June 27th - Arrival from Beaune
We left sunny Beaune to be welcomed to Paris with rain. After record high temperatures the week prior, we got to experience the rainy cool down of the city. We got drenched on our walk from the train station to our Airbnb, so we spent some time settling in and letting our things dry out. We were pretty hungry since we hadn’t had much for lunch, so we tried finding a place for dinner (at a completely reasonable time), but ran into the issue of restaurants not being open until late again, so we grabbed some snacks from a nearby market to wait it out. After relaxing for a bit, we checked out a restaurant around the corner and got some dinner.
June 28th - Exploring the City
We were provided breakfast at our Airbnb, so we ate at home and got ready for the day. We were lucky to get some sun in the morning on our first full day while we checked out the sites. We headed for Notre Dame Cathedral. As soon as we arrived, we realized that I wasn't dressed appropriately to go inside, so we determined we would try that another day (no knees and no shoulders!). But we were still able to admire the amazing architecture all the way around the building.
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Front of Notre Dame |
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Side of Notre Dame |
After we were done there, we crossed over the river to find the St. Michel fountain. I remembered that it was nearby, but not exactly where it was, so we wandered through some of the streets with restaurants and shops until we finally found it. On our way, we past a place called Frogburger that looked like they had some good burgers and beer, but they weren't open yet, so we made a mental note about the place in case we decided to come back later (spoiler: we did). Also worth mentioning, they did not have any burgers made of frogs… So we made it to St. Michel, took some pictures, then started walking along the Seine toward the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.
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St. Michel |
We arrived at the Louvre, snapped some pictures, then headed for the Jardin des Tuileries that was recommended by our Airbnb host. This was one of the things I had missed when I visited 5 years ago and I was glad that we were able to see it this time. It was a nice large area with plenty of walkways, grassy areas, flowers, and statues. It was exactly like what you'd imagine a Parisian garden would look like. We made our way through, admiring the fountains, and continued our journey to the Eiffel Tower. We saw the Arc de Triomphe down the road, but we didn't visit that day. The walk to the tower is a pretty long one (I hit my fitbit goal of 10,000 steps at about 12:30pm when we were somewhere around the garden), and we didn't do many more exciting things along the way, except for admire the architecture of the city buildings and bridges.
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Louvre |
We finally made it to the tower and we were very hungry at this point. We found a mini food cart festival just across the road to grab some lunch. There were tons of different cuisines to choose from, and we settled on some wraps with a side of fries. We were eyeing the crepes as well and wanted to get a sweet crepe for dessert, but after the big lunch we had, we decided we didn't have room at the moment. So we went to go work up an appetite and purchased our tickets to climb the tower. You can either climb to the second floor and take a lift the rest of the way, or take a lift the whole way. Climbing is cheaper (and more fun), so we went with that option. We were also able to get "youth" prices for people up through age 25 (save that money!). It ended up being nearly 700 steps in total, but there is a first floor observation deck where you can break about half way through. I believe in working for a great view, so it was definitely worth it. It had sprinkled a couple times already that morning, but the whole time we were on the tower, it didn't rain a drop. We could see rainstorms in the distance and didn't know how long we'd be out of the rain, but it didn't end up raining again until we were grabbing some drinks once we had come back down. We found a nearby café to get some beer and much needed water after our big climb and to give our legs a rest after all of that walking and climbing. By now, we were ready for our dessert crepe, so we found a stand on the other side of the river from the tower and enjoyed our tasty treat and our beautiful view.
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View from the second floor |
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View from the top |
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Us at the top |
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Crepe! |
We decided to check out the Frogburger place for dinner, so we trained back (we weren't about to walk all that again). They had some delicious burgers and pretty good craft beer. There was one guy working at the time, doing everything, so when we walked in, we weren't sure if he was going to come check on us, or if we were supposed to order at the counter. Eventually he came over and apologized for the wait, but we were just impressed with how much he was doing by himself, taking orders, making burgers, pouring beer, delivering food and drinks, and dealing with bills. We were very pleased with the delicious food, it was definitely worth the short wait.
June 29th - Inside Notre Dame, Sacre Cour, Arc, and Sparkles
We really wanted to find a nice green space to have a picnic and drink some wine, so we started the day by visiting a nearby market to get some supplies. We bought some cheese and fruit and stopped at a bakery on our way to the train to get a loaf of bread. We planned to pick up wine later in case Notre Dame would stop us from trying to enter with a full bottle of wine. Today, I had dressed so that we could go inside Notre Dame (and because it was chilly anyway), so that was our first stop. We arrived a bit later than we were hoping we would, and the line was already pretty long. We decided to wait it out anyway. It wasn't too painful, and we just enjoyed people watching while we waited. A middle school aged marching band from Norway came about half way through and started marching around the line and playing for the tourists. We got inside after about 45 minutes. Though we've seen a lot of cathedrals at this point, I think Notre Dame is my favorite. I'm not sure whether it's the city, the awesome Disney movie, it's iconic status, the stained glass windows, the seemingly contrasting architecture with the towers in the front and the arching, gothic style toward the rear as well as the interior, the gargoyles; there are a lot of good reasons.
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Waiting in line |
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Small model inside - so intricate |
After our visit to Notre Dame, we took a train up to Sacre Cour basilica. This building also has interesting architecture that Will and I agreed didn't seem to fit in with the rest of Paris. It's an intriguing place to visit since it sits up on a hill and gives great views of the city. We were hoping to find somewhere nearby that we could picnic, but since it's a main tourist attraction, it was a bit busy, so we decided to check out a park that our Airbnb host recommended. We checked out the views and snacked on some of our food since we were pretty hungry and headed to Belleville park. We walked through it and probably due to a combination of the gloomy weather and our lack of energy from the previous day, we decided to head back to our Airbnb to finish our snacks and the wine we had bought. We were planning to go back midday at some point for a nap anyway since we wanted to stay out later to be able to see the Eiffel Tower at night.
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Sacre Cour |
We relaxed and recharged and headed back out later in the evening. Before heading to the tower, we trained over to the Arc de Trimophe to check it out up close. We were able to get some good pictures and marvel at its impressive size. Then we walked over toward the tower and found a café to grab some dinner and wait for the sun to set. We have perfected the cheap dinner by splitting a pizza, so that's what we did. We paired it with the cheapest carafe of red wine and enjoyed the live music they had for the evening. We had a lot of time to kill since the sun didn't set until 9:58pm. Besides seeing the tower lit up at night, there is another awesome thing you can't miss when you visit Paris. After dark, every hour, the tower sparkles for 5 minutes. Since it likely wouldn't be dark enough by 10pm to appreciate it (if they even did it that early), we were aiming to catch it at 11pm. We finished up at the café and walked over to a good viewpoint. We got another crepe while we waited and were approached by lots of people trying to sell light-up souvenirs after dark. There were a ton of people waiting to see the sparkle and everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed in unison when the lights started.
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Arc de Triomphe |
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All lit up! |
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Waiting for the sparkle! |
June 30th - Skeletons and Phantoms
We planned to visit the catacombs and the Opera house on our last day, so we aimed to get to the catacombs early to avoid a long line. To avoid too much negativity, we'll just say, we could have done better or planned ahead more. We ended up waiting in line for about 3 hours to get into the catacombs, even though we arrived right when they opened. They only allow 200 people in at a time, and the walk can take about 45 minutes to complete. So the line didn't look extremely long, but it moved very slowly. We thought about leaving a few times, but after we had invested so much time, we decided to wait it out. It ended up being a pretty cool experience and worth the price of entry, but we agreed, the wait was pretty brutal. We were able to get "youth" prices here as well even though the cut off was 26 (close enough), so we paid €10 a piece. It's crazy how far underground you go to get there. It was something like 100 stairs spiraling down and significantly lower than the subway system.
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Catacombs |
By the time we were done with the catacombs, it was about 2pm and we were super hungry. We struggled for a bit to find something that was open for a late lunch, but eventually found a sushi place where we could get veggie sushi. Next, we headed to the Garnier Palace opera house for a self-guided tour that we had purchased tickets for the day prior. The Opera house was beautifully ornate with so much gold, pretty much like you'd expect. There were a bunch of different rooms to explore as well as a Mozart exhibit that we strolled through. We found the Phantom's box and got to look at some of the costumes they had on display from various shows. I felt the desire to get all dressed up and go to a show. They do shows there every night after the tours are done from the day, but I can't say we were prepared to splurge last minute.
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Palais Garnier
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The Phantom's box |
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Grand Foyer |
We started looking for somewhere to get some dinner in the area and noticed that there was another Frog pub in the area. This one was more like a pub than specifically a burger joint, so they had more beer options on tap which we gladly sampled. We weren't extremely hungry, so we both got "snacks", but they ended up being large portions that left us very full. The bar tapped a new beer while we were there that was brand new and the bartender let us try a bit of it. It was called Rhubarb White and was a bit sour, but not too bad. It was entertaining watching the bartender try it since she was not a fan of the sour flavor. We made our way home stopping by some souvenir shops to make sure we got our France pins before leaving the country for the last time (we came in and out of France 3 times! Including our quick trip while we were in Geneva ;) ).
Even though we had a lot of rain while we visited, we managed to fit in a lot of activities. It was a very different France experience than both Beaune (for obvious size reasons) and even Marseille. It was great to see multiple towns/cities in one country to see how different they can be.
Wow, that sounds like a great time in Paris. What a beautiful cathedral Notre Dame is. And the Paris Opera House looks magnificent. But that Norwegian marching band -- what a treat!
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