After our flight from Berlin to Paris we arrived in the ‘city of lights’ and found our hotel was literally only 30 metres from the exit of the metro station, which was a very nice surprise. Our bags and suitcases were considerably lighter as we’d posted home 13kgs of stuff in Berlin (partially because the flight had a strict 20kg limit on suitcases and partially because it was getting hard to fit everything into our bags).
Freya took the opportunity of having a lighter suitcase to purchase more stuff in Paris to fill the void and I was able to reorganise mine.
Unlike last time I visited Paris, there seems to be more people here which unfortunately meant more queues for things like the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Catacombs etc.
On our first day in Paris we visited the Sacre Coure but it was raining so we decided to come back and climbed the Dome another day. We also visited the Eiffel Tower, but decided to come back as it was cloudy, rainy and wouldn’t have been very pleasant to ascend. After a small bite to eat for dinner, we visited the Louvre as it was open late and managed to see roughly half the displayed collection, including the Mona Lisa. Even though it was about 8:30 at night, there were still hundreds of people at the Louvre, although the crowds in front of the Mona Lisa weren’t as bad as last time I visited so I was able to get a picture in front of her.
The following day, we went back to the Sacre Coure to climb the dome whilst it was sunny, which turned out to be a good idea, as we had just descended the dome, when it promptly started to storm. Whilst waiting out the storm under the roof of the Montmartre Funicular, we spied an interesting looking gift shop, and once the rain had cleared we stopped for a browse. After dinner we visited the outside of Notre Dame and saw the Eiffel Tower perform it’s light show, before heading home to bed as we needed to get up early tomorrow.
On Sunday, we took the train to Versailles
Freya enjoyed visiting the Palace but the huge tour groups of people (which I had warned her about) semi ruined the palace tour for her.
After the tour we took stroll around the gardens and were able to see the fountains working, be that for a limited time of only 1.5 hrs. I filmed the Neptune Fountain (this is the largest at Versailles and requires all the other fountains to be turned off in order to run) –
We then headed for the train station and the trip back to Paris. On our way to dinner that night, I spied a bridge just behind Notre Dame which was quite interesting and the first I’ve seen so far. I’ve included a picture of it below in the gallery.
On Monday, we visited the Eiffel Tower. When we arrived, we joined the queue and spent the next 1.5-2 hrs in the queue just to get a ticket. Once we finally got up the Eiffel Tower, we then spent the next 45 mins queueing to get the lift to the top. Anyway, once we finally made it to the top, we had a very nice view over Paris. By this time some clouds had started to move in, so it wasn’t as sunny, but the view was still alright –
On our last day in Paris it decided to rain most of the day, so we headed to the Catacombs, but the line was extremely long, so instead we headed back to Notre Dame (via the Shakespeare Book Company shop, where I purchased two books). After queuing for 5 mins in the rain, we finally got into Notre Dame. It was quite busy inside, due to the bad weather outside and the free entry. I purchased a guide book for 2 euros from a vending machine and we had a look around. Afterwards, we decided to head back to the Catacombs, however when we arrived the queue still went all the way around the block and the Catacombs were only open for another 15mins, so we had to give this a miss. As it was still too early for dinner, Freya decided she had some time left to do some last minute shopping and I payed a visit to the Grand Arc at La Defense (the modern centre of Paris) which forms the western end of the Axe Historique which is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west. The axis starts in the East at the Louvre, and continues down the Champs Elysees, through the Arc De Triomphe to La Defense –
Later on we had an early dinner and visit the Arc De Triomphe for a nice view of the sunset and Paris by night.
Freya particularly liked Paris and is already planning to come back here again in a few years time. I was pleased that I didn’t need my phrasebook nearly as much as I was expecting. Unfortunately the weather this time round wasn’t great, but we still managed to get some semi sunny days and see the sites of Paris.
We’re getting a train tomorrow from Paris to Bern ready for our travels in Switzerland (hopefully we can get some chocolate as well…)
Au Reviour
