Virgina Hotel

Paris, The City of Lights

I had always dreamed of visiting Paris more so than any other place in the world, so for me excitement had struck.

Before leaving for Europe I had already planned every metro route, where we would be purchasing our Paris Museum Pass’s, the itinerary for each day. In our short time I wanted to do it all, from the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre, to stuffing my face with the pastries and macaroon’s, shopping and walking on every bridge, just immersing myself in this city. I never imagined how amazing this city was. So here’s how it went…

Since Air France was on strike our only option was a much later flight making us lose out on the day and arriving around 10:00pm at Paris Orly airport. We were staying in Montparnasse which was only 15 minutes away luckily. Flying into Paris at night is an experience, the aerial view of the city and the Eiffel tower lit up was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous. Even driving to the Hotel Virgina was exciting when you catch glimpses of the lit up tower. The hotel was lovely and very quaint. We were off to bed as it was going to be an early morning trying to fit in everything with the time we had lost.

Montparnasse is a lovely part of Paris to stay in. It didn’t feel touristy and our hotel was located down the street from the metro making it extremely easy to reach any part of Paris. The breakfast at the hotel was not too great, just a croissant, bread rolls, cereal and yoghurt.

I had read that the lines to go to the to of Notre Dame were crazy so we ended up there around 9:00am with about 15 people in front of us queuing for the 10:30am opening. The walk to the top of the 400 odd stairs felt like it would go on forever but it was so worth it! Wow this was our first view of the whole of Paris. It could not have been more fantastic. After our awe we headed downstairs to the visit the inside. The vibe inside is eery and quiet. As we headed out we stopped to take a look at point zero. The point from which every distance in Paris is measured. We then visited the archaeological crypt which is the spot where the city began.

As we came out we we were approached by gyspies who asked if we spoke English… Ofcourse we said no… We subsequently watched at they managed to pick pocket another couple. They had vanished by the time we saw the couple digging in their bags and trying to locate the direction of the gypsies… Pretty sad.

We headed back to the hotel for a bit of a break and had lunch at a corner restaurant near the hotel. We had to save up all our energy as we would be tackling the mighty Louvre next.

We entered through the Carrousel entrance… A quick moving queue through security, an bypassed the ticket lines due our passes. We spent 4 hours in the Louvre and made sure to see all the ‘must sees’ on the guide map. We started off visiting the ancient Egyptian section, moved on to Greek, middle east, renaissance, and the Napoleon apartments. Wow was it exhausting but thoroughly fascinating.

We exited the Louvre and walked through Tuileries which was still blooming with flowers. We checked out the obelisk, Place de la Concorde and decided it was time to take a break.

In the evening we made our way to the Arc du Triomphe and walked up another 300 odd steps in a winding spiral to the top. The view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower made it worth every step.

Well after that day we slept like babies for sure.

Another early morning, the first stop was going to be the Pantheon. We strolled around Jardin du Luxumburg before heading there.

The exterior and interior of the Pantheon was another ‘WOW’ moment. We visited the crypts below, kind of scary but I don’t think it could compare to the catacombs (which I was not prepared to visit).

By midday we caught the metro to Montmarte to got off and walked to the Montmarte Teleferic which takes you to the top of Sacre Couer, luckily as the weather in Paris was surprisingly hot and humid. We were shouted at in Sacre Couer as we were thought to be the ones taking pictures, turns out everyone was taking pictures after they passed security.

Back at the bottom we did some touristy shopping on the Montmarte streets and I eventually tried a nutella and banana crepe… All I can say is that it smelled of egg and did not live up to the deelish expectation.

Finally we had saved the best for last, the trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We made a brief stop at Galleries Lafayette where the only thing we could possibly afford were Pierre Herme macaroon’s :p

We arrived at Trocadero as the sun was setting and the first sparkle of the tower began. We began walking to the tower and all you can think is OMW. The line to enter was not so bad. It took us about 20 minutes to buy the tickets, pass security and enter the elevator. We went up to the top first and viewed Paris in all it’s lit up glory. The wait to go back to the second level was a bit excruciating. Once we had reached the second level if felt as though we had it all to ourselves with the odd person walking by. We relaxed on a bench and ate our macaroon’s. The passion fruit and chocolate flavour was amazing.

Back to the bottom of the Tower and a short walk to the Seine. We took a boat cruise to say good bye to Paris and tried to capture each and every sight… We would be leaving the next morning 😦

Even though I did not get to see and do everything I planned on doing, I found Paris to be a little piece of heaven!