Paris, the City of Lights and the beaut at the top of my bucket list, which, as of last week I got to tick off in an extremely Parisian fashion! I have visited France many times in the past but I am ashamed to say I never got to explore ole Paname, as much as I longed too! Well finally, that time came, and here’s what I got up to…
Day 1
After bagging a ridiculously cheap flight to Beauvais Airport (note to reader: Beauvais airport is actually an hours bus ride outside of the capital, but, bar the price of €34, it’s a pretty awesome service!) we arrived into Paris at around 4pm, stumbled across the Arc de Triomphe in all its glory and landed into our hostel in Montmartre by 5. Our hostel was on the doorstep of the Sacre Coeur so we spent the evening exploring and taking in the breathtaking views of the city we were about to conquer.
Montmartre itself is a total gem and it completely allured us for the evening as we rambled through it’s Parisian streets lined with beautiful brasseries, enticing eateries and as you venture closer to the Moulin Rouge, suffocating sex shops (!) – and since I was travelling with my brother, we pretty much spent the remainder of that walk peeing ourselves!
Day 2
Since it was ever so rainy that Sunday morning we decided the best place for us to go would be underground, so to the Catacombs we went! As it turns out, death tourism…it’s a real thing! We spent hours exploring the underbelly of Paris, the old quarries turned cemeteries which completely enchanted me with it’s tranquil atmosphere (yes, I know I sound like a complete freak!) – the last thing you would expect in a city of skeletons!
It was then we discovered the Velib…the Paris city bike scheme which I can honestly say we were all over like the plague! From there we cycled…and cycled….and cycled and it was glorious! No better way to get a goodfeel for a city than doing as the locals do, and all for the price of a coffee! And with landmarks like the Eiffel Tower it was actually impossible to get lost! We got there around lunch time, ate our free baguettes we “borrowed” from breakfast and began our ascent. Here’s the view from the first [glass] floor, 60m high in the sky:
Needless to say I was crapping myself the entire time…but we made it to the top and wow(!)…the views of the city were absolutely stunning and the 100km/hr winds added to that sense of “I might just die up here!!”
That evening we ate our weight in steak, drank our weight in delicious mouthwatering coffee (note: I don’t actually drink coffee but when in Paris!), cycled some more and topped it off with some french cinema at the Rex Theatre – a landmark of Art Deco Architecture (yes I’m a knob!).
Day 3
That morning after a hearty breakfast consisting of free baguettes & croissants from the hostel, we made our way to the nearest Velib stand and began to continue our cycling adventure around Paris. This time round we made our way in the general direction of the Champs Elysee where we stumbled across a full military honours for none other than Raul Castro – a pretty amazing stumbleupon no?! Then onwards and upwards along the Seine, waving at the Louvre & the Notre Dame as we cycled by! Our main port of call was the Pompidou Centre to fulfil my architecture perversion obsession, as memories from my uni years came flooding back!!
What seemed like days later, we were back on the saddle and decided to just cycle, cycle, cycle and see what we could discover (a favourite approach of mine)!! Through Le Marais & Belleville we rambled, areas that seemed “so Paris” were a treat to venture! Even stopping for some delicious dim sum (when in Paris?!) in Chinatown, to educate my brother on what real chinese food resembles! Evening came and since the weather was pretty crappy during the day, we decided to check out the Arc de Triomphe & Eiffel Tower in all their lit up glory! Sitting under the Arc de Triomphe…sharing a dragon fruit (!) which I got from the Asian supermarket, with my brother…was one of those very surreal, unpredictable moments of travel, those moments that makes you fall in love with travelling every single time!
Day 4
Our last day in Paris and I could not help myself falling back into work mode. Lucky for me, work mode meant spending the morning acting like a giant kid in the Cité de Sciences & de l’industrie – the biggest science museum in Europe! Getting in touch with my canine senses, exploring the beauty of our planet and dancing on a big arse piano (think Tom Hanks in Big) – we were in our element! No better way to say farewell before we had to ditch our bikes, metro it to the bus and leg it to the airport!
Paris felt different to any other major city I have experienced before, it completely won me over with its people, its language, its beauty and charm. The 4 days there were this incredible adventure, we covered some amount of ground and had some amount of unforgettable experiences, it really got into my veins…I’m hooked!
I’ve decided to keep it on the top of my bucket list for now, so I can keep going back for more!
this crow flies 