paris day 1
Sorry in advance for the long post! Lots to see in a short about of time means lots to share!
As I mentioned in the last post, just a weekend in Paris was a little overwhelming and intimidating! In just the Louvre alone, you could supposedly spend three months without seeing everything! To plan Paris, I started with some basic "Top 10 Things to See in Paris" kinds of lists online and on Pinterest. From there, I considered travel time to and from different places, costs, and entry hours to come up with our final itinerary. It was originally planned down to the minute, including travel time to and from different sights. We didn't follow the itinerary religiously, but having it as a guide helped us to stay aware of time, know where to begin, and make an efficient route around the city.
Originally, we had planned to go into Paris, the city, on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, we were going to just go up to Sacre Coeur and get crepes before going to the airport. Somewhat last-second, we changed to allow a day at Versailles on Sunday. This meant we only had one day in the city, but we got to see more of France that way.
We didn't use any public transportation in Paris, only because from our location (we stayed at the Orly airport), it was actually cheaper and much faster to take a taxi. We could have caught a train from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower, but the trip took about an hour and was 12 euros a person, so we took a cab with an airport flat-rate, got there in half the time, and spend 35 euros. In the city, we walked everywhere so that we could see more above the ground, considering that we only had one day.
Eifel Tower
We left the hotel around 8:15 on Saturday morning and were at the Eiffel Tower well before 9. The structure is pretty fascinating! We did not take the time to go up, but we got there at the perfect time to get some good shots and take it in without mobs of people around us.
River Sienne
It's hard to miss the Sienne while walking around Paris, but we took it in while walking from the Eiffel Tower to our first museum stop. Since it was Saturday morning, lots of people were out on the river working out in groups- we saw kickboxing, runners, walkers, and there were even pull up bars to do more cross-training style workouts! It felt like a real Paris experience!
Musée d'Orsay
We had time to take in one art museum. The museums are pretty expensive, so that also made us just choose one. Given the reputation for lines and crowds at the Louvre, we (aka Abby) ultimately decided that the Orsay Museum was the best option. The featured lots of Van Gough and Monet, which are two of Abby's favourite artists. With our tight time frame, she planned out the pieces and galleries we needed to see, and we did what we could with about an hour and a half. We did not have audioguides (we love them, don't judge!), so Mom looked up a lot of explanations of works, and we enjoyed learning more about the art that way. Having some sort of data or internet on phones was great for navigating and communicating but also for looking up info!
Luxembourg Gardens
After our stop at Le Bonaparte Cafe, which you can read about at "Paris Eats," we went to the Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens are beautiful, and basically it's just a large, perfectly groomed city park. There are tennis courts, a wading pool and sand area for kids, and lots of quiet sitting areas for groups to enjoy. We spent a lot less time here than originally planned, and if we weren't time crunched, it would've been a place we could have spent an entire afternoon or morning, at least! But, for free public use, it was definitely worth the stop.
Notre Dame
Notre Dame is free to enter, and you can pay to go up in the towers, but we just enjoyed the lower part of the cathedral. It made us want to re-watch Hunchback of Notre Dame! The cathedral is located on the "island" in Paris where the river splits in two directions. Interesting info about Notre Dame: you cannot enter if you're wearing thin-strapped tank tops or super short shorts! After waiting for 10-15 minutes to go through the bag check to enter, the guard stopped Abby because her dress straps were too thin! I was wearing a tank top too, but he didn't say anything to me. She was able to cover her shoulders with my cardigan, but it was lucky that we had that, and it was strange that they were so strict!
Musée du Louvre
We stopped to get macarons at Pierre Hermé (also more on this in the Paris Eats post), and from there, we trecked back to the more central downtown area. We took our time walking along the river until we got to the Louvre. We did not pay to go in, but it was fascinating to enjoy the building from the outside. There are also small fountains in the courtyard near the museum's entrance, and we joined some other people soaking their feet! It was the perfect relief from the midday heat and to our tired feet. Next, we went to the Angelina Cafe and were wearing down, so the rest of our day was a little slower paced.
Champs-Elysées and Arc de Triopmhe
I remember rounding the round-about to join onto Champs-Elysées and thinking, Oh wow, the Arc is right there! The actual walk up the street (literally up an incline) took us a while. Plus, Bastille Day (French Independence Day) is July 14, and Champs-Elysées is the iconic street where a parade routes through the city, so both sides of the road were blocked off and filled with bleacher seating! We had to walk up the first part of the road on the curb, basically. The closer we got to the Arc, the more people there were. It is a bigger shopping area, so there were mobs of people, which really isn't what we wanted at that time of day haha. Still, it was something to experience, and I'm glad we did it that way rather than take a bus or metro.
Rather than go up in the Eiffel Tower, we decided to go up in the Arc de Triomphe. The catch: the Arc de Triomphe doesn't have an elevator! That was a lot of stairs, but it was well worth it for the views from the top. We enjoyed looking at all of the area we covered that day. Plus, we got to see a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur. The Arc de Triomphe has to do with Napoleon Bonaparte's conquests during his reign, and it's pretty impressive in size. We also really enjoyed the roundabout at the bottom of the Arc! There are basically no lanes, but the roundabout can accommodate seven lanes of traffic. It totally appears that cars just do what they want, and that was our experience later when our taxi driver had to get on and get off that roundabout to take us back to the hotel!
It was around 8:30 when we finished at the Arc de Triomphe, and our original plan was to stay in the city to see the Eiffel Tower at night. Realising that that meant two or more hours in the city, we decided to nix that plan and grab some food before heading out. We were exhausted from a super full day. Our total steps for the day were around 11 miles, which isn't as much as we'd expected, but the heat and exhaustion from all of the prior traveling just caught up with us.
Honestly, there isn't a whole lot I would do differently with just one day in the city. The museum was so worth the time and money to enter, and I think we picked the better monument (Arc de Triomphe instead of Eiffel Tower) to go up in. Public transportation would've saved some of our energy, maybe, and potentially reduced some of our time spent walking from place to place. Although the walking really wore us out, I'm glad we walked, because we got to take in so much more of the back-street character of the city. When traveling to such large cities, I think you just have to chose what you can and can't do with an understanding that you won't see it all or experience it all. Who knows if we'd really feel like we "know" Paris better if we'd spent a week as opposed to one day!
As I mentioned in the last post, just a weekend in Paris was a little overwhelming and intimidating! In just the Louvre alone, you could supposedly spend three months without seeing everything! To plan Paris, I started with some basic "Top 10 Things to See in Paris" kinds of lists online and on Pinterest. From there, I considered travel time to and from different places, costs, and entry hours to come up with our final itinerary. It was originally planned down to the minute, including travel time to and from different sights. We didn't follow the itinerary religiously, but having it as a guide helped us to stay aware of time, know where to begin, and make an efficient route around the city.
Originally, we had planned to go into Paris, the city, on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, we were going to just go up to Sacre Coeur and get crepes before going to the airport. Somewhat last-second, we changed to allow a day at Versailles on Sunday. This meant we only had one day in the city, but we got to see more of France that way.
We didn't use any public transportation in Paris, only because from our location (we stayed at the Orly airport), it was actually cheaper and much faster to take a taxi. We could have caught a train from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower, but the trip took about an hour and was 12 euros a person, so we took a cab with an airport flat-rate, got there in half the time, and spend 35 euros. In the city, we walked everywhere so that we could see more above the ground, considering that we only had one day.
Eifel Tower
We left the hotel around 8:15 on Saturday morning and were at the Eiffel Tower well before 9. The structure is pretty fascinating! We did not take the time to go up, but we got there at the perfect time to get some good shots and take it in without mobs of people around us.
River Sienne
It's hard to miss the Sienne while walking around Paris, but we took it in while walking from the Eiffel Tower to our first museum stop. Since it was Saturday morning, lots of people were out on the river working out in groups- we saw kickboxing, runners, walkers, and there were even pull up bars to do more cross-training style workouts! It felt like a real Paris experience!
Musée d'Orsay
We had time to take in one art museum. The museums are pretty expensive, so that also made us just choose one. Given the reputation for lines and crowds at the Louvre, we (aka Abby) ultimately decided that the Orsay Museum was the best option. The featured lots of Van Gough and Monet, which are two of Abby's favourite artists. With our tight time frame, she planned out the pieces and galleries we needed to see, and we did what we could with about an hour and a half. We did not have audioguides (we love them, don't judge!), so Mom looked up a lot of explanations of works, and we enjoyed learning more about the art that way. Having some sort of data or internet on phones was great for navigating and communicating but also for looking up info!
Luxembourg Gardens
After our stop at Le Bonaparte Cafe, which you can read about at "Paris Eats," we went to the Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens are beautiful, and basically it's just a large, perfectly groomed city park. There are tennis courts, a wading pool and sand area for kids, and lots of quiet sitting areas for groups to enjoy. We spent a lot less time here than originally planned, and if we weren't time crunched, it would've been a place we could have spent an entire afternoon or morning, at least! But, for free public use, it was definitely worth the stop.
Notre Dame
Notre Dame is free to enter, and you can pay to go up in the towers, but we just enjoyed the lower part of the cathedral. It made us want to re-watch Hunchback of Notre Dame! The cathedral is located on the "island" in Paris where the river splits in two directions. Interesting info about Notre Dame: you cannot enter if you're wearing thin-strapped tank tops or super short shorts! After waiting for 10-15 minutes to go through the bag check to enter, the guard stopped Abby because her dress straps were too thin! I was wearing a tank top too, but he didn't say anything to me. She was able to cover her shoulders with my cardigan, but it was lucky that we had that, and it was strange that they were so strict!
Musée du Louvre
We stopped to get macarons at Pierre Hermé (also more on this in the Paris Eats post), and from there, we trecked back to the more central downtown area. We took our time walking along the river until we got to the Louvre. We did not pay to go in, but it was fascinating to enjoy the building from the outside. There are also small fountains in the courtyard near the museum's entrance, and we joined some other people soaking their feet! It was the perfect relief from the midday heat and to our tired feet. Next, we went to the Angelina Cafe and were wearing down, so the rest of our day was a little slower paced.
I remember rounding the round-about to join onto Champs-Elysées and thinking, Oh wow, the Arc is right there! The actual walk up the street (literally up an incline) took us a while. Plus, Bastille Day (French Independence Day) is July 14, and Champs-Elysées is the iconic street where a parade routes through the city, so both sides of the road were blocked off and filled with bleacher seating! We had to walk up the first part of the road on the curb, basically. The closer we got to the Arc, the more people there were. It is a bigger shopping area, so there were mobs of people, which really isn't what we wanted at that time of day haha. Still, it was something to experience, and I'm glad we did it that way rather than take a bus or metro.
Rather than go up in the Eiffel Tower, we decided to go up in the Arc de Triomphe. The catch: the Arc de Triomphe doesn't have an elevator! That was a lot of stairs, but it was well worth it for the views from the top. We enjoyed looking at all of the area we covered that day. Plus, we got to see a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur. The Arc de Triomphe has to do with Napoleon Bonaparte's conquests during his reign, and it's pretty impressive in size. We also really enjoyed the roundabout at the bottom of the Arc! There are basically no lanes, but the roundabout can accommodate seven lanes of traffic. It totally appears that cars just do what they want, and that was our experience later when our taxi driver had to get on and get off that roundabout to take us back to the hotel!
It was around 8:30 when we finished at the Arc de Triomphe, and our original plan was to stay in the city to see the Eiffel Tower at night. Realising that that meant two or more hours in the city, we decided to nix that plan and grab some food before heading out. We were exhausted from a super full day. Our total steps for the day were around 11 miles, which isn't as much as we'd expected, but the heat and exhaustion from all of the prior traveling just caught up with us.
Honestly, there isn't a whole lot I would do differently with just one day in the city. The museum was so worth the time and money to enter, and I think we picked the better monument (Arc de Triomphe instead of Eiffel Tower) to go up in. Public transportation would've saved some of our energy, maybe, and potentially reduced some of our time spent walking from place to place. Although the walking really wore us out, I'm glad we walked, because we got to take in so much more of the back-street character of the city. When traveling to such large cities, I think you just have to chose what you can and can't do with an understanding that you won't see it all or experience it all. Who knows if we'd really feel like we "know" Paris better if we'd spent a week as opposed to one day!
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| We worked so hard for this photo that turned out so mediocre haha. |
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