So, we tried to pack light on our trip to Europe, but really, it was nearly impossible in the face of freezing cold temperatures (hello, 3 degree highs – yes, Celsius, but still!). We ended up taking two medium sized suitcases and one big suitcase (along with carry-ons and an umbrella stroller).

Make no mistake. Our luggage was only a fraction of what Victoria Beckham traveled with last month.

This was us at our most abbreviated and I’m personally proud of how light we ended up traveling (well, for us, anyway). While I was in the U.K., I read a story about Victoria Beckham flying out of England to L.A. with four children and 12 suitcases. It was written with such outrage, but I found it perfectly reasonable.

Still, for our brief jaunt to Paris, we wanted to go even lighter and so we only took one suitcase and left the other two bags in Left Luggage at Paddington Station. Left Luggage is a miraculous place where, for £8 for the first day and £5 for each additional day, this office within the train station will securely look after your bags. Our luggage situation was still unwieldy without a train station trolley, but we managed and enlisted some help from a fellow traveler – my mother in law! We invited her to join us on our mini break to the City of Lights. She took the train from Devon to Paddington to meet us and we caught a taxi together from Paddington Station to St. Pancras Station, where our Eurostar awaited.

When we moved from London back to the States, St. Pancras was a huge project still under construction. Now it’s a bustling hub of activity with plenty of shops, restaurants and bars, including Searcys Champagne Bar, the longest champagne bar in Europe! But we didn’t linger. We caught the 4:22 p.m. train to Paris Gare du Nord, which was scheduled to arrive at 7:53 p.m. It ended up being about a half hour behind schedule due to a previous passenger incident before we boarded! I’m not sure what that was about!

It was dark when we finally arrived into Paris. More tomorrow!