After letting my other half share his writing talents with you for the past few blogs, I’m back to recount our 5 night stay in Paris. Going into Paris Andrew and I had received numerous recommendations from various friends and colleagues about different sights to see and restaurants to try, so we felt fairly prepared on what we wanted to do during our time in the city.
After taking the train from Brugge into Brussels, we had our first international “bus” experience. We have taken local buses within the different cities, but hadn’t yet taken a long distance charter bus between cities. We decided to opt for this option for our trip from Brussels to Paris with the company Flixbus. After grabbing a quick bite to eat in Brussels, we hopped on the 4 hour bus to Paris. Fortunately, the bus ride wasn’t too bad. The seats were comfortable and there was WIFI available in the bus, so I spent most of the time watching Orange is the New Black, which has been my latest show addiction.
We arrived in Paris on a Saturday night and hopped on the Metro and headed over to our Airbnb, which was located in the Le Marais area of Paris. We were told this was a good area to stay if you wanted to immerse yourself in the Parisian culture with the locals. When we arrived in the area we were pleasantly surprised with the amount of cafes, bakeries, and cute shops that surrounded the area and knew we had chosen a good area. We ended up going to the local market to pick up some food items for the week and made a late dinner back in our Airbnb that night.
We woke up the next morning with the intentions of going to a local gym we found nearby. However, upon arriving around 8AM, we found out the reception desk didn’t open until 9AM, so ended up just going for a run around the area we were staying in. Afterwards, we headed out to meet our tour guide for another free walking tour with SANDEMANs. While we didn’t go to all of the major sites in Paris on this tour, we were able to see quite a few things and hear some interesting stories about the history of Paris. Our tour guide Hugo was entertaining and kept things fun throughout the 3 hour tour. One of the things we’ve really enjoyed is the overlapping of different stories we hear from different tour guides in different cities.
Fontaine Saint-Michel – Where the tour met up
The most narrow street in Paris…
Notre-Dame Cathedral – According to our tour guide, it took 184 years to build this beautiful cathedral, which is one of the most famous gothic cathedrals in the world today.
Beautiful architecture
Bridge in the picture on the left is the oldest bridge in Paris
After the tour we headed back to the area where we were staying and ended up enjoying lunch at one of the local cafe’s called Le Bar’Bouille. We did a bit of future trip planning at the Airbnb, then headed out to a local bar called The Long Hop, which was showing the Chelsea soccer game that night. Andrew was a happy camper as the team won 2-0. After the game we headed over to the Latin Quarter, which happened to house one of the most famous crepe places in the city, Au P’tit Grec, which came highly recommended by our tour guide earlier that day. We ended up having to wait about 45 minutes for the crepes, but they were well worth it!
We had no planned tours the next day, so were looking forward to sleeping in and getting a later start to the day. We ended up sleeping in until almost 11AM, and then decided to make our way to the local gym. On our way back from the gym we picked up a few additional items to make lunch back at our place and Andrew couldn’t wait until we got home to try his first Parisian baguette…
One of the things we had wanted to do in Paris was put a “love lock” on the lock bridge. We had heard that the original lock bridge (Pont des Arts) no longer had any locks on it since the weight of the locks had started to push the bridge deeper into the water. However, people have found a nearby bridge (Pont Neuf) to continue on with this tradition, so we wanted to add our own lock to the bunch.
We headed over to the original love lock bridge, Pont des Arts, to check it out, and stopped for some greats shots in front of the Seine River along the way.
Pont des Arts – Original love lock bridge that now has new railings with glass and wooden panels that don’t allow you to attach any locks
We explored some more of the city and beauty of the Seine River then headed over to a famous bakery, Laduree, and finally to the Arc de Triomphe.
Laduree – Known for their delicious macaroons!
Arc de Triomphe
It was Halloween night, so we had signed up for a Pub Crawl with the same tour group we did the walking tour with. We weren’t too sure what to expect, so we grabbed a quick dinner at a local cafe and made our way over to the meeting place. While we weren’t the oldest, we were definitely in the minority. A majority of the 50+ pub crawl participants were college students currently on break or visiting the city. However, we enjoyed the night as we went to 3 different bars and finished up at a local club.
Pub Crawl official with our wristbands…and introductory shots
Face Paint…The extent of our Halloween “costumes”
We were pretty scary…
We were both pretty exhausted from moving around so much the past few weeks, we decided to spend most of the next day just relaxing at our Airbnb and booking a few other parts of our trip. It was nice to spend the day this way, as traveling and constantly being on the go can be a bit exhausting.
While we spent the majority of the day inside, we had plans to have a picnic dinner on the grass below the Eiffel Tower that night.We had hoped to get some bread, meat, and cheese from local shops to enjoy on our picnic dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t plan very well because that day happened to be All Saints’ Day, which is a public holiday in France, and a day where a lot of local shops are closed. While luckily we found one bakery still open with a few baguettes to choose from, we couldn’t find a single meat or cheese shop that was open. After succumbing to picking up meat and cheese at a local grocery store, we headed to the Eiffel Tower where we learned that most of the grass areas were closed off for renovation. Strike Two on our picnic plans! Fortunately we found a nice bench right below the Eiffel Tower, with great views, where we were able to enjoy our food and some wine.
Eiffel Tower – We had learned on our walking tour that this tower was almost torn down, however it currently remains functional as the largest radio tower in the city.
Delicious dinner!
Our picnic spot
The Eiffel Tower lights up on the top of the hour every night and is a beautiful 4-5 minute show.
We headed to bed pretty earlier as the next day in Paris was our last full day, so we had booked a number of sights to check out. We went for a run along the Seine River before our day of sightseeing, which we later regretted after the amount of walking we ended up doing that day.
We spent the morning exploring The Louvre, which houses over 9,000 years of history, including Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It is a pretty incredible museum and while we saw a lot of it, it is definitely not possible to see everything in one day.
The Louvre
Our handy audio-guides!
Great Sphinx of Tanis (and me!)
Venus de Milo – Ancient Greek sculpture sculpted between 130 and 100 BC
We obviously had to check out the Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings. As most have stated before, it was much smaller than expected! Our tour guide had told us the only reason this painting is so famous is because it is known as the painting that once got stolen from The Louvre. Now it is the most protected piece of art at The Louvre and sits behind bullet-proof glass.
Coronation of Napoleon – 2nd biggest painting in The Louvre (Painted by Jacques-Louis David)
The Wedding Feast at Cana – Largest painting at The Louvre
Such a model…
Psyche revived by Cupid’s kiss on the left; The original selfie on the right
Took some fun shots on the blocks outside of The Louvre, which we learned were actually put there specifically for people to take pictures on
After The Louvre we headed over to Chipotle for lunch. I know, a lot of you are probably thinking “Why would you go to Chipotle when you’re in Paris?!”. Well we were given 2 free coupons from the Regional Manager in London to use at any of the 3 Chipotle’s in Paris, so we thoroughly enjoyed our free, American lunch. After traveling for so long and experiencing a lot of international cuisine, a good meal that tastes like home is not so bad every now and then.
After walking through the city a bit, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, where we had tickets to go to 2nd floor. Tickets are sold for the 2nd floor and for the very top, however, when we tried buying them online a few weeks ago, tickets to the very top were sold out. Fortunately upon arriving to the 2nd floor of the tower, you’re able to upgrade your ticket if you want to go to the very top, which we did. We captured some great panoramic views of the city and although touristy, it was definitely a fun experience.
The Eiffel Tower (again), but this time during the day!
View of the city from the 2nd floor – Loved the shadow of the tower in this picture
Views from the top! 300M up!
Back down on the ground
We had some time before our last sight we planned to check out that day, so we checked out the Montparnasse Tower, an office skyscraper and another large, famous tower in the city. We also spent some time relaxing at a local cafe and enjoyed some warm drinks and creme brulee! (Andrew’s favorite dessert)
Montparnasse Tower
The final sight we had planned to see in Paris that day was the Catacombs of Paris. These catacombs exist under the streets of Paris and contain the remains of over six million people. While a bit eerie, it was definitely an interesting sight to see. We had booked the 6pm time slot, which happened to be the last time slot of the day. While during the day this is one of the most popular tourist spots to visit in the city, we were fortunate to experience them with very few people. In fact, there were times when we were walking through some of the tunnels and we were the only ones in them. A bit creepy, but a very unique experience that you usually don’t get when you visit this famous site.
Heading down numerous stairs into the underground catacombs!
We’re the only ones here…
After a very long day, we had made reservations at a local French restaurant that came highly recommended from Andrew’s parents and sister. Since they had visited Paris a couple of weeks before us, they had gone to this restaurant that had delicious local cuisine and a nice atmosphere, so we figured we would try it out. We arrived at La Laiterie Sainte-Clotilde and appreciated the cozy atmosphere and friendly service. The food was delicious and it was a wonderful way to spend our last night in Paris.
After having one last glass of wine at a local cafe near our Airbnb, we headed back to start packing. We had planned to stay up late so we would be able to sleep on the 11 hour flight to Hong Kong, but unfortunately I was hit with a horrible case of food poisoning. The next 6 hours were not fun and I was a bit nervous I wouldn’t be able to make it on the flight. Fortunately I woke up feeling a bit better and we were able to make it to the airport on time for our flight. Although still feeling the side effects from the food poisoning, I was very excited as we were leaving Europe to travel to the next continent on our list, Asia! Andrew and I have both never been to Asia, so we knew we were in for an exciting adventure in a new place.
Andrew + Allison Around the World 