First stop on our Euro trip: Paris, France– July 25th -28th
I have to say it was never one of my top 10 cities on my list to visit nor my husbands and it surprised both of us. The City of Love it was not but probably due to the fact that it was a very, very humid 95 degrees while we were visiting and there’s no air conditioning on any transit and very minimal in the major attractions and restaurants. We couldn’t hold hands to even stroll down the Seine. We were disgusting. But through all that smelliness, we managed to really like the city and want to go back to explore more. Because of our limited time we didn’t get to go to Versailles so that’s definitely on the itinerary for the next visit.
DAY 1
After our 6 hour flight from NYC to Paris we got off the plane and had to tackle our first new transportation system and different language. When I googled it, the route into the city was pretty straightforward so I’m not sure how we got all confused (maybe it was the lack of sleep) but we stumbled outside and found some buses. Hearing a new language and seeing all the signs had us discombobulated and we ended up finally boarding a bus that would leave us near our hotel. The bus was NOT covered in our transit pass I had pre-purchased so we had to have the driver help us buy tickets when we got off (he was very nice). We also discovered that even though we told our bank we were traveling (twice), our bank card didn’t work in the machine. Good thing I had told my personal account as well so we at least had one working card. We walked to our hotel (granted, in a couple circles since we were still trying to get our bearings) and finally made it to the hotel.
I booked us at a budget hotel around the 9th arrondissement called Ibis Styles Paris Gare. I knew it would have small rooms but I was not prepared for the dorm-sized stature or the smallest shower in the world. Although there is something amusing about hearing your husband go “ow” “ouch” every couple of minutes because he barely fit, it is not so amusing when you have to stand outside the shower and shave each leg individually. But it was only for 3 nights and the hotel was near a market, 2 train stops, and had a very good free breakfast spread (including fresh squeezed orange juice. I can never go back to Tropicana) so I can’t really complain.
We got into the city mid afternoon and I was so hangry! We took the train near the Arc de Triomphe and found a shop to grab a quick sandwich before making the climb up. The spiral staircase up the Arc is not for those who are afraid of heights, have vertigo, or a fear of falling. I hugged that wall so tightly and tried really hard not to look down the spiral to the bottom. The view from the top was amazing and we both agreed it was a great way to kick off Paris.
From there we went down to the Eiffel Tower area to see it in person. We decided not to go up because isn’t the best view of the city WITH the Eiffel Tower in it? I didn’t want to spend 20 Euro to go up in a crowded elevator. It was great to see it in real life finally but I feel like the movies make it shinier than it really is.
Afterwards we went to the Louvre from 7pm-9pm because I was told there was less of a crowd. And they were right. We barely waited on line to scan in, grabbed a map, and circled the main things we wanted to see. The Louvre is HUGE. I suggest bringing some water and a snack if you go. About an hour in, we were tired and hungry so we ran through the exhibits but saw more than we intended to mostly because we kept following signs that said “Exit” but really just brought us to another wing. We had no idea how to get out. After 20 minutes we found the light at the end of the tunnel and exited. Yeah, it’s THAT big.
There was a restaurant on my trusty spreadsheet I wanted to try which was about a 20 minute train ride from the Louvre called Le Trumilou. I always try to find good places the locals frequent which is harder to do by just a search online but is usually totally worth it. It was. The restaurant had no A/C, was super hot, and everyone spoke French which was a good sign. The menu was NOT in English (some places will have a translated ones for tourists) but the waiter was very nice and explained everything to us. Had my first escargot!
My number one travel tip is: DO WHAT THE LOCALS DO. If you walk by a restaurant and everyone is speaking English, not French, run! If you’re leaving the metro station and all the locals go left but you go right you should go left! I made that mistake in London AND in Paris. Both times the locals knew to take the elevator up to street level. I ended up climbing hundreds of steps like an idiot. Never again!
DAY 2
We ended up visiting Paris during a heat wave so it made getting around pretty unbearable. We were dripping in sweat the second we walked outside. So we hit up the Jardin Du Luxembourg mid morning to beat the heat (didn’t really work) then made our way to the Pantheon which was so incredible and included some crypts like Marie Curie and Voltaire.
Afterwards we headed to Montparnasse Tower (a 360 degree view of the city) which was great because we got our bearings by the 2nd day and were able to make connections of the things we were seeing and where we’ve been. There were interactive maps as you walked around and you could click on a building or area to learn more about it. I highly recommend it.
In my research I heard about Rue Princesse and the cool bars it housed through the small alley street. What I missed in that research was most of those places don’t open until about 5pm or close in the afternoon and then reopen for the evening. Whoops. It was pretty dead when we got there around lunchtime but we managed to find this bar called O’Neil that had good burgers, brewed their own beer, and free wifi.
After that little fail we headed to the Little Prince Store. If you don’t know who the Little Prince is, he’s a character in a book called The Little Prince (obvi) written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry—one of my favorite books of all time. I wanted to buy so many things but I was also aware that it was all SOOO overpriced. I settled on a small metal tray with one of my favorite quotes and then headed for Gelato because I’m on vacation and you can’t judge me.
Next stop on the itinerary was the Musee D’Orsay one of my favorite buildings ever. It was originally a train station built around 1900 for the Worlds Fair. Afterwards it eventually was abandoned until about the 1970’s when they turned it into a museum (don’t quote me on those dates I’m going off memory). The building was exquisite and I couldn’t stop looking at all the details and wondering what it looked like during that unused period.
As I’m writing all this I can’t believe how much we ended up doing in one day! Shit, I’m tired just reading this and our day wasn’t even over yet! We took the metro up to Montmartre area (made famous by the Moulin Rouge. Maybe you’ve heard of it). Well I heard that it was hilly and I thought, we have hills in NYC it will be fine. And maybe it would’ve been if it wasn’t a humid 95 degrees and we didn’t already do 15,000 steps. Holy shit. Our first stop was heading to the Wall of Love which pretty much had the word LOVE written all over it in different languages. We started up the hilly side streets to Sacre Coeur, a beautiful white church on top of a hill with a great view of the whole city. We climbed stairs and then climbed more stairs and when we finally got to the top panting we looked to our right and saw….a tram. My research did NOT tell me about this tram that went from the bottom of Montmartre to the church. What the hell! We sat on the steps to rest and realized we were very, very tired.
Took the tram down the hills and then walked over to see the Moulin Rouge (underwhelming) and take the Petit Train around Montmartre (which we should’ve done FIRST because it ended up going right by the church on the hill!). It was a good rest period for us on that small train as we putted up the steep hills and learned some things about the buildings we passed. By that time we were tired and hungry so we walked to this bar called Le Petit Moulin, a very tiny bar that had a very lovely and friendly owner. Online it stated they had food so I thought we would be able to eat dinner but by food it really meant cheese and meat platters and we started to realize that a lot of times in Europe bars are bars and restaurants are restaurants.
DAY 3
Our last day in Paris. We found out as we got to the metro that the city pass I had purchased was for 2 days not a 48 hour period (whoops!) so we had to buy a 24 hour metro pass, an expense I did not factor into our budget, and found out that our museum pass was expired as we were heading to the Army Museum. We were able to get into part of it but then they checked the ticket for the WWII section and we were found out! To maximize our money for our city pass, we were able to still use the attraction portion of it and headed to the Choco-Story Paris chocolate Museum and then had a tour at Les Caves du Louvre, an underground wine cellar established by Louis XV. We had such a great time and learned a lot about wine while having some tastings. I also bought a bottle which I ended up carrying all over Europe to bring back to NY. I successfully did it.
It was still hot but muggy since it was supposed to rain and it did while we were on our way to Notre Dame. After walking by the church we headed to Brewberry to have some beers. We headed back to our hotel to rest a bit and change out of our wet shoes. Of course once we put on dry shoes and head out for dinner it began to POUR. We ran around the neighborhood to find somewhere to have dinner and stumbled upon Le Table de Lucie to have our final dinner in Paris.
Overall we had a great time in Paris and I would love to go back. We purchased The Paris Pass which included a metro pass, attraction pass and museum pass. It was the most cost effective when I cross referenced all the things we wanted to do and what was included in the passes. As I said before, the pass is only by day not hour period so we lost half a day by not knowing that but it still worked out in the end by adding last minute attractions to get the biggest bang for our buck.
Next up, Brussels….
Life With Purpose (And Other Things) 