I’ve always dreamed of going to Paris. People that are broke dream about lots of things. After my mother passed, I was sad and I moped for months. One day my husband and I were sitting on the couch. He put his arm around me and said “Why don’t we put all that French you’re learning to good use in Paris?”. I said “Really, we can go to Paris?”. Just like that, he gave me something to look forward to. It would be our fifth anniversary and our birthday celebration.
Over the course of the year, we watched a couple on YouTube who dispense useful advice on traveling to Paris and we learned a lot about the city. My husband made all the travel arrangements and bought the tickets for the attractions we wanted to visit. A few days before we were to leave, he received an email that said they had to cancel our reservation at La Tour Eiffel because of an issue with the lift. He was able to get other ticket for a different date and time but he had to move a couple of things around. That was the only wrench in our plans.
We flew out on Friday, the day of the major rainstorm. We didn’t know how we were going to get to the airport with all the road closures, flooding, and detours. Miraculously, we made it to the airport. The flight was uneventful and we landed in Paris on Saturday morning slightly ahead of schedule. The hotel was able to get a room ready for us with a relatively short wait and they offered us a complimentary breakfast while we waited. Once our room was ready, we went up to it and hung out for a few minutes before heading out. The first order of business was heading out to la boulangerie for a croissant, a quiche, and a macaron. They were absolutely delicious. I ate them while walking through the empty Parisian streets.
We stopped into a shop as we headed to La Seine. It was adorable and the lady of the shop was very nice. She mainly sold lavender and soaps but she also carried home decor and souvenirs. After leaving the boutique, we walked around to take in some of the sights that we were visiting later on before our cruise on La Seine. The cruise was very nice. Everything always looks beautiful and magical from the water. I did snooze for a coupe minutes because we broke night on the flight, I don’t sleep well on airplanes. Queue the eye candy:
After our cruise on La Seine, we walked around the neighborhood before our visit to Sainte-Chapelle. On our walk, we passed the creperie that was recommended by the couple we watch. Of course we got a bite and ate while we walked around. It didn’t disappoint! There were a few shops I would’ve stopped in had I not been stuffing my face but I’m not mad at it. The streets of Paris are beautiful and have an old style charm. I enjoyed our walk through the narrow cobblestone streets.
We arrived an hour early to Sainte-Chapelle but they were only checking for tickets, not ticket times. The old church was beautiful. To visit the main area, you have to ascend and descend a narrow and winding staircase. It turns out that most places, including our hotel, have narrow and winding staircases. Those staircases really do save a lot of space.
After our visit to Saint-Chapelle, we started walking back towards the hotel. We stopped at a bar and I drank a glass of wine at an outdoor table and watched Paris flow past us. It was happy hour after all, although happy hour in Paris goes on for many hours… I noticed many little things while we sat there, like how the street signs are on the buildings.
We headed back to the hotel once I was done with my wine. We took a nap and got ready for dinner and more sightseeing. We arrived at the restaurant early hoping they would seat us before our reservation time but when we got there, they hadn’t opened yet. We walked around that area a bit and happened into an old church during mass. It was beautiful. Once the restaurant did open, they were ready to seat us but the oven would need a half hour to heat up. Things are clearly different here then they are back home. We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and it was worth waiting for. We got on the metro and headed over to La Tour Eiffel for our 21:00h reservation.
At first the metro was a bit confusing but we had mastered it by the end of our stay in Paris. The metro stations are beautiful, some have murals on the ceiling! The best way to get around the city is by foot or by metro. Because of congestion, using ground transportation is not ideal. We used the Bonjour RATP app on our phones. It provides turn by turn directions using various methods of transportation.
We arrived at La Tour Eiffel with plenty of time to spare. We were treated to several sparkles. La Tour Eiffel sparkles every hour after sunset, but it sparkled a few times while we were there. After we got through the main security line, it was a bit confusing. There was a line for our ticket time so we got on it only to find out that we didn’t have to wait on that line. With my limited French and their limited English, it wasn’t communicated to me that we could go right to the second security line. Both security lines were relatively short so it wasn’t very time consuming. Our ticket included the lift and the wait for the lift was also short. The elevator ride was the scariest part about visiting La Tour Eiffel, I’m afraid of heights. Once we ascended, we were greeted by gorgeous views of the city. It was almost as if the city was built around La Tour Eiffel but that’s impossible. It was built with the intention of taking it back down, it was never supposed to be a permanent fixture.
After our visit to La Tour Eiffel, we walked around the area a bit before getting back on the metro to return to the hotel. My husband recognized the stairs from the movie John Wick and stopped to get a picture before climbing up the movie famous stairs ourselves. Climbing those stairs were on the directions we were following, we didn’t go out of our way to experience popular culture.
I woke up in Paris on my birthday on Sunday morning. I had a delicious breakfast of a croissant and a banana muffin on our way to Le Louvre. We got a baguette to snack on throughout the day as we did every day that we were in Paris. We had tickets to see Le Louvre as soon as it opened. As soon as we got there, I was so excited to be standing in the same place that my favorite cyclists in Le Tour de France roll through. There was something very magical about occupying that same space. The museum itself was amazing to visit. We saw all the popular works of art as well as a few other interesting pieces. I took many pictures but I’ll share only the ones that I found to be the most interesting.
After visiting Le Louvre we headed to L’avenue des Champs Elysees for a very touristy experience. It was lunchtime so we stopped in one of the many restaurants. The food was very good for what it was. It was served quickly and the waiter was charismatic. We continued on to L’arc de Triomph where we took the iconic picture across the street from it before using the underground passage to go to the moment. It was warm and sunny, the perfect day to be outside. Once we got through the security line and into the monument, we had to ascend the long winding staircase to the second floor where the restrooms and gift shop are before continuing on to the observation area. Many people ahead of us stopped during the ascent but we labored on. I actually irritated my old quad injury. I may train to climb up the Empire State Building to exact revenge on the Parisian monument… The view from the top was amazing. We climbed La Tour Eiffel at night and ascended L’arc de Triomph during the day so we experienced the best of both worlds.
Once we left L’arc de Triomph, we decided to do some shopping. The shopping there is known to be overpriced but, it should come to no surprise, I can find amazing deals just about anywhere. Needless to say that we did not return to the hotel empty handed. We hung out at the hotel for a bit before heading back out to the vegan boulangerie that had late hours on Sundays. It was a bit out of the way but the one closest to the hotel has abbreviated Sunday hours. My birthday dinner was at a sweet little vegan Thai restaurant that we both thoroughly enjoyed. After leaving the restaurant, we went to the Moulin Rouge to visit that iconic neighborhood. We enjoyed going into the little overpriced adult shops and browsing the souvenirs. I enjoyed a beer at a table outside a quaint little bar. It didn’t look like the best or even safest of neighborhoods but it did have it’s own little charm.
I would love to tell you that we went straight to the hotel after leaving the Moulin Rouge but I’m afraid that curiosity got the best of us and we got Burger King on our way back. Fast food in Paris is not fast at all. They had run out of a lot of food and beverages. The food was about the same as you would get back home, I wouldn’t go out of my way to have it.
On Monday we headed to Disneyland Paris. The park first opened when my niece was a little girl and I spun all kinds of tales about EuroDisney which made her want to save up to go. It also made me want to go. Of course my husband also really wanted to go so we decided to spend the day in the parks. It was the last stop on the train, about 40 minutes from the hotel, and there was a path that lead straight into the park from the train station. It was a lot like the park back home except people smoke in the park and most people speak foreign languages. We observed many cultural differences, it was new and exciting. My husband spoiled me with food and went on rides with me that he found terrifying. He also went on my favorite ride with me, It’s a Small World, which was way better in French! My mom would have loved it! It’s her favorite ride and she’s French. She would sing and dance like the little dolls when talking about the ride. When our family went back to Disney a couple decades ago, the ride was closed and we were both equally disappointed. I didn’t take pictures while on the ride because I preferred to just experience it but I got lots of other pictures during our visit to Disneyland Paris.
After the park and also a bit of shopping, we went to dinner at the New York Hotel which was on Disney property. You can take the couple out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of the couple! We had a nice meal and the entire dining room sang Happy birthday to me in both French and English. It was very much like my birthdays growing up, except my parents always sang an additional song. Hopefully what I wished for comes true, I’ve never asked for very much.
Versailles
The next morning we took the train to visit Le chateau de Versailles. It was a rainy morning that cleared into a nice afternoon. Le Chateau was filled with historic furniture and paintings. The high ceilings alone were beautiful works of art. It was also filled wall to wall with visitors, everyone vying to get the perfect picture of it’s many rooms. Forget about using the restroom in Le Chateau, the line was forever long. Wait until you get outside, there is a restroom in the gardens and on the other properties. I usually love visiting the gift shops but this one was largely overpriced.
Needless to say that I found Le Chateau interesting but wasn’t overly impressed. What did impress me were the other properties on the vast expanse of this land, Marie Antoinette’s former dwellings. To be perfectly clear, it wasn’t even her homes that I loved but her grounds. After we made our way into the garden, we walked around for a bit. We met a couple who told us about Le Petit Train that takes you around the property. They said that it was too far to walk, that it would take at least a half hour to reach the next home. There were golf carts for rent for 40 euros per hour but, we were told, they were poor value. Le Petit Train was hop on and hop off which gives you the opportunity to see it all. We went into Marie Antoinette’s homes and walked throughout the land. The homes are not as widely visited as Le Chateau so it was a more intimate experience.
We had a wonderful time visiting Paris and Versailles. Everyone was very pleasant and were very kind to me as I did my absolute best to speak the language. I will continue with my French lessons because it is my goal to be fluent. The Parisian people went out of their way to be helpful. I love the old style charm of the city. I immersed myself into French culture and I loved interacting with the French people. The food was amazing! I waited my whole life to experience my heritage and I had an amazing time discovering a part of who I am and where I come from.
Hopefully I will be able to experience the French countryside during a bike trip in the not so distant future with a good friend of mine. This trip has taught me about the important things in life and I will do my best to remember it all and make more amazing new discoveries in the future. There is still so much that I want to see but I have more youthful years to experience many of the things that I dream of doing.
Never stop dreaming!
Never stop doing!
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
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