Paris, France

One night in Paris left us in awe of the city. We fell in love with the architecture, cafes, gardens, food and despite words of caution from our English colleagues, we found Parisians to be ever so helpful even though our ability to speak French was limited to 'Bonjour' and 'Merci'. This Paris trip (no doubt the first of many) had been planned at the last minute as Olie was required to travel there for training. It would have been unfair to leave Mei behind and soon a compromise was reached so we could experience Paris for the first time together. 

Paris - Travel Tips
Leaving the booking of a city break weekend to the week before you depart is definitely not a financially sound decision in Europe. Last minute transport and accommodation decisions rarely end up leaving you better off than had you planned the trip a few months before.

In addition, there were a few more travel learning points from this trip that we will carry forward with us. Firstly, ensure to scout out where the cheap hotels are located and determine whether the distance from the main tourist sites (and time required to change public transport lines) is really worth the financial savings. When you are only in town for 40 hours at most, you don't have time to waste waiting for trains and trying to negotiate your way through the confusing maze that is the Parisian Metro. So in short, do your research upfront and plan plan plan.

Which do you prefer - Left or Right Bank?

We also failed to take into account that the 'high' season in a particular destination may not just be the summer months of July and August. In Paris, the busy season is actually September where a period of time known as 'La Rentree' kicks off. This is the time when everyone returns from their 2 months of summer holidays, schools re-start for a new semester and the city comes alive as the temperature is milder and the gardens look very pretty with the varying shades of autumn leaves.

Lastly, if there is a chance that your travel plans may change (ie. us deciding to move Olie's train ticket a day earlier), we strongly advise buying the flexi ticket option. As the Eurostar fee on changing the train ticket to the day before was an eye watering escalation in price.

Gare du Nord Station
The Eurostar train journey from London ends at Paris Gare du Nord station. As this trip was our first time at this station, we were wandering around like a pair of lost tourists. Firstly, we made the mistake of following the 'Tourist Information' signs and ending up on the basement level swarming with hawkers trying to sell fake metro tickets and gypsies peddling scams. The basement area is not an ideal place to be stuck in line waiting to buy a metro ticket or outside the restrooms as you will be constantly harassed.

It was not a good impression of Paris from the beginning as we were frustrated by the time wasting gangs of teenagers hanging around asking each traveller multiple times to sign forms to donate money.  This is the entry point to a common scam, as once the naive tourist stops to read the questionnaire held by one gypsy, another gypsy will  attempt some sort of pick-pocketing trick, with Olie witnessing a woman having her bags opened up whilst she was distracted. Mei made the mistake of having money in her hand as she walked off, only to be pursued by the hawkers and a gypsy girl attempting to trip her up. We witnessed the gypsy gangs being chased out regularly by station security, only to return a few minutes later like seagulls swarming over food at the beach.

We tried buying our metro tickets using the machine but after queuing for 15 minutes, we only then realised that the machine was 'coin/card only'. As we did not have enough Euro coins, we headed back up to the platform level and decided to buy a croissant and coffee to get change. It was then that we realised that upstairs had 5 times as many ticket machines, a ticket counter with almost no queue and an absence of annoying gypsies - due to the Police stand. That discovery, plus the availability of a free map from the Tourist Information stand, allowed us to start our travel adventures on a more positive note.

La Parisienne Sporting Carnival
The day we arrived was perfect in terms of weather - blue skies, warm mid-twenties in temperature and felt better than a London summer! We had intended to stop off at our hotel to drop off luggage but after a wrong turn we missed the Metro stop and ended up at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The park around the Eiffel Tower was hosting a sporting carnival 'La Parisienne' that included a free picnic lunch for the general public. The opportunity was too good to be wasted - so we collected our jamon (ham) and gruyere cheese baguette, apple, carrot salad and sparkling water whilst enjoying a lazy view of the iconic structure.

Carnival atmosphere, squirrel hugging - 'La Parisienne' sports day

Free lunch for us

Women doing aerobics on a Saturday morning

Hotel Les Jardins d'Eiffel
Our hotel was located in the 7th Arrondissement, on the Parisian Left Bank. We found it by walking 10 minutes in the other direction that had led us to the Eiffel Tower. The reception personnel were friendly, spoke English (much to our relief) and were able to  provide a quick run-down of tourist spots within a short walking distance and the closest Metro station.

Basilique du Sacre Coeur
After dropping off our bags, we took the scenic route along the Seine towards Notre Dame. Halfway there, we changed our mind and decided to capitalise on the cloudless Autumn day and head to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur for great views over Paris. Jumping onto the metro, it was a short train trip to the Abbesses stop. We then walked up a few dozen stairs and a steep hill to reach the Roman Catholic church. Taking a short tour inside, we admired the decorative architecture and altar. We decided not to climb great Dome as we were already booked in to climb the Eiffel Tower the following day.

The Roman Catholic church

View over Paris from Sacre Coeur

Altar and inside of Dome - Olie ignoring the 'no photo sign'

Montmartre Market

On our way back down the hill, we walked through a small market place of artists and local craft stalls. Enjoying some fruit sorbet, we saw Police on bikes apprehending a group of gypsies and tearing up their cardboard questionnaires.

Market at Sacre Coeur

The laneways of Montmartre

Notre Dame Cathedral
At the bottom of Montmartre, we caught the metro for a 15 minute ride back to central Paris, exiting at the Assemblee Nationale stop.  From there, we continued our walk along the Seine towards Notre Dame, passing by the Grand Palais, Musee d'Orsay and Musee du Louvre. On this trip we didn't have time to visit any of the museums so they will fall into the 'to do' bucket for the next Paris trip. We reached Notre Dame Cathedral around 6pm but as it was early Autumn, there was still a lot of light in the sky. The Cathedral is located on an island connected by bridges across the Seine. It is famous for the French Gothic architecture and stained glass windows. We took a brief moment inside the cathedral where taking photos is permitted.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Statue outside the Cathedral

Parisian Prices
Fairly exhausted from our walk, we settled into a cafe around the corner from the Cathedral and paid an excessive amount for 2 pints of Carlsberg - 24 euro with a small bowl of pretzels. However, given that Paris comes with a reputation of not being cheap, it did surprise us that our pints were even more expensive than in the Scandinavian cities of Oslo and Copenhagen.

Dinner near Hotel de Ville
Seeking out some traditional French food for dinner, we walked along the Right Bank, past the Hotel de Ville and by accident, came across a cobblestone lane way full of restaurants.These hidden culinary gems tucked away in little streets reminded us of home, of Melbourne. But instead of bars and coffee shops, it was crepe sellers and cafes where Parisians and tourists sat for hours people watching. And whilst we were hunting for somewhere to eat, we established a criteria for determining which restaurant to pick. An English menu, steak (we had been told that the French do it the best) and escargot on the menu - as we did need to try eating snails at some point in life.

Hotel de Ville at dusk

Walking around many blocks, we found a place with very friendly staff and a queue of waiting patrons. Confident that its popularity meant that the food had to be good, we settled in for a 3 course meal where we relied on our friendly table neighbours to assist with translating each item on the dessert menu for us.

Olie eating escargots

Duck salad with foie gras

Paris by Night
From dinner we embarked on an ambitious journey to walk from the Notre Dame area to the Arc de Triomphe, just so Mei could witness the infamous roundabout. There was also the added attraction of seeing Paris by night. However, one good thing about not having access to Google Maps on this trip due to extortionate data roaming cost is that we didn't actually know how far a distance we were intending to walk.
Afterwards, we did recap our walk on Google Maps to show approximately 5.5km of urban trekking that had we known would be the distance, we would have just taken the metro.

A bridge over the Seine and moonlight

Street lamp, 3300 year old Luxor obelisk and
Eiffel Tower in the background

Exploring Paris by night is amazing and worthy of the title 'City of Lights'. Glowing street lamps, Christmas tree light dazzle on the Eiffel Tower on the hour and all the historic buildings like the Musee du Louvre with its scene from Da Vinci Code pyramid and the 3,300 year old Luxor Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde illuminated against the night sky.

Eiffel Tower spotlight

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Musee du Louvre outside

Musee du Louvre courtyard and full moon

Arc de Triomphe 
Walking up the Avenue des Champs Elysees, the Parisian nightlight became evident, with the big department stores still being open for shoppers at 11pm whilst nightclubs and cafes were busy with patrons. By around 11:30pm we reached the Place Charles de Gaulle - the intersection of 12 avenues where the Arc de Tromphe sits on the central island. We joined the tourists watching an amazing display of dare-devil driving as cars and motocycles (up to 8 deep) attempted to enter / exit a roundabout without any formal lane-ways. The zippy smart-cars were the most daring at heading for an exit on a straight diagonal from the inner-most lane, narrowly missing half-a dozen other cars.

Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile

Rue Cler
The next day, feet sore, we woke to a change in weather - rain; and a hunger for French pastry. The nearby street to our hotel - Rue Cler has a famous open market and is a traffic free street. We visited the local patisserie for quiche, then returned for cake - tropezienne and raspberry mille feuille munching away under the awnings of a closed coffee shop to keep out of the rain. From there, we walked along the lane-ways past butchers, cheese shops and stores dedicated to the production of colourful macarons.

Shoes made of chocolate

Cakes, macarons and pastries

Outside a shop dedicated to macarons

Breakfast - tropeszienne and raspberry mille feuille

Eiffel Tower
We had booked our tickets to the Eiffel Tower online to save us from waiting in the queue but we still had to wait patiently for the lifts inside the structure. Unfortunately the weather was quite windy, which meant our stay at the top viewing area was perhaps shorter than expected, but was definitely worth it.

View from the top - Sacre Coeur in the far left

The tomb of Napoleon

The Parisian Gardens

The Seine 

Champagne Bar

Looking down from the very top

Cafe Central, Rue Cler
The walk down of about 600 stairs from the Eiffel Tower helped us to develop an appetite. We went looking for a typical cafe style lunch and on Rue Cler we found Cafe Central (busy with locals) and snacked on a cured meat platter with dessert wine, traditional onion gratin, risotto and beef carpaccio.

Cured meat platter

Chicken risotto

Beef carpaccio

And then, almost 30 hours since we had arrived in Paris, it was time for Mei to say goodbye at Paris Gare du Nord and head back on the Eurostar to London whilst Olie had a couple more days to spend in his new favourite city.

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