City Trip: Paris
My lovely boyfriend Tom and I went to Paris to celebrate our love and do lovely lovers things from Oct 19th to Oct 24th. We saw and did many things, and overall had a fabulous time. Here is a day by day break down:
Monday, Oct 19th – Travel day – We decided to get to Paris by taking a bus from Amsterdam. The bus ride was 9 1/2 hours long, complete with rude strangers and loud children. The ride was only supposed to be 8 hours long, but once we hit the city limits of Paris, there was a massive traffic jam, which inevitably held us up. Besides the incredible length of the trip, I think travelling by bus was not so bad, especially considering what we paid. For 78 Euro, we got a return trip from Amsterdam to Paris for two people. Not bad. It is possible to get a return trip by train from Amsterdam to Paris for 50 Euro per person, but those prices were not available for the time we were going. Oh well, the bus was an experience.
When we finally arrived at the station, it was about a 30min walk to our hotel (50% of which was up a BIG STEEP hill), where we unpacked and crashed. We had no problem signing in, and the hotel staff (despite a maid on the last day who kept trying to kick us out before check out time) were very friendly and patient.
The hotel was 280 Euro for 5 nights. It is very budget. The rooms were small, and outdated, and the bathroom looked like one you would find on an airplane. But it was clean, and the beds were surprisingly comfy (despite that we didn’t get a double bed, but had to push two singles together). The neighbourhood, however, left something to be desired, and it was way at the edge of town, not technically in Paris, more accurately situated in the greater Paris area. I would not likely stay at this hotel again, though hopefully the next time we go to Paris, it is not a budget trip.
Tuesday, Oct 20th - Versailles Day Trip – Before we left for Paris, I had arranged for us to take two days of bike tours. The first was a full day retreat to the Palace of Versailles. The grounds around the palace are absolutely huge, and being on bike we were very fortunate to be able to see more of the palace than anyone strolling around on foot would have. We saw the Grand and Petite Trianon, plus the palace gardens. In the morning, we purchased lunch at a charming French open air market, and later ate lunch at the end of the massive cross shaped canal in the gardens. It was terribly romantic, and one of my fondest memories of the trip. After lunch, we got tickets to tour the inside of the palace. Even though the tour devoted a whole day to the city, I could have stayed much longer. If I manage to get back to Paris, a trip to Versailles will definitely be on the ticket.
After the tour, we went for dinner at a cafe near the bike tour office. Tom had roast chicken, and I had ravioli. The waiter was very charming and polite, and the food was delicious. Our bill was 26 euro, which I thought was a great price considering the ambiance, service, presentation and quality of food. After dinner, we relaxed back at the hotel.
Wednesday, Oct 21st – Day and Night Tour - We had two separate bike tours lined up for today, to orient ourselves with the city, and help inspire us for activities to fill our two remaining days.
The day tour (despite the rain) was very nice. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Ecole Militaire, the Grand and Petite Palace, Place de la Concorde, and the Louvre. In the middle of the tour we stopped at a cafe in the Tuileries Garden’s and had a very nice lunch.
After the day tour, we had some time until the night tour began, so we went to the Petit Palace to kill some time. It was free entrance, and actually one of the best museums we went to during our time in Paris. For a free museum, they have an impressive collection of art; paintings, sculptures, pieces of art, and more. It was a relaxing stroll and I am glad we went.
The night tour was much more relaxed than the day tour. There were fewer stops, and less information, and more sight seeing and silent enjoyment. We saw Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower (in it’s night glory), the Louvre, St. Chapelle, the justice building, Hotel De Ville (Town Hall), and took a great boat ride on the Seine. In the middle of the tour we stopped by Johnny Depp’s community (he lives on a tiny island in the Seine, called Lle Saint-Louis) for some delicious gourmet ice cream. Over all, the tour was nice, but the relaxed atmosphere was off set by the non-relaxing time cycling through the busy night streets of Paris. My favourite part was the boat ride, and seeing the Louvre pyramid lite up at night.
The night tour ended around 11:30, after which we went straight home.
Thursday, Oct 22nd - Museums and Montparnasse Tower – This was our first free day. The weather had cleared up, and the city of Paris looked amazing in the sun after a good healthy rain fall. We decided to spend the day visiting museums. We saw Invalides, Napoleons Tomb (within Invalides), and the Rodin museum, plus visited Moncreau Park, and watched the sunset on top of Montparnasse Tower.
My favourite museum was Invalides. It was built to be a military hospital, but has since been transformed into a military museum (also known as Musee de l’Armee). The world war II exhibit is superb. I recommend anyone with an interest in war history to visit this museum.
We visited Moncreau Park by the suggestion of our tour guide book, and I am glad we did. It was relaxing, romantic, and non-touristy. Crazy little children and their chic moms fully populated the park, along with some ancient greek looking statues and architecture. It was a refreshing break from the up-tight and touristy part of Paris – where art is seen behind a do-not-cross rope – to see children climbing up and down statues like they were play ground equipment.
After the park, we headed to Montparnasse Tower. This is the only skyscraper in Paris, because after it was built the Parisians thought it was so ugly that they could not allow anymore of its kind. The allure of Montparnasse is not the tower, but the roof, from which you can see the entire city of Paris. What is the one thing you can’t see from the Eiffel Tower? The Eiffel Tower! We visited this on the suggestion of our day tour guide, and I am happy we did. This was one of the most memorable things we did in Paris, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is going. A ticket to the roof will cost 10Euro each, and you can stay up there as long as you want. On the few floors immediately below the roof, there is a shop and a cafe, plus windows all around, and information stations about the city of Paris. On the roof, it is complete, unimpeded access to Paris. Tom and I bought a few snacks before we went, and watched the sun set over the city of Paris from the roof. Montparnasse is the best place to view the city, and we had a great time there.
After watching the sunset over the city, we had a romantic dinner at a very nice restaurant not far from the tower, and then headed back to the hotel.
Friday, Oct 23rd – Museums and Eiffel Tower – Friday was another beautiful day weather wise. We visited the Louvre and the d’Orsay museums, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower.
On the day tour our tour guide told us about the secret entrance to the Louvre, in the underground mall. This is where you will find the inverted pyramid. Tom and I literally walked right into the museum, and were never stopped by anyone. I don’t know how this happened – we were never checked by security – but that goes to show you how underused this “secret” entrance is. I found the Louvre too overwhelming to be enjoyable. We spent two hours there. We hit a few big items, like the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and Napoleons apartments and all the things in between. We got a bit lost on our way out, which lead to other unknown discoveries (like this large open area with lots of greek looking sculptures. It was very pretty).
I found the d’Orsay more enjoyable than the Louvre, mostly because of the impressionist collection. That museum was very large as well, and we left early because we wanted to make time for Notre Dame before we went to the Eiffel Tower.
Notre Dame was the only place I did an audio tour, and I wish I had done them more often. Even though Paris is undeniably the tourist capital of France, and a huge tourist capital on the world market, the French insist on keeping everything in their stupid language, even though english is clearly better, so all the signs and information in the museums are in French. The audio guide is a way to get informed about the museum without needing to know French.
After Notre Dame, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. This was our last attraction in Paris. As a graduation gift, I took Thomas out for dinner on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower (I love you baby. <3 ). The dinner was fantastic, (see some pictures here) and the evening was throughly full of magic. After dinner, we took our time strolling through exhibits on each of the floors (there are three) and being in love with each other. We desended the tower just in time to see the new light show (marking the Eiffel Towers 120th anniversary) before we bid goodnight to Paris for the last time, and returned to our hotel.
Saturday, Oct 24th – Travel Day – This day was uneventful. The bus ride did not seem as long as it did on the way down, which was nice. We were offered a spot on a bus leaving 1 hour before the one we had bought tickets for, which we took, but a traffic accident in the French (or perhaps it was Belgium) countryside ensured we got home no early than we would have on the later bus. I suppose it is a good thing we took the earlier bus, because the later bus would have been reallly late.
That was our trip to Paris. Remember to check out the photo’s of our trip here, but here are some highlights:
