Travel Tips

I treated my fiance to three days in Paris for his milestone birthday. We flew over from Manchester, U.K. on a Monday morning though not as early as we expected. The flight was delayed over an hour and a half because of fog.... in Paris! There was also a transport strike so we weren't sure what we were going to be up against. Luckily the RER was running from the airport to Gare du Nord at least. The Metro and busses were actually still running, though on reduced services and best of all, all the transport was free! Bonus!

We stayed at the Welcome Hotel on the corner of Rue de la Seine and Boul. St. Germain in the 6th Arr. and it was a good choice. We didn't opt for breakfast in the hotel and instead chose several spots around the area for our morning repast. Our room was small as expected but not impossibly so. The lift very nearly was impossibly small!

We had a lovely lunch on our first day on Rue de Buci nearby and started walking.

On day one, after lunch, we walked to the river and across to Ile de la Cite. We walked around a bit and eventually arrived at Notre Dame. We went inside for a look and in spite of all the tourists walking around inside, it was quiet, dark and very tranquil. I say dark, but it might have been brighter inside had the sun been shining through the stained glass windows. The first two days we had gloomy weather though mostly it didn't rain.

We walked around Ile St. Louis after that, poking our nose into shops but mainly just window shopping. We picked up some sandwiches from a takeaway to bring back to the hotel for that night. Walk, walk, walk. My first blister had appeared by now and i was very footsore. We did make it back to the hotel in one piece and just relaxed that evening.

Second day dawned as overcast and gloomy as yesterday. We had a nice big breakfast at a nearby bar with omelets and coffee and tea and we sat outside! We could do that because this bar had an outside seating area that was enclosed in heavy plastic "walls" with heat lamps.

We walked over to the Louvre which was closed. It's Tuesday and it is not open then, but I knew that. I just wanted to look at the building and take some pics. We walked down into the Tuilleries a little way and then over to Musee D'Orsay.

After a wait in the line, when we had nearly got to the counter, we noticed a sign that said that the Impressionist galleries were closed in support of the strike. Found out later that in support of the transit strike, there was also a general strike that day. We didn't bother paying and going to the museum because we really were only interested in the Impressionist galleries.

We thought we might catch a Metro to the Musee Carnavalet instead but the train didn't show up and in the end, we walked over to Place Concorde thinking we could get a train from there. On the way, I had a ride on the Grande Roule though got a bit wet when it started raining.

We window shopped on Rue Rivoli and some of the designer shops along into Place Vendome. We didn't bother trying to get to Carnavalet in the end, and kept walking around after a quick lunch at a pizza place. We saw the Opera house which also didn't seem to be open, and went shopping in Galleries Lafayette.

From there, we took a bus to the Arc de Triomphe, also closed by the time we got there so we couldn't go up to the top. It was getting dark by now and we took photos and then hopped on another bus to go to the Eiffel Tower.

It was too cold and windy to go up but we took lots of photos from across the river and from right underneath it too. It's massive! Every hour on the hour for 10 minutes after dark until midnight, it sparkles with thousands of lights, like real fairy lights and is really beautiful. We saw that a couple of times this night as we had arrived just in time to see it go and then saw it as we were leaving, an hour later.

Waited for a bus that didn't come, stagged to a Metro. Waited there for quite some time but the train did come eventually and we had a late dinner at the restaurant by the hotel. Quite tasty!

Wednesday was finally a sunny day and we slept in and missed half the morning! We had a quick continental breakfast on Bl. St. Germain, picked up some stamps at a post office and then caught a bus to Montmartre where we did a lot more walking. (I ended up with four blisters on my feet in the three days). We got off the bus away from where we thought we should have been but just walked around the streets until we got to Metro Abbesses which is also near the funicular to Sacre Coeur. There was an old merry go round at the base which we stopped at for a look and then went up to the basilica. Funicular also free of charge.

We sat inside the Basilica for a few minutes. It's very tranquil in there too and a bit brighter than it was in Notre Dame. We walked back towards Place du Tertre where the artists all set up. There weren't too many today, it being late in the year but there were still a few. Some would approach you on the street, canvas under their arm and offer to paint or draw you. We declined politely.

One of the museums we wanted to see was Espace Dali, an exhibition of Salvador Dali's works. It's a small museum in Monmarte on Rue Poulbot mainly featuring some sculpture and etchings and prints. There weren't any of his paintings but the sculpture was interesting to see.

We also had a really lovely lunch at a little restaurant on Rue Poulbot called Le Poulbot. It was really charming and even the set lunch menu was quite good. Would definitely go back there again.

From there we walked a lot more thought the little narrow cobblestone streets of Montmartre, slowly working our way down the hill. We got a little turned around once or twice but eventually got to Place clichy after seeing the Moulon Rouge windmill.

Our second last stop in Paris is the Louvre. We went to the Wednesday evening opening, got there about 5 maybe or a bit later. It was a good time to go as there were no queues to get in and the galleries weren't too packed either. We didn't stay a long time, as we, me especially, were tired and had very sore feet. I found the museum map confusing and frustrating to try to find things. We mainly just stopped to see a small number of things, including of course Mona Lisa, the Winged victory and the Venus de Milo. We saw a few other galleries to and from there. You really have to have the stamina to tackle the Louvre, probably it wasn't a good idea to go at the end of a day where we'd been walking for miles it seemed.

After a rest and a drink to rehydrate, we went to our last stop.

Which was the river cruise on the Seine at night. We took the boats that go from the Pont Neuf. The price was ok but they don't take credit cards. The guide had a strong Eastern European accent so we couldn't make him out all the time. We sat up top for half the trip but it was quite chilly so sat inside the glass topped boat for the rest of it. It was a good cruise, though, and seeing all the major buildings lit up at night, including the Eiffel Tower which sparkled as we got to it, was magical!

After the hour long cruise, we walked back to the hotel, which wasn't too far and we stopped in a Chinese restaurant for our last meal.

On the Thursday, we took the Metro to gare du Nord where we were catching the Eurostar back to London, first class! They did a lovely brunch on board the train for the first class passengers, including drinks and champagne which we had since it was Graham's birthday on that date.

We'd love to go back and do more of Paris, maybe at a little slower pace this time. And go when there's not a transport strike! It didn't hinder us too too much but it would have been a bit easier at times had the metro or busses been running more frequently.