After London, our next stop was Paris!
I mentioned in my London blog post that our Eurostar train from London to Paris was so delayed. Instead of arriving around 7pm, we arrived after 10pm at Paris Gare du Nord. It was a gloomy welcome to Paris but we decided to walk to our Airbnb rather than take the metro.
Since we were delayed, our Airbnb host was quite grumpy at us but it was understandable as we were hours behind schedule. We were so happy to finally be in Paris though! I’ll share our accommodation later but we were in the 2nd arrondissement and we had a view of Porte Saint-Denis, a historical arch landmark. It was so late and we haven’t had dinner yet so we quickly walked down, grabbed a kebab from a shop nearby and went to bed. It was such a long and exhausting travel day.
Day 1
This was our first full day in Paris and we packed a lot in. We had the Louvre Museum booked in the morning so we walked there, grabbed coffee on the way and waited in line.
I don’t have words to explain how I felt seeing the huge scale and beautiful architecture in Paris and the Louvre. This square around the Louvre is massive and it was fascinating watching people while waiting in line. There were a few photoshoots especially wedding/engagement shoots.
The Louvre is absolutely massive and we didn’t really have a specific plan when we got inside. I know some people rushed to see the Mona Lisa but we just went with the flow and walked around.
Eventually, we did end up in the room where the Mona Lisa is. I’ve watched videos of people talking about their experience so I kinda knew what to expect but the Mona Lisa is indeed tiny and tbh, underwhelming for me. The other paintings in this room were more impressive to me but I’m glad we still got to see it as close as possible. The line wasn’t too long when we came and we got up to the front pretty easily.
I wish I can remember which painting this was but the one above was probably one of my favourite paintings in the museum.
Whilst we didn’t have a specific exhibit or part of the museum in mind, the Napoleon III Apartments was something I wanted to check out once I looked at the map. It was on the other end of the building and it took a while for us to find it.
It was worth the walk though! Napoleon III’s Apartments were amazing. I love the chandeliers and how opulent it was. It was probably my favourite area of the museum.
The Petite Galerie is my next favourite part and it was towards the end of our visit. I think we spent 4 hours in the Louvre. There was so much more to see but at that point, we wanted to head out and explore outside.
Besides our booking for the Louvre entry, we didn’t have anything else planned for the day so we just ended up walking towards Saint Germaine.
We then ended up at Luxembourg Gardens. This is such a beautiful garden and the building behind is the Luxembourg Palace which is a government building. There were chairs around the garden so we ate snacks and watched the boats in the pond/fountain. We stopped by a Monoprix and Max found a flan for €1 and enjoyed eating it in the park.
After our rest, we walked towards the Pantheon. We didn’t go inside but sat down the steps and admired the buildings around us. We walked further north and walked past the Latin Quarter. We stopped for lunch too as I was getting hungry. You’d think I’d get some pastries while in Paris but I was craving Asian food so we had Japanese food! Haha
Then we ended up seeing the Notre Dame Cathedral. Due to the fire, it is under construction so we only admired from afar. It was good seeing it from Petit Pont – Cardinal Lustiger bridge anyway.
We’ve been walking all day so after checking out a few streets, we walked back home to our Airbnb. We rested for a little bit but I wanted to go back out to check out some vintage stores. There were a few close by but we actually ended back to the shops under the Louvre which we struggled to find on the map.
I didn’t end up getting anything from the vintage stores but we stumbled upon Jardin du Palais-Royal during our walk. We ended this afternoon stroll by getting gelato at Amorino.
We went to FrenchParadox Canard & Champagne for dinner. It was recommended to me by my friend as she noted they do ‘eat all you can’ chocolate mousse. I love chocolate mousse so that convinced me.
Dinner at Canard & Champagne was delicious. Canard is duck so we had two different duck dishes. Max had the burger and I got the confit. I chose the better dish that night. The chocolate mousse was also delicious but we were so full so we only had one bowl. Today ended up being a massive walking day so we strolled back home and crashed.
Day 2
This day started a bit later than our first day. We ended up walking towards Boulevard Haussman until we reached Galeries Lafayette.
Paris buildings are truly beautiful but the inside of Galeries Lafayette is breathtaking. I didn’t even care too much about the shopping, although I did browse and ended up with my first Paris purchase at Hermes beauty. The ceiling of this building is next level. It’s probably one of my favourites. It’s the prettiest department store I’ve ever been in.
The rooftop of Galeries Lafayette also has a viewing platform that’s free to the public. It has a great view of the city.
After a lot of walking and a quick sushi stop along the way, we made it to the Eiffel Tower. We went through and Place de la Concorde and that was such a busy and chaotic roundabout!
Honestly, at this point of the day we’ve been walking so much that I was exhausted and a bit grumpy. We just ended up sitting down by Jardin d’enfants to rest our feet, eat our Pierre Hermé macarons and drink Orangina. It was a hot summer day in Paris so it was nice to be in the shade.
Despite being so tired, the photo on the left above is one of my favourite photos of us. It was so cool getting to experience Paris with Max. He’s been before but because it’s my first time, he went to the touristy spots with me.
So during our rest on the grass with the view of the Eiffel Tower, I decided to look up how to take the metro to our next destination, Arc de Triomphe. We had to be there mid-afternoon and I couldn’t bear the 30-40min walk there. We’ve walked so much already that I don’t think my feet would’ve survived that.
After 1 day and a half and and probably 50k steps in, we finally took the metro by Trocadero! Max was a bit weary of the metro and I was too after seeing people’s experiences on social media. However, our experience of the metro was pretty good and we finally realised how convenient and easy it was! We took the metro to Arc de Triomphe and made it to our booking in time.
I loved the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a beautiful and iconic arch in the middle of a chaotic roundabout. A roundabout, no one should dare cross! You get to the middle of it by an underground walkway. The arch is pretty massive if you’re standing under it. We climbed up and after a lot of stairs, we finally reached the top.
The photo on the left is one of the amazing views from the top of Arc de Triomphe. I loved seeing the different streets/avenues and how green the city is with the tree-lined streets. The photo on the right is the staircase to go back down. It is slightly dizzying but the climb/walk down was worth it. We both really enjoyed our experience and viewpoint from here.
Afterwards, we took the metro back home to rest before going out again for dinner. For dinner, we took the metro again and headed to Montmartre.
We were recommended Sacrée Fleur Restaurant by Max’s boss. He lived in Paris for a bit and loved this restaurant. It’s a small restaurant so it’s best to have a booking.
We got the escargot (snails cooked in cream and calvados). This was my first time trying escargot and it was yum! Then for mains, Max decided we could tackle 1kg of beef! It was absolutely massive and came with fries and sauces. We were so full but of course we had to get some dessert. We shared the crème brulée and it was also delicious. Overall, this dinner was awesome!
We had to walk off our massive dinner so we ended up at Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre. We saw this church up on the hill from Arc de Triomphe rooftop and it felt so far away then. It was great we managed to visit it. It is free to go inside but I didn’t take many photos.
We took a leisurely walk down to the metro station and stumbled upon more beautiful buildings. Montmartre is such a charming area/district. We then came back home and called it a day. Days 1 and 2 in Paris were a lot! We killed our feet on these two days.
Day 3
This was another full day for us but we didn’t spend it in Paris. This was the day we explored Palace of Versailles. I’m going to save our Versailles experience in the next blog post because it deserves a separate post and this is already too long. It’s also 19km west of Paris so it’s outside it anyway. I’ll explain how we got there and what we got up to in the next blog!
When we got back to our Paris Airbnb after Versailles, I left Max to have a nap as it was a huge day of walking again and I ventured out by myself.
I checked out a few vintage stores. Bobby’s secondhand store was the one I found the most designer pieces in. I still didn’t buy anything but I enjoyed looking at different stores.
I did end up getting a few things from the French pharmacy though! We badly needed compeed blister pads and throughout our entire trip, we spent a fortune one these! I also got some melatonin and A313 skincare that I’ve seen viral on Tiktok. French pharmacies are so generous with samples!
For our last dinner in Paris, we had Japanese food. Yes I know, we were in Paris but I need rice and Asian food. We love Japanese food and it was also close by. We didn’t want to walk far from our place because our feet were sore. This was a nice easy meal after another big day. We then came back to pack our luggage and rest. The sun set around 10:30pm when we were there so the days felt so long and it was nice to chill back home after a whirlwind few days in Paris.
Day 4
This was our last day in Paris and we only had half a day. We packed all our stuff and checked out of our Airbnb.
We then headed to Paris Gare de Lyon. We also met up with two of Max’s workmates who happened to be in Paris too. They arrived the day we were leaving but it was nice to see some familiar faces from home. We chilled at Patty and caught up with each other before rushing to the train station. I thought we were going to miss our train to Lyon! Thankfully we didn’t and Lyon is going to be another blog post and one I’m really excited to write about.
Paris Airbnb
As I mentioned above, our Paris Airbnb is in the 2nd arrondissement. When we were looking for accommodation, we had certain things we wanted. Our London hotel didn’t have a washing machine so we wanted our next place to have one so we can do our own laundry. We somehow missed that it didn’t have air-conditioning in the listing BUT thankfully we were fine. It was hot in Paris when we were there but it got cooler at night time. I think because we were up on a few levels, the apartment wasn’t boiling hot at night. We got by with the fan so that was lucky.
The place was small but it was what we needed for a few nights in the city and we were basically out and about during the day anyway. We didn’t eat there or cook meals so we just needed a washine machine, place to sleep and shower.
The area we were in was an interesting one. Close enough to tourist spots that they’re walkable but it’s not in the fanciest area. It was still pretty good though and we were close to 2 metro stops! There’s a metro stop right in front and there were many food places nearby too. It was also handy to have a Coccinelle supermarket across the road.
I loved waking up and opening the windows to the view and listening to the chaos of the traffic down below. This Paris Airbnb was around $125NZ per person, per night so for the price, it was pretty good. The building had a lift too so yay to not bringing our luggage up the stairs!
Overall, for my first time in Paris, we ticked off quite a lot of spots. We overdid the first 2 days but we managed and it was pretty amazing. We did as much as we could on the limited time we have. Paris is a beautiful city. I do think it’s overhyped though. It’s been so romanticised by TV, movies and social media but it is another city. There are so many beautiful buildings and areas but it’s also loud and busy. I’m so glad I got to experience it and next time I’m in Paris, I’d love to have a more leisurely time.
Before I end this post, here are other random thoughts from our Paris travels:
- No one sells ice or ice cold drinks in Paris! It was so hot on day 2 that we wanted ice and ice cold drinks from the supermarket but there were none of them! It was so annoying.
- I didn’t have good coffee in Paris so I basically stopped drinking coffee.
- The metro was not as scary as we thought! We were vigilant BUT we didn’t feel unsafe when we took the metro.
- French are known to be rude especially to tourists but we honestly had a good experience with French people! I highly recommend greeting them in French first. We had lovely experiences during our Paris stay (besides our grumpy Airbnb host after being delayed). I guess we expected the worst but everyone was nice to us.
- the Eiffel Tower is an iconic landmark in Paris but it wasn’t the most impressive to me. It’s a tall steel building and is a stark contrast to the heritage buildings around. We opted out of going up the tower and I don’t regret this at all. I’m glad we chose going up Arc de Triomphe instead.
- I forgot to add this in my London post but we got an EE sim card at the London airport that we thought would last us the entire Europe trip but nope, we had to topup once we got to Paris and it was so frustrating! EE was a scam and we don’t recommend getting this sim card as it only worked for London! It was not cheap too.
That’s all I have for Paris! If you made it this far, thank you! Tbh, I don’t expect people to read my travel posts. I write these posts to save my memories and photos and it’s an added bonus if people read and enjoy it. The next one will be on Versailles. 🙂
Europe Trip blog post links:
My Paris Tiktoks:
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