Paris – City of Love

               

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France and has been one of Europe's major centers of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science and arts that attracts couples, families, historians, travel enthusiasts and photographers of all age group across the globe alike. Built around Siene river, Paris is dream destination for everyone because of its iconic architecture, glitzy fashion hubs, art museums with rick history, breathtaking landscapes, romantic gateways and vintage palaces.

·         Day1 à We started our journey from India on Sunday early morning and took Ethiad airways to reach Paris with around ~3.5 hrs stop over at Abu Dhabi. The flight duration was very comfortable especially the flight from Abu Dhabi to Paris was extremely satisfactory by all means (Airbus A380 and good food). We reached the Charles de Gaulle airport of Paris at around 14:00 hrs. After the quick immigration and baggage collection, we went straight to meet our cab guy waiting for pick up. We booked Sri (k-sri@hotmail.fr). He is always punctual and knows all nook and corner of Paris and knows all the tricks of the trade. He is handy as he also plans for the weekend gateway to nearby tourist destinations like Switzerland, Belgium or Netherlands etc. We reached to our hotel Adagio Le Parc in La Defence area within an hour and also thanks to Sri, we got the free SIM card as well.

Grand Arc

After having little nap, we went towards Grand Arc in La Defence area on foot. This area is downtown and you can see large buildings of major financial banks and brokerage firms.  It is an enormous arc which looks like a giant hollow cube. This is so huge that you can see almost all the prominent places in Paris from top of this architecture. The arch is gigantic: it is twice the size of the Arc de Triomphe and its archway is large enough to fit the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The architecture is quite unique as well as it is on the same axis line:  Arc du Carrousel near the Louvre and the famous Arc de Triomphe and is also situated along the east-west axis that runs from Louvre along the Champs-Elysées to La Défense. There are malls and eateries where you can do shopping and can have good authenticate French cuisine.

                                                                         Grand Arc

                               View of the Grand arc and other enormous buildings from Arc de Triomphe 

Map: Grand Arc

·         Day2 à Next day, after recovering from little jetlag, we started our jam packed day with visit to the statue Arc de Triomphe at Champs-Élysées road, Tuileries garden, Place de la Concorde, Louvre museum, Rue Crémieux street and lastly Eiffel tower(Tour De Eiffel and Cruise trip).

Quick tip: Paris has the world’s best network of metro and it would be best to use it to the fullest. You can use the RATP map and trust me this could turn out to be your best decision in this trip. Also, please buy metro tickets in bulk (1booklet=10 ticket) worth ~14 Euros.

  

Arc de Triomphe

We took M1 metro from la defence and got down at Charles de Gaulle Etoile metro station to go to Arc de Triomphe. This roman architecture inspired monument with amazing pillar carvings is a symbol of bravery and martyrdom as it honours those who fought and died during French Revolution and Napoleonic wars with the name of all French victories and generals inscribed on the monument. Also, there is a tomb lies beneath the structure of an unknown soldier from World War I. Every evening at 18:30, a torch is rekindled by the war veterans in the memory and glory of the Unknown Soldier who died in World War I.

You can buy ticket and go to top of this structure. You can reach to top either on foot by a staircase of 284 steps or by a lift which allows access to the attic room. From this level, you need to climb 46 more steps to reach the terrace.

Price: 13 Euros

Opening hours: 10:00 to 23:00

                                                                    Arc de Triomphe

                                                       Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Map: Arc de Triomphe

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

After spending some considerable time at Arc de Tromphe, we started walking towards world’s most beautiful avenue. The avenue is 2 km long from Arc de Tromphe to Place de la Concorde and is home to world’s most luxurious brands (Louis Vuitton,Tiffany & Co., J.W. Weston etc),  perfume landmark at Maison Guerlain, world class eateries, best French macarons at Ladurée, contemporary cabaret at Le Lido de Paris, cultural hotspots boasting theatres, cinema and exhibitions, Ferrari and Lamborghini supercars at your disposal at ~80-100 Euros for ~20 mins drive and the walk to remember that you will cherish forever. I strongly recommend walking this avenue till Concorde (and even till Louvre).

                                                                       Louis Vuitton

                                                                      LADUREE

                                                                     The beautiful walk

Map: Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Place de la Concorde

Walking along the Champs-Élysées for long enough, we reached to the end of the road and saw this giant Egyptian Luxor Obelisk at the centre of the square surrounding by prestigious hotels, a view of Champs-Élysées road and two colourful called Fontaines de la Concorde giving it the perfect mix to become the hotspot for hangout. It is the largest square in Paris.

                                                                 

The Obelisk

                                                               Fontaines de la Concorde

Map: Place de la Concorde

Tuileries Garden

Tuileries garden is sitting in between Place de la Concorde and Louvre museum and is a perfect place to sit and relax. We made the most of this place (as we were walking from Arc De Triomphe) by sitting next to the pond with such well maintained garden with beautiful landscape bringing the calming effect among the chaos of the city life. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is managed by Louvre museum authorities.

We were thirsty and luckily saw a hand pump and had water from it and it reminded me of my some childhood memories. After feeling refreshed, we started towards our next destination, Louvre.

Louvre Museum

Louvre Museum is world’s largest and most visited museum situated in Paris.  The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Islamic Art, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, Paintings, Prints and Drawings. Simply put, it has unparallel spectrum of art collection of all the movements in entire history from ancient times to the nineteenth century. It has the greatest paintings of all Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, it also boast of paintings of Vermeer, Rembrandt and several others making it the greatest collection of all time.

When you are entering, please make sure that you have good amount of time at your side as covering the whole museum in one single day is itself a monumental task. Hence if you are art and history enthusiast, you might not want to miss this place as this could be your gold mine. You can either buy the ticket at the Louvre or you can book it online.

I personally not an avid fan of art and museum, hence I didn’t went inside the museum but I spend some quality time in clicking photographs of the glorious Louvre museum.

Timings:  09:00 to 16:00 except on Wednesday and Friday where you its open till 19:30.

Price: 17 Euros

Metro Station: Louvre – Rivoli

                                                    Louvre Museum with Trailing light

                                                        360 Degree view of Louvre

Map: Louvre Museum

Rue Crémieux street

If you want to be photographed along with budding photographers, Instagrammers and models, this is the place to be. This is mesmerizing and most colourful street of Paris as all the houses of this lane is off different colour and brings so much brightness to your day.

There is nothing much to do here except clicking some nice photos, so you can make this visit a very quick one.

Please note that home owners in this lane really hate people gathering around their house and clicking photos. So, please be mindful of their privacy during your visit.

This place is nearly 4 km from Louvre museum, so you can either walk or take a metro to nearest metro station.

Rue Crémieux street

Map: Rue Crémieux street

Eiffel Tower

Finally, our wait was over to see one of the wonders of the world, Eiffel Tower. Built in 1869 and named after engineer Gustave Eiffel, Eiffel tower is epitome of the tourist attraction in the world and a UNESCO world heritage site. You can take a ride either to 2^nd floor of the structure which has many souvenirs shops and exotic fine dines or you can take the lift till the top of the structure giving you the best bird view of Paris. This is a moment to cherish forever and sight to behold. There is a wine shop at the top so that you can cheers at the highest structure in Paris.  The best time to visit the place is at evening after 19:00 as every hour, you can see the tower sparkles for one minute. This is a spectacular and equally mesmerizing as well.

There are 2 ways to reach Eiffel tower.

o   You can get down at Trocadero metro station on M6 line. The view after you come out of Trocadero metro station is best for photographs and for viewing while sitting on the grass

o   You can get down at the Bir Hakim metro station on the same line. On this side, you can view of the Eiffel tower from close quarters

After clicking hundreds of photographs, we headed towards the Tour De Eiffel. This tour will take you either to the top of the Eiffel tower or 2^nd floor. The cost of going to 2^nd floor is 11 Euros and for going till the top is 17 Euros. This tour is generally jam packed with tourist at all the time, so it’s best to book it in advance. We went to the top of the building and just couldn’t help but felt mesmerized by the sheer audacity of the structure standing so tall yet the symbol of love across the globe. You can see many couples proposing to each other at this symbol of love. You can get champagne at the top of Eiffel at 12 Euros per glass.

While coming down, you can see direction and distance of major cities of major countries which is quite unique in its own way. I also took a coin from the vending machine which has major tourist attraction printed for 2 Euros.

Eiffel Tower at its full glory (View from Trocadero)

Bird view from top

View of Eiffel you might not have ever seen

Mr. Gustave Eiffel

After coming down, we went towards another to-do activity at Eiffel: Cruise trip across Siene river. This trip will show you all the major monuments, structures and Cathedrals of Paris in just about 40 min round trip. We took the last cruise of the day and queue was quite less. Once it starts, we could feel the romance in the air with breezy cold wind hitting your face and water splashing noise sets the tone just perfect. We uses the audio devices as well which was telling about each and every monument and its history coming your way during the trip.

Best view of Eiffel Tower from Cruise

Pont Alexandre III Bridge

Map: Eiffel Tower           

·         Day3 à Next day, after having quick breakfast at the hotel, we started our journey with Sacré-Cœur, then wall of love, Moulin Rouge, Notre Dame Church,, Île de la Cité and then at last Les du Falafel.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica

The Sacré-Cœur Basilica is a Roman catholic church situated atop of the Montmartre hill is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and is the second most visited church in the France. The access to this place is tough as first you have to walk on the steep road and then have to climb roughly 300 steps to reach the church. It is the second highest structure in Paris after Eiffel Tower and gives a stunning panoramic view of city.

Being on lower side of fitness, it was tough for me to reach the place. I recommend stopping over some place to have a quick bite and then keep marching forward. While coming down, we took cable wired Gondola ride which you can use to come down quickly. Here you have lot shops and eateries and is popular among tourists.

Entry Fee: Free

Timings: 06:00 to 22:30

Metro station: Abbesses – M12

                                                Second most visited Church for no reason J

Map: Sacré-Cœur

Wall of Love

This a small place very near to Sacré-Cœur Basilica church where you can ‘I LOVE YOU’ written in all the possible languages of the world. I spent just 5 min to find out the above said words in my native language and get clicked.

                                                                        Wall of Love

From here, we went back to the metro station and could see the world famous cabaret show Moulin Rouge.

Moulin Rouge

Notre-Dame de Paris

The Notre-Dame church, a Roman Catholic Cathedral is located at the eastern end of Île de la Cité island in Paris and is famous for its Gothic middle age architecture, huge size and testimony of time it has survived since it was built in 1345 AC. This cathedral is a sight with its portals surrounded by his many sculptures and chimeras and gargoyles that adorn the roof; no wonder Notre-Dame Cathedral is the most visited monument in Paris. Another interesting point is it has one square on the floor which is officially the Point Zero called “point zéro des routes de France” (Point Zero of French Roads), which means all the distance from and to from Paris are measured from this point zero.

I went inside and was mesmerized by the sheer architecture, statues and carvings on the wall. Also, when I entered, prayer meet was going on and the father was performing some holy practice (please pardon my lack of knowledge on Church) and it was pin drop silence in the church.

You can go to the top of the church as well by climbing approx 380 stairs and you can see the chimeras and gargoyles from the close quarters and good aerial view of the city.

Currently as you might know, unfortunately good portion of this church has been burned down and reconstruction is going on for on. So, in case you are planning a trip in near future, kindly check whether restoration has been completed or not.

Timings: 08:00 to 18:30

Entry charge: Free

The Front view of the Notre-Dame Cathedral

Famous Gothic architecture

Holy prayer

Cathedral from the inside

Map: Notre-Dame de Paris

L'As du Fallafel

Now when you are in Île de la Cité island, please treat yourself with the amazing food joints serving you the food from across the globe starting with French staple Crepe with filling of your choice, Turkish Shawarma, exceptional Ice cream parlours like Berthillon and best Middle East’s Falafel in the world at L'As du Fallafel. This lane is filled with lot of Fallafel shops and this particular shop has a waiting for at least 45-60 min. But the wait is worth it as one falafel can be your dinner as it is big, filled to the top with chopped chicken shawarma and mayonnaise oozing out of the falafel. I suggest you order a drink as well since eating so much definitely needs drink to settle down.

                                                Chicken Falafel and Veg kebab Falafel

Map: L'As du Fallafel

After this, we went straight to our hotel and called it a night.

·         Day4 à As we in Paris, the trip can’t be complete unless we do some shopping; after all it is called fashion capital of the world for no reason. We took M1 and then M8 to reach Creteil which is the suburbs outside Paris. Please don’t miss out on the trendy clothes, leather jackets, exuberant perfumes and designer handbags. Once we are done here, we went craving for some Indian food and came to know about a place called Rue Du Faubourg where there is a full lane of Indian restaurants. We had chicken biryani with spicy curry and veg meal at Saravanaa Bhavan. Once done, we went to see Eiffel tower again in the evening and then left for Switzerland in the night.

Quick Tips

Ø  Though Paris is a safe city but due to increasing unrest and illegal immigrants, cases of mugging and duping is getting common now. Also, after the yellow jacket protest, these cases are increasing even more. So, if you are travelling late in the night alone, I would suggest to take Uber rather than metro

Ø  Don’t get into trying your luck at some jugging game near Eiffel. They are just to dupe you, so don’t fell pray

Ø  At Sacré-Cœur while coming down, you might see some people coming and tie a thread but make no mistake; they will come in group to mug you. So please be vigilant and avoid them

Ø  As lot of walking is involved in this trip, I suggest you download the Google map of Paris for your offline usage. It helped me a lot at every corner and saved plenty of time

Ø  Please carry the RATP map  wherever you go so that you don’t miss any metro connectivity

Also Read: BALI – A Trip to Heaven
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