Chris commented that I should code for money. Well, Chris, I do that too -- I was feebly attempting to be witty!
I'm a computer programmer in the San Francisco Bay Area. My husband of almost two years is a rock musician. We didn't take a trip for our honeymoon, and I'm having a significant birthday next year, so we're taking a big splurge trip to Paris and London to serve as a delayed honeymoon and a birthday celebration. We are sooo excited!!!
We're first-timers to Europe: I've visited Norway once (so beautiful!) and we've been to Japan, see my blatheringly long post in "Rest of the World" if you have a long time to read!, but neither of us has been anywhere else in Europe.
We have food allergies (straining my high school French -- is "Je suis allergique aux oeufs" really how you say "I am allergic to eggs"?) and that's what made us think to rent an apartment, so we can do our own cooking. We tend to be a little nervous about eating at unknown restaurants because we've both had allergic reactions to pretty small quantities of our allergen (eggs for my husband, corn and all corn byproducts for me. Yes, it makes us understand each other deeply!). No patisseries for us, alas.
We'll be in Paris from Feb 18 to 22 and London from Feb 22 to 29. We have friends in London with whom we'll spend Friday 2/22 to Sat 2/23 and maybe more... and otherwise we'll just be soaking up the local flavor, with the emphasis more on getting the feel of the place than on checking off a list of must-sees. We'll probably take a guided tour of sites related to Jimi Hendrix in London, since he is my husband's hero, but otherwise we will be doing a lot of relaxing and not a lot of forced-march sightseeing. We'd be very interested in meeting anyone who's around those places at the same time as us.
Nice to virtually meet you all -- this site is great!! So very helpful. Edited to add: found it through TripAdvisor, which we originally found through Google.
Thank you so much for the warm welcome! About the only things we have planned so far are the dates and our Paris apartment, which we found on the "Budget apartments for less than a week" thread just recently begun by Kaydee.
Hi "will code"-- let me add my welcome to you also. It sounds like you have a great trip planned, and you've come to the right place to get ideas and help.
quote:
our Paris apartment, which we found on the "Budget apartments for less than a week" thread just recently begun by Kaydee
Sounds like you had a good budget find in Paris-- would you be willing to share it on that thread?
Slow Travel Talk 
Your name is cute - I like it. 
