Can any stay in France really be complete without a visit to the nation’s most famous city?
Tip- If you are a European resident under 25, bring your passport/ID card because you get into most of the major sights for free!
I have to say, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect of Paris. I’d heard a lot of negative things- “It’s dirty”, “People are rude”, “It’s too touristy”, etc.
So, Paris wasn’t at the very top of places to see, surprisingly enough (I said not the top, it was definitely on the must-see list!) Now that I have been? It’s very near to the top of must-return-to cities. A bit of a teaser for future stories- Budapest and Prague are there too!
Knowing that, with everywhere else I wanted to visit, I would probably only have time/money to visit Paris once, I waited until Spring. Paris in the Spring sounded oh, so perfect.
Well, it was supposed to be Spring… and I suppose if you’re from Canada it would be considered Spring. It was a bit chillier than expected, but we had mostly decent weather.
I went to Paris with a friend from my program in Lyon, where we met up with several of his friends- who were truly lovely to tour Paris with! We were all at different levels of what we had seen in Paris, so we did quite a bit of splitting off and joining up again. For anyone travelling with a sizable group of people, this is a really good way to avoid conflicting desires: You don’t have to do everything together 🙂
We stayed in an AirBnB near Tour Montparnasse- a good location as it’s far enough to be slightly less expensive, but so close to a main métro and regional train station. Really, it’s easy to get everywhere in Paris by métro, though you will likely feel that by the time you’re done, you’ve explored just as much of the city underground as above ground.
The first day, I went off to find the Eiffel Tower. Key tip (Thanks Peter!)- don’t get off at the métro that says ‘Tour Eiffel’. This brings you close to the base. If you get off at Trocadéro, you get to walk through a garden as the tower grows closer and closer- best for photographs with the full tower in the background. I asked an older couple to take a photograph of me, and got roped into a bit of a photoshoot until they were happy I had a decent picture!
From the Eiffel Tower, I walked down the Champs de Mars, along the Seine, across the Pont Alexandre III, and along the Seine again. It was a sunny, beautiful walk, criss-crossing the bridges and dallying at the stalls of the famous booksellers. Eventually, I reached Notre-Dame Cathedral- luckily with very little line. It is truly breathtaking as soon as you step inside- I loved the stained glass. Around back, which is the iconic view of the building from across the Seine, there is a lovely little garden with a few brave flowers pushing up into the sunlight.
From the Cathedral, we met back up at the Louvre. While the art there is impressive (and the Mona Lisa is very pretty), I have to say that I enjoyed my later visit to the Musée D’Orsay more. The Louvre, while grand, is a bit… overwhelming. Due to their cleaning schedules, you couldn’t access one gallery from another, but had to keep backtracking past people to the centre (under the big glass pyramid) to see another gallery. I also happen to love impressionist art, and the Orsay collection is spectacular in that regard.
From the Louvre, we found dinner, crêpes, and wine and planned our trip to Versailles for the next day. Very carefully, I might add, as (of course) there was supposed to be a national strike.
We made it on the train that would bring us to the town of Versaille the next morning (seriously, don’t buy the 20-40 euro bus, it’s a 3.5 euro rail ticket). We were ready. It was just before 9am as we walked up to the gates… and apparently closed as part of the national strike. Anyone who has spent any time in France won’t be surprised at this, strikes are apparently pretty regular. Luckily, we had gotten there early enough that most of the day was still left for adventures… back to Paris we went!
The Versailles-Day-That-Wasn’t turned into the Catacombs (really cool for the first kilometer, and then a bit overly creepy), the Musée D’Orsay, a stop for macarons as La Durée, and a really lovely, true Parisien cuisine supper at Le Pré Verre. This is a bit off the beaten track, down one of the side roads where larger, touristy restaurants line the bigger streets. However, the staff was warm and friendly, the food was… excellent (a top meal ever, I’d say), and so was the wine!
The next day, we finally made it to, and past the front gate of Versailles. The audioguides are free here and definitely enhance the tour! It is a bit overwhelmingly grand (almost garish, to be honest…) and the guides do a good job of pointing the key parts to take in in each room. And, even on a cold windy, rainy day like ours, don’t miss the gardens and the Trianon Estate. There are lots of little huts and cafes to stop for hot chocolate along the way!
While the flowers weren’t quite in bloom, as I’d hoped they would be, it did make every flower we did see very special! The Petit Trianon, once a house built for the king’s mistress, and later gifted to Marie Antoinette, was very pretty. It’s gardens, past the manicured lawn, have a bit of a wild feel. Apparently, Marie Antoinette was quite influenced by the work of Rousseau and so wanted a ‘wilder’ space for her children to grow in.
The favourite, I think for all of us, was the reconstruction of the hamlet that would have served the estate. Complete with farm animals and daffodils, it felt especially cosy after the cold riches of the château!
The day was finished off with a trip to a wine store, a frommagerie, and a boulangerie for all the French essentials needed for a charcuterie dinner.
The final full day in Paris, we split off again. I headed up to the Montmatre district to see Sacre Coeur. If I had loved Paris before, Montmatre made me fall in love with the city. The artsy district, while still full of tourists, felt less touristy than the core of the city. Sacre Coeur is beautiful, and the view from the top, after climbing staircases that bring you out onto the edge of the dome, is absolutely worth a few euros for admission.
I had planned on scurrying down to the Pantheon later that day, but the draw of Montmartre in the sun was too strong. A picnic in the park with a book, and poking through little artsy shops made a wonderful final afternoon.
We did meet up again, to find some sorbet (Berthillon is worth the line) and wander around the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. They have a lovely little cat 🙂
The evening ended with a visit to the Arc de Triomphe and a walk down Champs-Élyssé, where we saw the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance.
There is so much to see in Paris that it is impossible to do it all with one trip. Rather, it was lovely to savour the bits we did, and make the parting a true ‘Au Revoir’ for the future.
Two Red Boots 
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