After I came up with this post's title, I wondered why "Blighty" is a nickname for England. So of course, I looked it up. Cue the sidebar: isn't the Internet so much faster and easier when you want to look up some strange thing like this? In the old days, otherwise known as My Youth in the 1960s and 1970s, I would have had to get my mother to drive me to the town library so I could try and look that up in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which at that time was THE go-to resource for school term papers and so on. Now, things are easier, and we can know why in about 2.5 seconds flat.
Anyhow... di-GRES-sing!
My British Countryside and Literary Tour (BCLT for short) plans are coming together VERY nicely, and no small thanks to those of you who reached out with your suggestions and personal experiences! I now have lists upon lists of things I'm looking into, names of restaurants and tours I could take, and so much more! Probably more than I will have time for on this one trip, but consider all your suggestions as Filed Away for the Next Time. Because of course there will have to be a next time, sooner or later!
Here's where I am with all the arrangements:
I started out looking up various types of accomodations, to see what that was going to cost me. Decided to try Airbnb as a guest (we're already hosts on that site for our Apartment in Montmartre) since I was willing to trade off certain amenities for something way cheap but clean and convenient. Quite quickly, I found a room in a private home on Georges Street in Bath, so perfectly situation I couldn't believe it was only 36€ (with over 20 positive reviews by past guests). Assuming the room is as good as it seems, I do plan to tell the host she is probably undercharging, given her fab location. I had thought of staying in Bath for the entire trip, using it as a home base, as it seemed there were the most interesting things to do in that city plus I could get to everything else I wanted to see from there without too much difficulty. But the homeowner could only rent to me for the 7th and 8th, so I grabbed those two nights and decided to plan the rest of my trip around it.
Next, I turned my attention back to Eurostar, and coming to a decision about my tickets so that I could take advantage of the lowest rates available -- which still weren't quite low enough in my opinion; this train is getting to be like the airlines, prices rocketing upwards while they throw out great teaser rates in their ads that have no basis in actual reality as far as I can tell. I had thought to book for 3 nights but was still hoping I could manage a 4th night, assuming I could keep the train expenses - both Eurostar and Britrail or other UK trains - moderate. After a lot of back and forth over a period of four or five days, yesterday I went back to something I had originally started with but had nixed when I thought I'd be driving: going to England on Sunday. I checked the fares for the 5th of May, and LO! There was a miracle rate of only 44€ on ONE TRAIN ONLY from London to Paris at mid-afternoon on Sunday, more than half off the 92.50 I'd been expecting to see. So I booked myself on that train PDQ, and then on a return for the 9th on the last train coming back to Paris. Voila!
So, now I have a train ticket to get me between Paris and London and back again, and the last 2 of the 4 nights accomodations covered!
Next up: how to get around the countryside once I'm in the country, and where to sleep the first two nights to avoid being arrested as a derelict for sleeping on a bench in a train station on my first night in England.
Can you imagine my emergency call to Georges, who will himself have just landed in Brazil? "Uh, sweetie? I need you to fly back immediately, and come to England to bail me out of jail. Bring some Pounds Sterling, they won't accept our French bank cards; they're still pissed off at Jeanne d'Arc for her role in kicking the English army out of France, and apparently burning her at the stake wasn't sufficient payback. Oh, and bring me a baguette with a Camembert, because I'm not so into the fish and chips over here."
