Our Paris travel story...
We arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord at the beginning of June, after taking the train from London. Our hotel was near Gare de Lyon, and since it was fairly close, I decided against my husband's advice, to take the Paris Metro (subway) from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon. I made sure and double-checked with the information desk the directions and which sub we were getting on and proceeded to the platform.
I have to say that while waiting, we felt somewhat wary about the people around us (it’s pretty well-known that Paris is a hub for pickpocketing). Keeping our carry-on luggage close to us at all times, we watched the timetables for the right subway. Once it arrived we saw that it was packed. We tried to squeeze in as the next one was not coming for another 15 minutes and it was getting into rush hour. There was an announcement over the speakers but I couldn't hear it clearly, due to the static as well as the accent. No one around us moved so I figured it wasn't anything important. With my poor knowledge of French, I kept my ears pierced and heard the conductor speak numbers and something about the route being canceled. That's when people began getting off and rushed towards a different platform.
We followed the crowd when I saw the number and direction we were going to posted on another platform and rushed towards it. We literally got pushed in by the crowd behind us, and we barely had any room for ourselves, not to mention our luggage. It was devastatingly hot in the subway car and in minutes the sweat started rolling down our bodies. The ride was super crowded and uncomfortable, and we were soaked by the time we got off. Lesson learned to listen to my husband; a piece of advice for your next trip there - maybe don’t use the subway in Paris to avoid our experience.
It took us a few minutes to figure out how to get out of the train station, as it had multiple exits and none of the streets shown on the map was the one we needed. Finally, I picked an exit as I felt I was suffocating with heat (there was no air in there), and we ended up right at the corner we needed. We found our hotel, checked in, showered, changed our clothes, and like we did in all the other cities we visited previously, we immediately went out exploring.
Our hotel was by the river, about 30 minutes walking distance from Notre Dame. Since it was still early (we avoided going out in the dark), we decided to walk along the Seine towards the cathedral.
As we all know, Notre Dame is under construction. The area is heavily protected by military and/or police at all times. When we got there on our first day in Paris, the cathedral was fenced off, and we could see very little of it. Despite this, there were plenty of curious crowds, and after a few snaps and buying an overpriced bottle of water from a cafe next to the cathedral (walk a street over and the price will be cut in half), we headed back to our hotel.
The next day, we decided to head to Sacre Coeur, but because we missed following the exact directions, we got lost (at which point we saw different sides of Paris), and in turn, arrived at Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
This is one of the most visited places in Paris as it’s where the graves of famous names like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Honore de Balzac (my favorite teen-years writer), Frederic Chopin, and many others are located. The cemetery is quite big, and because it was beginning to sprinkle, we decided to leave without visiting the aforementioned graves.
Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
On our way back we came across Rue Cremieux, possibly, the most colorful street in Paris. It has become another famous “Insta-worthy” place that makes you feel as if you’re somewhere else (I thought of Rome, Italy while there).
Rue Cremieux, Paris
We got there around mid-afternoon, and at the time, I had no idea it was so popular (after all, we stumbled upon it by chance), as we found a quiet street with only a small family taking photos there. And yes, the colorful rows of buildings were a pleasing sight in an otherwise neutral-colored architecture surrounding it.
Travel days were always the most tiring for us, no matter how close or far we traveled. Since we were still a bit tired from the day before, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening taking it easy by having dinner at our hotel restaurant and watching movies.
The next morning we headed towards Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, as for the next two days we had reservations at the Louvre and D’Orsay museums.
We once again walked along the Seine to our destination; I have to say that pretty quickly the Seine became our favorite part of the city. The air was warm and sticky and we thanked the clouds covering the sun, as it wasn’t exactly all that pleasant being outside.
The Eiffel Tower was enclosed with glass walls, and we had to wait in line to go through security before entering the area. Since we didn’t have tickets, we found the appropriate line and waited about 30 minutes before going through security; we had our personal belongings screened and went through the metal detectors before being allowed into the monument area.
Our visit to the Eiffel Tower was disappointing though. There were several long queues throughout the area and it took us a while to understand which queue was for what: elevators, stairs, and so on… After figuring out what we wanted, we joined the line, only to be yelled at by the staff that the tower was closed and it was useless to form queues. We tried asking why and for how long the tower was closed but were ignored - frankly, the staff was quite rude. Frustrated, we walked away as the line began to disperse. We were walking around when it was posted on the screens that the next available time to get to the top of the tower was 3pm… mind you, it was before 2pm at that time. As soon as the time was announced, people rushed to form queues again to purchase tickets. We managed to get in a line with about 7 people in front of us, only to have the person ahead call over 20 people - not kidding, and all of a sudden we were way behind. Note: the top of the tower allows a limited number of visitors at a time.
Completely annoyed at this, we gave up and left - I really didn’t want to spend up to a whole day to “climb” the Eiffel Tower, sorry. And before you say that we should have bought tickets in advance, I would have if we didn’t have to select a specific hour and date, which was tough to determine for us at the time. And no, I don’t regret not going up.
As we left the Eiffel Tower, we crossed the river towards Jardins du Trocadéro which offers much better views of the tower, several fountains, as well as a nice area for picnics. Needless to say, this is another popular place in Paris, as you might have seen photos of it all over Instagram.
From Trocadero Gardens we continued towards Arc de Triomphe and once we got there, we witnessed the craziest of traffic we have ever seen.
The Arch is in the middle of a roundabout, and since there are no lane markups, the traffic crisscrosses from all directions - I was terrified watching it.
Arc the Triomphe, Paris
It might not look like it from the photos but the monument itself is huge and the architectural details are impressive. You can climb to the top for a fee to see beautiful views of the city, but we decided not to and proceeded to walk on the famous Champs-Elysees.
At first glance, it didn’t look any more special than other streets, but once exploring it, you notice that this looong avenue is full of luxury shops, shopping areas, as well as restaurants, and usually packed with people.
Strolling, we ended up in Place de la Concorde, a square that houses two gorgeous fountains as well as an Egyptian Obelisk, which is well over 3000 years old. Fun fact: well, not so fun… the square where Place de la Concorde now stands used to be an execution site before it was redesigned into what it is today; Marie-Antoinette was among some of the people executed there.
From the square, we continued to the Tuileries Garden, a place I am sure you have seen all over the internet and, especially on Instagram.
The park was beautiful, I have to admit, but the dirt paths, covered in tiny pebbles mixed with the breeze, were getting on my nerves, clothes, and shoes. At that time, we saw dark clouds heading our way and decided to go back to the hotel in hopes of avoiding the rain as, from our experience, when it rains in Paris, it pours.
We walked by the Louvre as we were set to visit it the next day, towards the Seine, which became our “guide” as far as following directions.
Louvre Museum, Paris
We made it back just in time before it began pouring, and because the rain went on and on, we cozied up in our room for the rest of the evening.
Gare de Lyon, Paris during a rainstorm.
