Paris
Bonjour mes amis and bienvenue to my post about all things Paris! I made the trip back to the romantic capital to meet up with best friend, Jeremy, who was on his own European adventure with his mom, Diane, and her friend, Denise. It was so cool being able hop a quick flight to see friends in a different country! We had big plans to cover the city top to bottom, eat a lot of carbs, and make unforgettable memories. Check, check, and check. Grab a croissant and a glass of French wine and enjoy reading about all Paris has to offer.
The streets of Paris are so romantic and beautiful!
Paris, France is probably one of the most well-known cities in the world and at the top of the list for many people’s travel bucket lists. It’s a romanticized place and for good reason. The architecture is beautiful, the fashion is fierce, and the wine is flowing. I had been to Paris for a quick 24-hour stint back in 2011, but it was essentially a disaster, so I was very excited to return and actually experience the City of Lights.
Getting to Paris from Charles De Gaulle Airport:
Paris has three different airports: Orly, CDG, and Beauvais. Orly and CDG are the two main airports, while Beauvais caters to budget airlines like Ryanair. When I was looking at flights, I was ready to pull the trigger on a Ryanair flight; but when I saw how far out Beauvais was from Paris’ city centre and that I would have to take a bus and then hop on a train, it sounded like a fuss I didn’t want to deal with. I paid a little extra money to take an Aer Lingus flight into CDG, which should have been a breeze.
From CDG you can take a train right into the city. Follow the signs for “Paris by Train” to hop on the RER B that goes straight into the heart of Paris. There are lots of ticket machines that take credit card or cash. A one-way ticket cost about €10, but you can also purchase a round-trip ticket for €20. It takes about 30-45 minutes to get into the city depending on where you get off. There are lots of different stops, so make sure to get off at the one most convenient to where you are staying. Most people will get off at one of these stops: Gare du Nord / Eurostar Paris to London Train Station, Châtelet-les-Halles Interchange Station, Saint Michel / Notre-Dame, or Jardin du Luxembourg. From these stops, you may need to hop on the subway, or take a taxi to finish out your journey. But let me tell you, Paris has one of the best subway systems in the world. It is as easy and breezy as a beautiful Cover Girl, so don’t be afraid to ride it.
Now, I had a very different experience getting into the city than what I described above. It should have been a super easy trip, but not that night. From Terminal 1 at CDG, I had to take a tram to Terminal 2. Fine. I went to buy my round-trip ticket for the RER B, but when I went to ask one of the 20 customer service people that were standing around where the platform was, they told me the train wasn’t working at that moment. I had to bounce around between 5 different customer service people to find one who was willing to speak English to me to let me know I had to take a bus. I was tired, confused, but went with it. I crammed onto “Bus B” with no idea where my final destination would be. After a 30-minute ride, we arrived at Mitry-Claye train station, which is the other starting point for the RER B train. Ok, phew! I hopped on the next train and rode into the city. Meanwhile, I had messaged a sweet American girl who is living in France, Hether, that I have gotten to know through Instagram, asking for help and she introduced me to the most amazing app called Citymapper. If you live in a major city around the world, or are visiting one download this app right now.
Citymapper is the best navigational app out there [for the cities it currently supports]. It works like Google Maps or Apple Maps in that you enter your destination, but Citymapper gives you options on how to get there via walking, biking, driving, public transportation, Uber, etc. I had to take the subway once I had gotten off the RER B train, and we ended up using the subway every day in Paris, and this app was a dream for navigating the underground. It told us which subway to take, towards which direction, told us how many minutes until the next 3-4 trains, suggested we hop on towards the front, middle, or back of the train based on crowds, ticked off every station we passed, reminded us to get off when we got close to our stop, AND told us which exit out of the subway station to take. You can also put in a different day/time for when you want to get to your destination, so that you can plan your routes ahead of time. It’s literally just the greatest app ever. It got me safe and sound to Jer & Co. late in the night and for that I’m forever thankful.
Accommodations:
This was Jer & Co.’s trip and I was just crashing, so they had done the heavy lifting in finding a place to stay whilst in Paris. They found a very cute Airbnb in the 5th arr. of Paris. It was a cute, quiet neighborhood, close to two subway stations, and within walking distance of Notre Dame. It was a fab location and a cute place that I’d recommend if you’re traveling in a twosome. If you happen to stay in this neighborhood, hit up 2 Bis Café for a late-night cheeseburger and bottle of rosé for €25.
Museum Pass
Paris offers a Museum Pass, which provides free entry to over 50 museums and monuments around the city. Not only does it offer free entry, but it allows you to skip the ticket lines and get into the museums as fast as possible. In a city as over-crowded with tourists as Paris, this is so worth it. We bought the 4-day pass for €62 and ended up saving €13, plus lots of time with all the places we visited.
The Museum Pass comes in a 2-, 4-, and 6-day pass, which is a little annoying, but getting fast-tracked entry and actually saving money on entrance fees in only three days proved its value. You can buy the Museum Pass ahead of time and have it mailed to your house, or you can buy it all around Paris. We bought ours at Sainte-Chapelle, which was the first stop on our itinerary.
3 Day Paris Itinerary
Sunday, September 23rd - Day 1:
We started our Paris adventure walking through our neighborhood over to the river Seine.
We got a little bit of a late start to our morning, so we grabbed a quick breakfast for a little energy before we started our day. Right by Notre Dame was a little corner stand where we grabbed a croque monsieur, which is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and took in the views by the river.
Sainte-Chapelle
Right across the street from Notre Dame is the less well-known and less visited monument of Sainte-Chapelle. It’s tucked away from the street, so just look out for the signage when you’re making your way. After going through security, you will see this stunning, gothic-style building that was constructed to house sacred Christian relics, including what was believed to be Jesus’ crown of thorns.
The interior of Sainte-Chapelle is ornately designed. The first level has beautiful gold-lined arches, with a dark navy backdrop and red accents.
When you think there could not be anything more beautiful than the first floor, the spiral stone staircase leads you up to the second level, revealing the largest display of stained glass windows you’ve ever seen. It took my breath away. The windows stand at nearly 50 feet / 15 metres high and line the entire interior.
Stunning, right? I cannot believe this place is not as famous as Notre Dame. This is a must-see if you are in Paris. Entrance costs €10 or FREE with the Museum Pass.
Walk Along the Seine
From Sainte-Chapelle to Musée de Louvre, there is a walking path all along the river. It was such a nice stroll with great views by the water and away from the busy sidewalks. We all agreed it was one of our favorite parts of Paris.
Musée du Louvre
The Louvre is probably one of the most famous museums in the world, not only because it houses one of the largest collections of art in the world, but because it has one of the most well-known paintings in its midst — the Mona Lisa. Spoiler alert: seeing the Mona Lisa is underwhelming and clausterphobic. However, there is plenty of other art to see besides Ms. Lisa. In fact, we learned that if you wanted to look at each piece of art in the Louvre for three seconds per piece, it would take you three months to complete the task. That’s a lot of art, so if you’re like me and have about a two-hour max amount of patience for museums, make sure to grab a floor plan and only check out the collections and exhibits you’re really interested in seeing.
My favorite part of the entire museum is actually the entrance, the Louvre Pyramid. The modern-looking, glass-paned pyramid juxtaposed to the beautiful, Parisian styling of the museum is iconic.
One of the fun parts about it is to play tourist and stand on the blocks to get your picture touching the tip top of the pyramid.
I honestly had no idea the pyramid was the entrance to the museum until we asked. With the Museum Pass, we were able to skip the queue, go straight through security, and in the pyramid we were. Right now, there is an incredible gold piece of art called “Throne” by Japanese artist Kohei Nawa that captures all your senses as you descend down into the museum’s underground lobby.
The inside of the Louvre is like a maze, so we grabbed a museum floor plan, found where the Mona Lisa is located, and set out to find her first. She’s not too hard to find, just follow the signs and droves of people, and you’ll soon find her room.
Painted by Leonoard DaVinci, the Mona Lisa only became famous after it was stolen in 1911 by an Italian employee of the Louvre who thought the painting deserved to be in Italy, DaVinci’s home country. When the museum realized she had been stolen, newspapers around the entire world published the crime with a picture of the painting, making it instantaneously famous. Fun fact: Napolean Bonaparte kept the Mona Lisa in his boudoir. Ooh la la.
The reality of seeing the Mona Lisa is it is insanely crowded. If you’re hoping to stand there awhile to take her in and study her, think again. Be ready to push and shove your way through the crowd to get a spot at the front so that you can get your picture and then make your escape. I don’t even remember seeing the painting except for through the lens of my camera. It’s that kind of experience, which is pretty disappointing.
Mona is behind the tall guy with the grey hair through that swarm of people.
Beyond this horrific room are corridors upon corridors and several levels of other art to be seen. Jer and I were keen on seeing some of the Egyptian exhibits, but we also enjoyed the beauty of the museum itself. Here are some of my favorite shots below. Make sure to scroll through :)
The Louvre is worth visiting to cross seeing the Mona Lisa off your bucket list and to experience going into the pyramid. I feel like it’s probably more worth it if you have the Museum Pass. Other than that, the museum is crowded and overwhelming. Not to mention it took us at least 15 minutes to exit the darn place, so I’d plan to spend 90 minutes to two hours here. Admission is €15, or FREE and you get fast-tracked entry with the Museum Pass. Be mindful that it is closed on Tuesdays.
Angelina
Angelina is an iconic café in Paris with a few locations. They are best known for their hot chocolate and pastries, so it was the perfect place for us to escape the rain and warm up after visiting the Louvre. I believe we got there around 2:00 p.m. and there was a line out the door. We had to wait about 20 minutes until we got seated, but there was a roof over our head and the option of getting some hot chocolate from Angelina’s outdoor stand if we needed.
Once we were in, we were seated in the crowded, but beautiful restaurant with its fresco-painted walls. Since we were all a bit wet and cold from our walk over [I honestly looked like a wet rat], we all ordered the Onion Soup. Anywhere else in the world this would be called French Onion Soup, but we were in France, so apparently there is no need to identify it as French. The soup was good, but not €12 good.
For dessert, we ordered a smörgåsbord of pastries and let me tell you, they did not disappoint. We ordered the Millefeuille, a caramelized puff pastry with a light vanilla cream, Tarte Citron, a sweet pastry with a smooth lemon cream and candied lemon, and then two special summer pastries, one with strawberries and cream, and the other a raspberry cake. The Tarte Citron was by far the best one and is one of their classic pastries, so it remains on the menu year round!
The original Angelina is located on Rue de Rivoli, which is the location we visited. It was about an 8 minute walk from the Louvre. All in all, it was a great spot for an afternoon pick-me-up, but it was very expensive. My onion soup, two pastries, and latte cost me about €35, not exactly a cheap stop. If you ever get a chance to visit Angelina, save a little money and skip ordering real food and only indulge in the pastries, which you can buy in the bakery for take away.
After Angelina, we hopped on the subway and made our way to the Catacombs of Paris, which is an underground ossuary filled with the skeletons and bones of six million people. This was high on Jeremy and my list to see, but unfortunately for us, the catacombs were closed for renovation. We were pretty bummed out, but we didn’t let that stop us dead in our tracks. We popped over to the MS Porte Cafe to grab a cocktail and plan out the rest of our night.
On our way back to our Airbnb, we stopped to see the Panthéon, which is the burial site for many distinguished French citizens, including Victor Hugo. The building was closed for the day, but it is worth seeing from the outside.
Back at our Airbnb, we put our feet up for a little bit and got the party started with some salted nut roll shots all thanks to Denise! If you have RumChata and Butterscotch schnapps, do yourself a favor and fix yourself up a shot or two or three or four.
Salut!
For dinner, we walked over to the Latin Quarter and found a square that had restaurants on all sides. We settled on eating at Cafe Delmas, which ended up being a great choice. The menu had lots of options. I’d suggest the grain bowl or cheeseburger. It was the perfect end to a great first day in Paris.
Monday, September 24th - Day 2:
We got an earlier start to our day on Monday and found the cutest bakery right down the street from where we were staying called Boulangers. It was the perfect little spot to pick up a freshly baked pastry. The au pain chocolats were magnifique and only €1.15. Yum!
First on our itinerary for the day was to go see the Eiffel Tower. We had planned on visiting it on our first day, but with the rain, visibility was tough. We pushed it out, which ended up being the right call because we were blessed with clear skies and sun on our second day in Paris.
Eiffel Tower
We hopped on the subway to the La Motte-Piquet stop and walked to the start of the large park in front of the Eiffel Tower, Champs de Mars. The park is filled with people picnicking and tourists snapping away on their cameras. It’s as picturesque as you would imagine.
For those that don’t know, the Eiffel Tower was built as the entrance arch to the World’s Fair in 1889. It took a little over two years to build and the people of Paris hated it. It was supposed to only stand for 20 years and be torn down in 1909, but it was repurposed as a radio antenna meaning it was there to stay. And now it’s one of the most visited monuments in the world.
The best spot to get your selfies, group shots, and fun pictures is towards the end of the park away from the tower, so that you can fit the whole thing in the frame. You can jump, touch the tippy top, or get the billboard shot for your new law firm, Jer & Sare, LLC. You know, the usuals.
There is an option to go up the Eiffel Tower. You can either climb the 300+ stairs to the first platform and take the elevators from there, or you can take the elevators the whole way. The lines can be very long to do this, so it is highly recommended to book your tickets in advance, which you can do here. My suggestion would be to book a couple weeks in advance because I checked a week before our trip and they were all sold out. Now, we decided not to wait in line and go up the Eiffel Tower because we were heading to the Arc de Triomphe next, which would give us views of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower. So it was no bother to us, we had fun just seeing the Eiffel Tower and soaking in the sun.
We walked all the way to the Eiffel Tower to check it out up close. You used to be able to walk underneath it, but that’s now all closed off, which is a bummer from a photography perspective. But, there are some great shots you can get by walking across the Seine and through the Jardin du Trocodero. It’s a bit of an incline, which provides the good views.
Arc de Triomphe
From Trocodero, we hopped on the subway and headed to the Arc de Triomphe, one of Paris’ other iconic monuments. Built at the request of Napoléon, the Arc de Triomphe was completed in 1836 and is a commemoration to his military conquests.
It is a stunning, giant stone archway standing in the middle of the Place Charles de Gaulle. It is literally in the middle of the biggest roundabout I have ever seen with 12, I repeat, 12 roads merging into it. If anything, you can find cheap entertainment in just watching the cars maneuver the traffic and make bets on how many car horns you’ll hear.
Trying to cross the street to the Arc de Triomphe is probably suicidal, so follow the signs to the underground tunnel to the arch. Once you get right up to the arch, you get to see how beautiful it really is. The carvings are very ornate. I particularly like the flowers underneath the top of the archway. You really start to see all of the army tributes, including the eternal flame for the unknown soldier.
With the Museum Pass, we were able to skip the line and head straight inside. Beware: to get to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, you have to climb over 200 stone steps. For those that may not be physically able, there is an elevator reserved for those that need it. The climb is not for the faint-hearted, but it is very worth it. There is a huge rooftop lookout that, in my opinion, gives you the best views of Paris. It’s really cool to be in the middle of the Place Charles de Gaulle and see all 12 roads leading into the roundabout. The boulevards are lined with trees and you can see everything, from Paris’ business district with skyscrapers, the Sacre-Couer, the Champs Elysées, and the Eiffel Tower.
After taking in the 360 degree views of Paris, we made our descent down the stairs, and back to the business streets of the city. The Arc de Triomphe is very much worth visiting and climbing to the top should be on everyone’s “must do” list. It’s only €8, but is FREE with the fast-tracked entry with the Museum Pass. What’s great too is the Arc de Triomphe is open until 10:30 p.m. in the winter months and 11:00 p.m. in the summer months, so you can get views during the day, or go back later in the night to see the city lights.
It was time to grab lunch, so we walked one of the 12 streets to find a café to sit down and grab some grub. We found Café en Paris, which was just one street over from the Champs Elysées. It was a cute little spot on a quiet street with decent food. The one thing I wanted to make sure to try while in Paris was an aperol spritz, which is an aperitif cocktail consisting of prosecco, aperol, and soda water. When the server asked if Jeremy and I wanted a medium or large, naturally we said large, which ended up being €17. Lol, oops. Paired with a club sandwich, it was the perfect little lunch.
Shopping on the Champs Elysées
The Champs Elysées is a shopper’s paradise and one of the most famous streets in the world. With shops ranging from H&M to the Louis Vuitton flagship store, there is something for everyone. Who doesn’t dream of shopping in Paris?
Montmartre / Sacre-Coeur
After some afternoon shopping, we made our way to the neighborhood of Montmartre. It’s a little ways outside of the heart of Paris and sits at the top of a pretty big hill. Montmartre is a collection of the cutest little streets with boutiques and artists selling their work. The climb to the top involves quite a bit of stairs, but if you are unable to take the stairs, there is a choo-choo train or a cable car that you can take to the top. If you can take the stairs, do it because you get to see more of the neighborhood.
At the very top of the hill is the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur. It’s a beautiful church that is free and open to visitors.
The main attraction to Sacre-Coeur is finding a spot on the steps out front to watch the sun set over the city. We had the most beautiful sunny day, so we ended up spending a couple hours on those steps. Now, this was in large part due to the fact that there were guys selling cold beers to those willing to buy. And let me tell you, we were willing to buy, strike that, haggle. Before we knew it, we had a collection of beer bottles around us. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun we had giggling on those steps! It was one of the top highlights of the entire trip.
With a proper buzz and the sun nearly set, it was time for us to find some food. There is a square very close to Sacre-Coeur with loads of restaurants to choose from. We chose one with canopy seating called An Cadet de Gascogne. Like our lunch, it was decent food, but so expensive, like all of our meals in Paris. My spaghetti bolognese was €17. Ouch — that one hurts a little. Down the street, we found a gelato shop called Tutti Sensi that gave us the perfect complement to round off our night. My only dig at this place was they didn’t let us sample flavors, which was so ridiculous that I almost didn’t get any gelato out of pure principle. Alas, gelato > principles.
Post gelato, we decided it was time to head back into town. After having climbed the stairs in the Arc de Triomphe and up into Montmartre, we opted to take the cable car down the hill. If you have a day pass for the subway, you can use that ticket for the cable car. Or, if you’re Jeremy and your ticket stops working for an unknown reason, you can jump the turnstile and just hop in. Further, if your subway ticket continues to not work in the underground, two people can definitely squeeze through the gates together by going chest-to-chest and side shuffling through. #themoreyouknow
Eiffel Tower at Night
No trip to Paris would be complete without seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night. To be honest, the Eiffel Tower is a little lackluster in the daylight, but at night, she shines. It takes 20,000 bulbs to make the Iron Lady light up and it is really a sight to behold. On the hour, every hour until 1:00 a.m., the Eiffel Tower puts on a show and sparkles for five minutes and it’s very magical. We got incredibly lucky and got there right at 9:00 p.m. when the light show started. It was the perfect way to end our night.
Tuesday, September 25th - Day 3:
Palace of Versailles:
We were up bright and early Tuesday morning to catch the train to the Palace of Versailles. We were out the door by 8:00 a.m., grabbed another fresh baked pastry from Boulangers, and hopped on the subway to get to the train station to take the RER C straight to the palace.
I had read that it was best to get to the Palace of Versailles as soon as it opens because the line to get in can be crazy. The train takes about 45 minutes to get out there, so we planned for an hour of travel so we could get there when it opened at 9:00 a.m. There is about a half-mile walk from the train station to the palace, so we arrived around 9:05 a.m. and the line was already 200 people deep, if I had to guess. I had never seen anything like it.
With the Museum Pass, we got free entry, but there was no fast-track to get in. We had to wait in line with everyone else. Luckily the line moved relatively quickly. We estimated we had to wait about 35-40 minutes until we actually got in, went through security, and got our audio guides. To be honest, I don’t know if it makes a difference to buy tickets in advance or not. Their website is kind of confusing and once you get there, it’s equally as confusing.
Here are a few pictures of the exterior, which you can see is adorned in gold.
The palace was originally a mere chateau on some hunting land for King Louis XIII, but once Louis XIV, aka the Sun King, came into reigning power, he expanded the chateau into a grandeur palace. With 700 rooms, each room is as ornate as the next and it is truly a spectacular home. The palace’s most famous room is the Hall of Mirrors, which is a stunning gallery with an entire wall consisting of floor-to-ceiling mirrors and countless chandeliers. It glimmers. The room is crowded, but make sure to take your picture in one of the mirrors just like you used to do in your bathroom for your MySpace in 2005.
Now some real talk. I actually didn’t really like Versailles. The palace provides you with an audio guide and provides the history behind the rooms as you go through them. I don’t do great with audio guides because I lose interest in listening. What was worse is that as you are shuffling through these rooms, you are crammed in them with what seems like 100 other people, who are pushing and shoving, snapping pictures, and stopping in their tracks, etc. etc. It was such a miserable experience and I get that Versailles wants to get as many people through its doors, but at what cost? I felt like I couldn’t really take in the rooms or enjoy seeing one of the world’s most grandiose palaces. I wanted to get out of there so fast.
My recommendation on whether or not to visit Versailles boils down to this: if you have been to another European palace, skip Versailles. This sounds a bit terrible, but once you’ve seen a palace, they all kind of look the same. If you haven’t ever been to a palace and don’t plan on doing much European travel outside of visiting Paris or London, go to Versailles.
If you plan on going to Versailles: heed the advice to get there right when it opens because when we left, the line to get in was triple in size; be mindful it is closed on Mondays; and if you are only touring the palace, plan on it taking 3-5 hours with transportation, but if you want to explore the gardens and grounds, you could spend an entire day there. Ticket prices are €18 to tour the palace or €20 for the palace and musical gardens.
If you do visit Versailles, there is an Angelina café in the palace, so there is an opportunity to try some of their hot chocolate and pastries. We were a little hungry after battling through the palace, so we picked up a little treat before heading to the train. I had yet to have some macaroons whilst in Paris, so I tried three of Angelina’s: lemon, rose, and black currant. The rose macaroon tasted a bit like perfume, but the lemon and black currant macaroons were excellent. I also tried their famous hot chocolate and it was not even remotely good. Maybe my taste buds aren’t refined, or maybe they make gross hot chocolate.
Lunch at La Frégate
The RER C train makes a couple different stops once you are back in the city, which worked out perfectly for us because it stops near Musée D’Orsay, which was next on our itinerary. Before visiting the museum, we needed to have a proper lunch, one that included more than macaroons. Along with introducing me to Citymapper, Hether also sent me her recommendations for Paris, including restaurants she likes. Her list included La Frégate, which happens to be right next to the Musée D’Orsay. Perfect!
La Frégate is a cute little café with a classic French menu with decent prices. We all got the onion soup, which was much better than Angelina’s onion soup. [I know I have been ragging on Angelina a lot, but it is overrated minus a few pastries.] They gave us a bread basket for the table, which was a nice complement to dip into our soup. Yum! I want to go back there right now to have another bowl. If you make it there, Hether recommends the croque madame and a glass of rosé. I should have gotten a glass of rosé because that was literally cheaper than my €8 Coke Zero. [disclaimer: the menu didn’t list the price of the Coke because I don’t know what sane person would order it otherwise.] Anyway, this was a great spot for lunch and super convenient if you are planning a visit to Musée D’Orsay.
Musée D’Orsay
The Musée D’Orsay has the world’s largest collection of impressionism artwork. You can see the likes of Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gaugin. It’s a much smaller museum, so it is much more manageable than the Louvre. However, the layout of the museum is a bit confusing and the Monet exhibit was moved the day we were there and we could not find it to save our lives. It didn’t take away from our experience because we still got to see the majority of the artwork, the highlight being Van Gogh’s self-portrait.
Like most museums in Europe, the museum itself is its own piece of art. The building used to be a train station and you can still see remnants of that in the glass ceiling and the giant clock hanging in the main hall.
If you have time constraints and have to choose between the Louvre and D’Orsay, I’d recommend D’Orsay. It’s less crowded, less intimidating, and personally, the I love impressionism, so there is lots to see and appreciate. Entrance to the museum is €14, or FREE and fast-tracked entry with the Museum Pass. Like Versailles, this museum is closed on Mondays.
River Cruise on the Seine
It was another beautiful, sunny day and Denise’s Paris bucket list included taking a boat cruise on the river, so we walked along the Seine until we found the Vedettes du Pont Neuf, a sightseeing river cruise company. Departing from the little island of Pont Neuf, Vedettes provides a one-hour river cruise up and down the Seine with a tour guide pointing out landmarks along the way. After walking around Paris and climbing lots of stairs for the last couple days, it was really nice to sit on the top deck of the boat, soak in the sun, and learn about landmarks around the city that we hadn’t explored. The cruise cost €14, but if you book online, tickets are €10. The cruises run often, so there should be no stress in catching one.
Bertillion Glacier
If you’re wanting some a-one gelato, check out one of the Bertillion Glacier shops. We found one on the corner by Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame. It’s actually the corner shop where we got our croque madames on the first day. Their gelato is very good. I recommend getting the raspberry! It’s the perfect afternoon treat for strolling along the river.
Cathedral of Notre Dame
We had about two hours before I had to get ready to leave Paris, and since we were over by Notre Dame once again, we thought we would try and check it out. There was a decent line, but it looked like it was moving quickly and we had gelato to enjoy, so we thought we would give it a go. And I’m so happy we did!
We probably only waited in line for five minutes and there was no cost to get in. We just had to go through security, which explained the line. The inside of the cathedral is beautiful. We didn’t spend too much time inside because we wanted to get to the top of the cathedral’s towers before it was time to go. However, if I had had more time, I would have loved to explore more inside. From a timing perspective, if you can only fit in seeing either the inside of Notre Dame or Sainte-Chapelle, go to Sainte-Chapelle.
To climb up the belfry of Notre Dame, you have to go outside and to the left side of the building where there is a roped-off queue. There was no line when we got there a little before 5:00 p.m., so we just walked right up and showed our Museum Passes. We had to wait for a few people to come down, but then we were able to start the climb to the top. They make you wait in the souvenir shop for about five minutes and then you can continue your ascend up the stone stairs to the belfry. It is 147 steps up until this point [so. many. stairs. in. Paris.], but the views are so worth it. It is pretty tight up at the belfry and there isn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver around, so make sure to stop and take in the views before moving along because it is hard to turn back. This ended up being one of my favorite things that we did in Paris. It was the perfect way to wind down the trip.
Entry to the Notre Dame towers is €10, or FREE with the Museum Pass. Beyond the belfry, you can also climb an additional 200 steps to get to the top of the South Tower. We had had enough stairs for one trip and were satisfied with our views, so we passed and made our way back down.
And that concluded my fun in Paris!
My flight back to Dublin wasn’t until 9:45 p.m., but I left for the train station around 6:00 p.m. to make sure I had plenty of time. I was determined to hop on the RER B and take it straight to Terminal 1 with no problems, however, Paris had other plans for me. You know those videos of people cramming onto trains in Japan? That’s what it was like in the underground for the RER B. The train was already packed as it came into the station, but people , pushed and shoved and to cram onboard. I’m not exaggerating when I say there were body parts stuck in the closed doors and people screaming. I was still five people deep in line waiting to get on, so there was no way I was getting on that train. The next one was supposed to be arriving in 15 minutes, but I had the time to wait, so it was fine. Until that train got delayed. And delayed again. And then delayed again. At this point, I had wasted 45 minutes down in the underground. I started to panic a bit since the trains seemed unreliable, so I left the station to try MyTaxi. MyTaxi, for those who don’t know, is like Uber, but with licensed taxi drivers. Most European cities have it, but not Paris. After that strike out, I tried logging into Uber, but my account is still connected to my American phone number, so I wasn’t able to verify my account. I tried and tried and tried to no avail. At this point, I was really panicked and crying in the streets of Paris. Cute, right? Every taxi that drove by for the next 10 minutes was occupied, until I was finally able to flag one down. I had no cash, so I needed the driver to accept credit card. This guy said he didn’t, but then asked where I was going… so he definitely did take credit cards. However, when I said I was going to Charles de Gaulle airport, he said no way and drove off. Are you kidding me? This was not going well. I was able to flag down one more driver and this time, he not only took credit card, but was willing to take me to the airport. He was my Parisian savior. He got me to CDG for a cool €55 with a half-hour to spare and I couldn’t have been happier to be on my way home to Dublin.
A Couple Other Tips for Visiting Paris:
Learn a little French — it can go a long way.
The bathrooms tend to be uni-sex, so you might double-take the first few times you see a member of the opposite-sex walking in the same door as you.
Use the subway — it’s a dream and relatively cheap compared to other big cities. A single trip is €1.90, but if you’re going to be taking it a lot, just get a day pass, or multiple-day pass.
Plan your itinerary in advance and keep closure dates in mind.
Mondays: Musée D’Orsay, Versailles, Musée Rodin
Tuesdays: Musée Louvre, Musée de l’Orangerie, Pompidou Centre
Order wine — it’s cheaper than anything and very good in France.
I have a like/dislike relationship with Paris. I like the city for its history, architecture, and romantic-feel, but as my friend Ellie so astutely put it, the French make you feel like its an exclusive club that you’re not allowed into. I appreciate and respect their culture and there a tons of lovely people in France, but every time I have been there, something has happened leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Now, beyond my travel troubles, I had the best time with Jeremy; his mom, Diane; and Denise. Everyone was so chill and just wanted to have a good time. I can’t tell you how much laughing we did and how much fun we had. They made the trip worth every ounce of stress.
Love this crew!
Until next time…
Salut! xo,
