Paris; The city of love. And yes, I did fall in love with this beautiful city. 

While I absolutely love Nice, Paris has its own beauty and charm and comes in as a very close second to Nice as my overall favourite place in the world. 

When we landed in to Paris from Nice, this was possibly the hardest airport to figure out transportation – we were catching Ubers, boats or walked from every other destination, and we could only locate a taxi rank when we landed in to Orly Airport so we decided to give a taxi a go on this trip, since we had covered every other type of transportation… and it was the scariest of them all! I think we just got unlucky with our driver as they were swerving in and out of traffic and boy were we glad when we (eventually) found our hotel, as he couldn’t even locate it! 

When choosing our Parisian accommodation, it was possibly the hardest one to choose, as we wanted to be reasonably close to everything whilst keeping in our budget, but also not be in a ‘bad’ area (we were warned that there are areas to avoid). Paris is split up into twenty arrondissements in a clockwise spiral (which we were told is like a snail shell). We ended up booking with Hotel Transcontinental going off of the location as well as reviews (trust me, I read through so many reviews booking this trip it was making me cross-eyed) and for the three nights was $419 AUD. When we were looking for rooms, the main things we were looking at was the location, the bed and bathroom situation (large enough for both of us, and bathroom had to be in our room, not a communal situation – which we realised was quite common across Europe), and lastly, reading through all the reviews. We weren’t too fussed if there was breakfast included, but it was an added bonus that most of our places did include it. 

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With our time in Paris, as we landed at 1pm on a Saturday, most of our day was then spent lining up for a taxi, driving to our hotel and then settling in. We then roamed around our hotel and had a late lunch at McDonald – they serve wedges here! –  and buying some snacks and water for our hotel. We found a cool little pizza shop right next door to our hotel, and as they had 5€ pizza, we were sold! We were also pretty exhausted from being up super early to watch the AFL Grand Final before our flight out of Nice so we decided to have an early night ready for a big day the next day. I had planned to visit the Catacombs first thing the next day but when I walked outside, it was bucketing down with rain, I barely made it 5 metres before turning back as I was drenched through. We then waited for it to clear some more before heading out to our scheduled time to go up the Eiffel Tower. 

We booked our slot for 3pm on the Sunday as it was literally the only time slot available to go to the second level via lift – everything else was completely booked out. This was a blessing in disguise as we at least had some relief from the wild weather during our time up there, but after a short while quickly turned and the wind picked up even more. The views were sensational – even if Luke was petrified – and so glad we booked these tickets. Ticked two bucket list items at once in that moment; being on the Eiffel Tower and being kissed atop the Eiffel Tower. Tickers were 16,60€ per person and worth every single dollar (especially just to avoid climbing up all those stairs! Just check out my video below to see what I mean!)While up there, we each had a Macaron ( 2€ each) and then it was off to our next destination; the Arc de Triomphe.

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We caught an uber to the Arc de Triomphe as it was going to be a 2.5km walk in the rain, and Luke was more impressed with this structure than the Eiffel Tower. From there, we walked along the Champs-Élysées – and found yet another Disney store – and made our way for the 3.5km towards the Louvre. We stopped at a number of different parks along the way, saw the Luxor Obelisk, sat for a spell in Jardin des Tuileries and then saw the exterior of the Louvre as by the time we arrived, they were closing entry to the site. 

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Once again we were off to our next destination, which was finding Notre Dame Cathedral. We walked all along the Seine River for a further 1.5km and then I saw it. I literally wept. Anyone who knows we knows I love France but I have always wanted to visit the Cathedral of Notre Dame since I was a little kid thanks to Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. To see it all blocked off due to the fire broke me inside just a little knowing I will never get the chance to be inside there but to be able to stand there and see it with my own eyes brought me so much joy. 

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Once again, the weather picked up and  we caught another Uber back to our hotel where we went back to our little pizza shop next door to our hotel, grabbed a pizza, some wedges, drinks and dessert, and we were fast asleep in next to no time as the next day was our trip to Disneyland! 

Sorry to say, but you will have to wait to hear about our time at Disneyland Paris as this post will otherwise never end! Tune in next week! 

We had to be at the airport by 7am for our journey back home so we were up at a ridiculous time and (another) Uber to Charles de Gaulle Airport, and this part of our journey home needs a blog of its own as there is so much to tell of our experience! But before I left, breakfast had to be the best meal of all; Lauduree macarons!

I cannot wait for the day the borders open back up, as I will 100% be journeying back to Paris, there is no doubt about it. This city has stolen my heart.