . . . if I can manage to leave le bebe at home!
22 August, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
AHHHH I'd love a daytrip to Paris!!
I would start off early, head to the Place des Vosges for some people watching and meander over to the Ile St Louis, perhaps stopping for a Berthillon icecream on the way. I would then wander through the streets of St Germain, preferably around a farmers' market in order to find some fresh fruit to eat for lunch. I would also want to browse book stores, perhaps get to Colette if possible and try on Balmain jackets. I would watch the sunset over the river before returning.
22 August, 2009 @ 2:26 pm
First I must mention I would bring my amazing partner who share the love for Paris with me, we went there on our first trip together last autumn, magic!
We would take an early train from St Pancras so we could have petit dejeuner in Rue St Honoré at a street café. We would then go to Colette to check out all the über-cool stuff we have been drooling on at the website, and most def check out the Rodarte selection. Of course I would have saved up loads of pocket money to spend here, needless to say! After Colette we would stroll up to Kitsuné Maison @ Rue de Richelieu and then continue to Marais to have lunch and coffee. The rest of the afternoon we would wander around in St Germain and along the river, where we would finish the day with amazing french food and wine. Happiness..
22 August, 2009 @ 10:16 pm
Growing up in Melbourne, living in London, means Paris is a romantic dream filled with nutella crepes, navy and white Lou Doillon uniforms and men (including mine) nervously walking the beautiful streets with an engagement ring locked in their pocket. Nowhere in the world is more cartoon sparkly and filled with floating love hearts wherever you go.
24 August, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Having never visited as an adult I could finally enjoy a few glasses of Champagne and shake off my French exchange memories of being hoarded around en masse in a bus and of being forcibly fed soggy cheese and ham baguettes day in day out. It would be amazing to just soak in the atmosphere, eat well, drink a little and enjoy the break away from London. And shop, of course. My only Paris fashion exposure was a small, undesirable branch of Kookai where I purchased a rhinestone encrusted logo t-shirt… quelle horreur. I’d love the chance to mend the error of my ways and give Paris the devotion I’m sure it so rightfully deserves!
24 August, 2009 @ 10:26 pm
I have just handed in my notice – "IN A RECESSION?!" I hear you cry – in order to do an unpaid internship at a magazine which has been my dream for as long as I remember; therefore I would love the chance to go to Paris. Starting the morning with a coffee, croissant and a cigarette I would make my way (with reluctant boyfriend/bag carrier in tow) to Les Puces where I could take a few hours looking through the stacks ancient and enthralling French novels, buy up every kind of button imaginable, stock up on glamourous Parisian vintage and try orchestrate a way to tranport a beautiful yet rather too large footstool. After a very long lunch sat outside a cafe admiring the perfection with which French women stalk the boulevards there would just be time for a stroll along the river before dinner with lots of wine.
26 August, 2009 @ 2:11 pm
I am sporting a suddenly growing pregnancy bump and feeling deeeply uninspired by the fashion choices (or not) available to British mums to be. I feel the need for a little gallic chic to swathe myself in until January. As I would be on French soil, I could fully embrace the "French Pregnancy" and gorge myself on cheese and red wine in between rifling through elegant gallic satorial delights for the up-the-duff fashion fan.
28 August, 2009 @ 1:54 pm
what would I do in Paris? erm, basically eat cheese and drink wine but in amongst that I would fit in some people watching in side street cafes, practise my rusty, rusty french…whilst wishing I could resemble in some small way the effortlessly chic and graceful parisienne girls…never gonna happen, not with all that cheese, wine and my inherent clumsiness…a girl can dream, can't she??
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28 August, 2009 @ 11:24 pm
For my Little Break to Paris I‘d recreate part of a film I've enjoyed watching many a time – Funny Face. I’d (attempt to) dress up as Audrey Hepburn, find myself an unsuspecting accomplice to play Fred Astaire, and we’d head to the Arc du Triomphe to begin our adventure. We’d clear our throats, break boldly into song (“That’s for me…Bonjour Paris!”) & pirouette around Paris, pretending to do a fashion shoot, while looking effortlessly stylish (ok, so that might be a challenge!)
The trip would make a big difference to me most probably because I’d be arrested for terrible singing/Breach of the Peace (French equivalent?) and end up with a criminal record! If not, it would make a difference because I think adventures encourage you to see things in new ways.
Here’s the song/film clip if anyone’s wondering what on earth I'm on about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZfvwq2DIQ
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29 August, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
I have just gotten my boyfriend his fist passport, he's never left the country in his live, and I want his first voyage to be to Paris. We've never been first class anything (although we’re trying to be with our degrees!) so traveling leisure select on the Eurostar would make the journey as exciting as the destination! I wouldn’t be able to resist perusing the Jewish quarter for Parisian vintage, tracking down the infamous Lauderee macaroons, and taking the Metro to La Defense, to ogle the architecture. Soaking in the real life Parisian street style we’d watch the sunset over the Sacre Coeur, and finally grab a Paris Vogue to relax with on the luxurious journey home.
29 August, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
I work in fashion but for whatever reason I have never visited the infamous Colette. Whenever I get into a conversation with other fashion folks, about my love of Paris (having lived there briefly as a postgraduate working as an au pair) they always bring Colette into the conversation and I always end up nodding and smiling, hoping no one notices I am no longer contributing to the conversation and trying to change the subject. Not only is it getting embarassing but I fear I am going to be uncovered as a fashionable fraud. I need to head to Paris pronto before my cover is blown!
30 August, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
Baudelaire defined a flâneur as "a person who walks the city in order to experience it". Taking my cue from the famous Frenchman, I'd board the Eurostar in an outfit suitable for pavement-pounding. A Parisian ensemble of navy and white striped top, long black leggings and a pair of flat biker boots. Clutching at my boyfriend's hand, we would stroll the streets for hours taking in cake-filled alfresco café scenes, admiring the city’s unparalleled street style, gazing into the windows of boutiques and navigating our way through bustling markets. Crucially, there is no English equivalent of the flâneur. It is a truly Parisian phenomenon. Walking in the footsteps of countless others, taking part in the life of the city and rekindling this romantic, urban tradition would animate my imagination. So when night descended, I’d travel back on the train with tired legs but an enlivened, refreshed mind.
X
Mary
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31 August, 2009 @ 11:20 am
Being in the the middle of a month of fasting, I'm already fantasizing about pastelly macaroons and sweet, flaky pastries, so we'd start at the crack of dawn with toe-curlingly strong coffee and warm, buttery croissants, before wondering the streets through the city's golden light.
Then to Père Lachaise, pay our respects to Proust and Wilde and take in the changing colours of a Parisian autumn. Later, we'd prowl along the markets and chat up street vendors in broken français, fingering fantasy pieces of antique lace and well-worn trinkets, before coming away with perhaps nothing but a second-hand book – one with a beautiful cover and words I'll barely understand, but that will always capture for me the magic of that day.
Finally, as the day sinks we'd soak in the sunset at Sacré-Coeur, before taking the longest route back, grasping every step and stray glimpse of the city to take home.
1 September, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
Paris is my favourite city- the architecture,museums, art, boulevards, shopping (window shopping, more often than not!), the food(pistachio macaron, anyone?)…I was lucky enough to visit Paris once before but only for 3 nights. Within minutes I was in the Musee D'Orsay for supper and to marvel at the art. I crammed lots in, but there was still so much left to see, so much of Paris unexplored. Would you believe I didn't visit the Eiffel tower?! Before I'd even left I was planning my next trip. As a post-exam treat, I would explore the Marais and drink cafe au lait, visit the stores- Collette, Gallery Lafayette (to glimpse the wonderful interior), grab a baguette from charming Montemarte to nibble as I explore the side streets, wander round a flea market and as night appears, take a boat trip down the Seine. (Plus purchase magazines for the journey home!) Paris J'etaime!
Sian
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