Soon after planning to take the Germany, Austria and Switzerland tour, we realized there is a very real danger to traveling to Europe - the fact that everything is so accessible makes it far too tempting to add on to your trip. We had always wanted to see what all the fuss was about with Paris, so we thought we would add a few days before our trip. This was one of our best ideas yet! We spent 4 lovely, busy days in Paris wearing out our shoes before the tour started, and when we were done, it was only a 3 hour, relaxing train ride to Trier (we even got to add a bonus stop in Luxembourg to our list!) We had a super ambitious itinerary in Paris, but wouldn't change a thing.

    We started off our trip learning about the importance of flexibility. We were booked on the last flight out of Newark to Paris, and our connecting flight was delayed. When the airline representative told us that we would miss an entire day of our trip because we would have to wait until the next night to get a flight out, we were so disappointed. But then we did some research and sweet talked the attendant into booking us onto the last flight of the day to London and then a connecting flight to Paris. We ended up only landing 3 hours later than originally planned! It pays to do your own research, and packing lightly truly pays off, as we were only able to make the last minute switch because we hadn't checked a bag.