Day 1. Sunday, 13th September.
Flight from Singapore to Paris via Dubai was 14 hours and 30 minutes with a 4 hour stop over in Dubai with Emirates Airlines. It was our first time flying with Emirates, the journey was smooth, the hostess were friendly, the food was good, movie selection great and we slept for predominately 3/4 of the flight.
We arrived into Paris Charles de Gaulle airport at 9.30am on Monday 14th September and caught a taxi to a real estate agency to pick up our keys for the Air BnB apartment we were staying in for 4 nights.
The apartment was not ready to checked in at 10am so we left our belongings at the agency and walked around the Odeon district and had lunch at Cafe des Paris. We ordered steak frites, unfortunately very average. My first disappointing meal in Paris but what did we expect its steak and frites!
Our gorgeous 1 bedroom apartment on the 1st floor was located in Odeon just a 1 minute walk from the main road and was ready to check into after 2pm. The windows had flower beds hanging off each window sill. It was a perfect apartment for our 4 nights stay.
A few hours later, we caught the metro and arrived at Montmarte around 7pm to catch the 7.56pm sunset at Sacre Coeur. There are great souvenir shops in this area, I bought a couple of cute aprons and tea towels. Walking up the stairs to Sacre Coeur was a nightmare as a group of Algerians were harassing us to buy their bracelets and grabbed our arms. I flew into a rage and demanded they leave us alone. The poor tourist are cornered quite badly in this area so please make sure to hurry to the top of the stairs and try to avoid these persistent men.
Entrance to Sacre Coeur Cathedral is free and open from 6am to 10.30pm. Access to the Dome is chargeable and there are 300 steps to climb. Unfortunately, the Dome was closed even though we had arrived before closing time at 8pm. This is one of the best locations to take in the view of Paris especially during sunset.
http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/english
We visited the Sacre Coeur Cathedral, took a few photos of the sunset and walked through the back streets and admired the buildings. We also passed by an area full of restaurants on the street across the road from the Dome entrance. Paris is a huge city so try to explore other areas other than just the main tourist spots. On our way back to the apartment we passed Moulin Rouge the famous cabaret theater.
We had a 9pm booking at an exquisite restaurant called La Perouse and literally just made it in time. La Perouse is a stunning restaurant established in 1766 with amazing interior and divine food situated by La Seine river. Very expensive restaurant but it was worth experiencing a bit of history. We were lucky to have a table in a private area on our own. I highly recommend a visit to this restaurant.
Day 2. Tuesday 15th September.
We woke early for our 8.45am – 1pm tour to Versaille and walked past Saint Michel district where the amazing Saint Michel monument stood then continued passed Notre Dame & Palais de Justice on Ile de la Cite, Chatelet district and down Rue de Rivoli where we met the tour bus at a tourist office.
Our Versaille guided tour was $230.59 Aud for 2 adults for the morning tour and the duration was approximately 4 hours. I booked our guided tour a few months prior to the trip with Local Paris Tours online. The tour was great and very informative. Versaille is such a magnificent place with its gorgeous foundation, gardens, fountains, tapestries, chandeliers and venetian mirrors.
http://www.localparistours.com/versailles-tours
Chateaux Versaille was originally a Hunting Lodge in 1623. King Louis XIV redesigned Versaille to a Royal Palace in 1678 with its fabulous gardens, fountains and extended rooms. Versaille was built for the survival of the monarchy and he reigned for 72 years as the King of the sun.
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage
After a fabulous morning in Versaille, the drive back to Paris was 40 minutes. James friend Antonio originally from Sydney caught the Eurostar from London to meet us. We met Antonio on the Rue De Rivoli and already had our tickets to visit Les Invalides. On our way down Rue to Rivoli we stopped at Pauls boulangerie and picked up some delicious baguettes. Pauls boulangerie has always been a favourite of mine.
http://www.paul.fr/en/3-our-products/
Louis XIV built Les Invalides for the military, it was both a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans. Now Les Invalides is a military museum site for some of France’s war heroes. Napoleon Bonaparte is also buried at this museum. The walk to Les Invalides is quite long from Rue de Rivoli but we accepted the challenge. Along the way we admired Le Printemps and the shopping district, Le Madelaine and Le Opera. By the time we arrived at Le Opera our feet or should I say my feet were pooped so we hopped in a taxi down La Place De La Concorde with Les Invalides right in front of us. La Place De La Concorde is a very busy intersection and always fascinates me.
Les Invalides is open from 10am – 6pm. Our tickets cost $44.70 Eur / $66.51 Aud for 3 adults with entry to the Dome and army museum including the virtual reality interaction. We had ticket issues trying to get into the Dome and were told our tickets were invalid. We found it to be quite amusing that our tickets were “invalid” at “Invalides”. After some persistence from me the staff eventually allowed us entry and we were able to enjoy the virtual reality tour. Les Invalides is a lovely photo spot too with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/coming-to-the-museum/opening-times-and-prices.html
After an hour or two unwinding back at our apartment with Antonio, we caught a 10 minute taxi ride to Nuba restaurant bar club in Austerlitz. The outdoor area of Nuba was great and the restaurant casual but the club was too early to enter. After a few drinks at Nuba a friend of Antonio’s suggested we go to La Costes Hotel and off we went.
WOW, WOW and WOW!! What a spectacular hotel, bar, and restaurant. I fell in love with La Costes Hotel the moment I walked into the doors. This hotel definitely represents what Paris was and is. Spectacular! You really need to know where to go in Europe. Googling is great but to find a place like this one needs to be told.
A host took us to the bar whilst we waited for our table. A very busy bar with delicious cocktails. A couple of cocktails later a host took us to our table where we passed by several rooms at full capacity. A place I could only imagine seeing in a movie. The rest of the evening was a blur as the alcohol started to take full effect and I found myself practically falling asleep on the table. Not the way I wanted to finish a night in Paris. After a lovely meal we said goodbye to Antonio whom we had such a fun day with and headed back to the apartment.
https://hotelcostes.com/#/en/costes/22/restaurant-bar/23/restaurant-terrace/
Day 3. Wednesday 16th September.
I woke with a pretty nasty hangover thank goodness for paracetamol.
As it turned out I had left my canon camera at La Costes restaurant. Thankfully the restaurant confirmed they had it so we booked a reservation for the following evening.
We planned a day at the Louvre, the walk was approximately 20 minutes via Pont Neuf (a bridge). Le Louvre is one of my favourite museums in the world full of amazing artworks, statues and lots of history. We gained easy access to Le Louvre with our pre-paid tickets via the Le Louvre website and picked up our tickets at FNAC the day before on our way to Les Invalides. 2 adult tickets cost $33.20 Eur /$48.73 Aud. Be prepared to spend quite possibly a whole day here or an average or 4-5 hours. Definitely time well spent otherwise why come to Paris.
After a fantastic day of art and history, we caught the metro at Palais Royal Musee de Louvre to Boulevard Haussman for shopping. The metros are easy to understand and the journey quick. We usually tried to find a metro where we did not have to change trains several times and remain on the same line. Shopping is great at Le Printemps, we shopped for a couple of hours then rushed back to the apartment for sunset.
http://departmentstoreparis.printemps.com/store/haussmann/
We arrived at La Seine just in time for sunset and took pictures of the Notre Dame and managed to buy tickets for a Batobus cruise on La Seine at 8pm. I highly suggest you book a sunset cruise, Paris is so pretty at night.
La Seine cruise options: –
- Batobus – http://www.batobus.com/en/timetables.html
- Vedettes du Pont Neuf – http://vedettesdupontneuf.com/cruises/
- Bateaux Mouches – http://www.bateaux-mouches.fr/en/cruise
We unfortunately skipped our fabulous dinner reservation at Terrass rooftop restaurant for the Batobus cruise and had no idea where to go so we wandered the streets of St Michel and discovered so many local restaurants. We dined at Le Latin, it was a simple restaurant but the cheese fondue was delicious. There are so many restaurants in this area that it is so hard to choose.
Day 4. Thursday 17th September.
Our morning began bright and early at the Notre Dame Cathedral where we spent at least 1 hour or more marvelled at this amazing Cathedral. Once inside there is a display that shows you how the Cathedral progressed over the years from 1163 to each decade. Very impressive.
http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/spip.php?rubrique2
After a very enlightening morning, we walked towards St Germain Des Pres where all the high-end stores are. I have loved Princess Tam Tam since 1998 and purchased some items on this trip. Every woman should pay a visit at a Princess Tam Tam.
http://www.princessetamtam.eu/eu/stores.aspx
We continued our walk to the Eiffel Tower via the back streets which took approximately 50 minutes if you do not include the shopping stops. The ticket box was quite busy, normally we would have prepaid tickets but this time we thought we would chance it.
At this stage we were quite hungry so we headed over to the Trocadero district across from the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed lunch at a restaurant I have dined on a previous trip called Le Coq. The restaurant was super busy but the service was still good. All our dishes were delicious and the quantity substantial not like in Sydney.
The remainder of the afternoon we spent at my favourite art gallery the Musee D’Orsay. Our Musee D’Orsay tickets were purchased online a few months prior for 2 adults at 25.40 Eur /$37.28 Aud. The Musee D’Orsay art is impressive therefore please make sure to allocate approximately 3 hours.
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/visit/admission/ticket-purchase.html
Our final evening in Paris was spent back at Hotel Costes bar and restaurant. We loved the amazing atmosphere here. The restaurant gave me a true indication of what it could have been like in Paris in the past.
Day 5. Friday 18th September.
Our final morning we left the apartment bright and early at 7am and walked the left side of the river bank all the way to the Eiffel Tower. Not far away from the Eiffel Tower we walked passed Les Invalides and the Australian Embassy on Promenade D’Australie and continued down to the garden surrounding the Eiffel Tower and Le Trocedero area. After 30 minutes of admiring the magnificent Eiffel Tower we walked to L’Arch Triomphe on the Champs D’Elysee with a stop at a delicious French bakery. The croque monsieur and pastries were to die for. Sadly, our journey in Paris ended here on the Champs D’Elysee.
Since my childhood I have been drawn to Paris. My great grand parents were from Paris on my father’s side and I see why I have such a strong connection to this amazing city full of history. I love the people, food, history and art. A city and country I will never forget.
Next stop Paris to Ibiza coming soon.
christinetravels 