I'd really like to do this with him, just the two of us. He loves history, natural history, Classics, science, museums... we'd planned to go to Athens but I've been looking at flights and even budget ones are a lot more than I'd naively anticipated. It IS the first week of July, after all! Another confounder is that (cheap) flights that get back home too late are going to be problematic as we need to do the ongoing travel ourselves, and coaches etc don't drop us close enough to home. DH can't come and collect us, he has to be at home with the other DS!
Looking at Eurostar to Paris, that's a lot cheaper but also the times are much more doable in terms of getting back to our local station under our own steam and then getting a quick taxi (as opposed to getting back from Gatwick!) or even a lift from DH if it's not late. But cheap accommodation in Paris is hard to find - the Ibis hotels look ok (apparently £55 a night!!) but I'm really wary of the bed bug issue in cheap accommodation in Paris (and indeed, the only place I know I've been bitten by bed bugs was in Paris, and that was back in the 90's).
I'm feeling stupid and uninspired. Where else can we get to really cheaply, preferably via Eurostar because of the cost and number of train options, that will be fun, historical and not cost the earth?? I need some doable options to put to him.
I'd love to be able to do this with him - I was lucky enough to be taken off by my mum after GCSEs, A-levels and BA, it felt like a sort of rite of passage and a lovely treat.