Okay, I'll admit it. I was not too sure how I would like Paris. I obviously wanted to go but I thought it would be super touristy and that it was hyped up a lot. Nick & I decided to go this past weekend since Tour de France was coming through and he's gotten into cycling so much. I'm so glad we did...I LOVED it. And seeing Tour de France circle the Arc de Triomphe was insane. We got an incredible view and it was well worth standing in the rain for an hour :)
So let's recap the weekend...[note i've added links in to some of the museums in the hope it will help others out!]
On Friday, we arrived in Paris right around 10pm. At the airport, we bought
Paris Museum passes...if you've never been to Paris and plan to go to at least 3 museums I would highly suggest doing this. It gets you into 50+ museums and there are 2, 4, and 6 day options. At most of the museums you can skip the line completely and some you can at least not have to buy a ticket since your pass is the ticket. It was a great idea & we are glad we purchased it! After leaving the airport, we immediately dropped our things off and headed to the Eiffel Tower for the 11pm light show. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but it definitely surpassed my expectations. It was so cool to just sit on the grass and watch the light show while sipping wine & eating cheese. It was very relaxing. We then headed to a local cafe for awhile before heading to sleep.
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| getting off the subway & it's the first thing I see! |
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| soooo beautiful <3 |
On Saturday, we headed over to the Marais area for a breakfast and then a walking tour [with
Paris Walks] at 10:30am. The walking tour was very interesting. It was focused on the part of Paris that is the oldest instead of all the top-sites / monuments. It was definitely an interesting way to start off the weekend and let us understand that Paris was not always the way it is today. We then headed to
Musée de l'Orangerie for the most insane Monet paintings I have ever seen. They were breathe-taking! I'm not even into art that much and I was truly awed by these. After that museum we went to
Musée d'Orsay [another museum that used to be an old train station]. Nick was much more interested in this one :) - but they still have some awesome Renoir's & Monet's that I really enjoyed. And of course the famous Van Gogh self-portrait is located there! After both museums, we were pretty exhausted so we went to a local cafe and grabbed some onion soup & the best champagne ever before heading to our next destination!
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weirdest looking urinal ever... i mean you can see in when you are walking by!
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| insane Monet's!!!!! |
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| heading into Orsay |
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| Van Gogh self-portrait |
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| the nice & bubbly :) :) |
After eating, we decided to venture up to Moulin Rogue. I can honestly say I do not know much about this part of Paris / Moulin Rogue in general unfortunately but it was very neat to see such a influential building! The line outside was insane to get into that night's performance. We then started our trek up to
Sacré Coeur: wow, wow, wow. It was soooo beautiful. We walked up and took some pictures then actually did the ascent up to the top as well. The view was magnificent. Afterwards, we trekked back towards the Eiffel Tower area and grabbed a delicious dinner at _____. I had salmon and Nick had some fatty steak (per usual). We got an excellent wine ! We walked / ran really fast to get on a the
Bateaux Mouches boat cruise afterwards. Paris by night with all the lights is sure a sight to see! I was so glad we made it on the boat because it is
well-worth it to see Paris this way! After this we were downright exhausted and headed back to our place to pass out.
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| Eiffel in the background! |
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| beautiful basilica!!! |
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| the doggy with the pacifier, hahaha! |
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| amazing salmon for a Parisian dinner! |
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| Notre Dame by night! |
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| Eiffel Tower by night in the beautiful light.... so gorgeous. |
On Sunday, Nick woke up early to get some pictures then I met him at the Eiffel Tower at 8am to grab our spots in line to go up to the top. Do not get discouraged if you cannot buy tickets online to get to the top of the tower - apparently they sell out months in advance. You can just go a bit early (it opens at 9am) and you are guaranteed to be at the front of the line. There was probably only 10 people in front of us and we were up at the top by 9:20am. The view is gorgeous and even though it was a bit of a rainy day you could still see so far and so many famous sites. After we finished at the Eiffel Tower we decided to go to Invalides and the
Musée de l'Armée (Nick's choice of course haha). This museum was basically a Napoleon museum and I was found sitting on many benches and just waiting on Nick... BUT... if you really enjoy that type of history you will absolutely love it. A lot of useful information and well worth the trip. Napoleon's Tomb is there so it's a nice touch to be able to see that. This is one that is also on the Paris Museum Pass! We grabbed a really interesting Moroccan lunch afterwards that turned out to be pretty good!
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| view from top of Eiffel Tower! |
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| Invalides! |
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| Napoleon's Tomb! |
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| with our Napoleon hats... |
We then headed to Arc de Triomphe to catch the Tour de France loop. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and it started pouring right when we found a place we wanted to stand and we had to go inside a local cafe for an hour to try and wait it out. Luckily, it stopped enough where it was tolerable to be outside and we got basically 2nd row seats to the most famous event in France. It was absolutely amazing to see the cyclists from so close so you'll have to excuse the millions of pictures I took! I have also included a video below!! We stayed way too long and Nick almost missed his flight back to Hamburg. Luckily, they put him in the emergency security line and he was through pretty quickly. After Nick left for the airport, I went to a local Italian restaurant and had a quiet, relaxing meal. I went back to the apartment for the night so I could rest up for Monday...by the way your legs REALLY start hurting after walking 12+ miles a day.
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| women's group doing their loop! |
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| nick looking insanely scary with his hood up haha |
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| we love cycling & rain! |
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| this guy clearly didn't realize his umbrella wasn't working....hahahha |
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| the loop!!!!! |
Monday came quickly and I really did not want to get out of bed but I knew it was my last day in Paris and I must take full advantage of it. I shall name Monday the "
when your husband leaves you in Paris and you must take many selfies" day. First stop was the infamous
Louvre. Nick had told me that even I (someone who is not into museums that much) could spend hours there and he was certainly correct. It is humongous and I was blown away by the variety and amount of pieces that were housed there. I saw the typical Mona Lisa of course as well as other famous pieces. But I also saw the underground ruins of the Louvre from medieval times as well as Napoleon's apartments. It was all in all a great experience and I would go back as there was a lot more I could see. I continued my day by taking the 2.25 mile walk up to the
Arc de Triomphe. Obviously, I had seen it the day before but we could not go up to the top so I decided to do this on Monday. There were even more amazing views. The walk up there itself on the Champs-Élysées was beyond gorgeous. There is a moment where you can do a 360 degree turn and see about 15+ famous sites. I would recommend doing the walk if you are physically able - it takes about 45 minutes at the speed I was going.
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| our little corridor going to our AirB&B! |
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| the Louvre! |
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| the Mona Lisa herself |
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| those Louvre selfies. |
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| view from top of Arc de Triomphe |
After leaving the Arc de Triomphe my legs were pretty much
giving out. I stopped for a quick lunch break before going by the AirB&B to grab my bag. I caught the subway up to the
Pantheon. I did not go in there but I took some beautiful pictures outside. I then walked up to see
Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. The views are incredible from the River Seine of the cathedral. I stood in line to get in and somehow sneaked past the security guard with my massive backpack [not on purpose] and apparently you aren't allowed to take "luggage" in. The inside was pretty {for the 5 seconds I saw it} but the line was pretty outrageous and this is one where the Paris Museum Pass doesn't help you since entry is free. If you have time feel free to stand in line but otherwise I think the outside suffices and is the best part. I got some incredible pictures and tried to take a few unsuccessful selfies {see below} - I walked around a bit more after this but I was so incredibly tired and it was about 5:30pm so I decided to go ahead and head to the airport even though I'd be a bit early.... I'm glad I did.... the stop where I was supposed to get on the train was closed for construction so it took me awhile to find another. The train was jam-packed and I legitimately saw a lady get stuck in the door...and last but not least our flight said "on-time" but no gate until about 10 minutes before the flight. Lots & lots of angry Germans walking around trying to figure out what was going on so I was not alone!
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| Pantheon! |
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| beautiful Notre Dame |
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| selfies with the cathedral ;) |
Paris was truly magnificent and I would definitely go back. Apologies for over-posting pictures on Instagram and Facebook but when you have 12372347 you want to post it just happens... haha. Hopefully, this blog will help you plan your trip to Paris and enjoy it to the fullest. Until next time.. xo!
P.S. I'd like to leave you with what it looks like in Hamburg on a typical day when you get caught in heaping amount of rain with nothing but a 5 year old Columbia rain jacket. Thanks Deutschland!
