Paris

I went to Paris with my girl, Jess Julian, and it was lovely! (Or Louvre-ly, as we took to after seeing the Louvre)

So play by play of the Paris trip went like this:

Day 1: Friday, 11 October

Get up 3:30 am, get bus to Dublin Airport at 4:20 (supposed to be 4am), am one of the lucky few of the 30 or so waiting on O'Connell Street to get on, as I booked online.

6am flight to Paris, arrive 9am local time.

I am met with a giant leviathan-like line to try and escape the terminal. 1.5 hours later... I finally get through immigration. If only I had a European passport, things would've been much faster!


So I found my way to the other end of Charles De Gaulle Airport where there's an epic intercontinental train station, and found the train to get to Disneyland, where I was meeting Jess. There was a bit of a wait until the train was departing, which was just as well, as it took me a while and about 3 different lines to figure out where to buy the ticket from.

The train ticket was about €30, and it's only 1 stop (about 10-15 minutes) from CDG airport! I couldn't believe it! So expensive. Apparently the bus that goes straight there from the airport is still like €25, so you're basically just financially penalised for Disneying, as soon as you head in the general Disney direction.

Train Station for Disneyland Paris

We bought our Disney tickets online from a website called Picniq tickets and got a 1 Park-1 Day pass, but apparently according to Miss Tourist it is better to get a 2 park 2 day pass. I think if I went again, I'd want a 2 parks 1 day pass, as the bulk of the rides that we wanted to go on (about 4 rides) had a wait time of about an hour. If you went in the middle of summer, probably 2 days would be better, and/or using fastpass.


We arrived about 11am and we'd done all the rides we were interested in by 6pm ish, as well as a long lunch break and stopping for a show and general wandering.

When we arrived, we stowed our bags in the luggage place (about €10 for the whole day), downloaded the Paris Disney app, and set about making a list of places we wanted to go.

The rides in Paris Disneyland that I would ride again would be:

Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain

• Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain (what used to be Space Mountain)
• Pirates of the Carribean - not exactly big thrill, but definitely a cool ride for its attention to detail in the set design that you sail past
• Big Thunder Mountain

Pirates of the Caribbean ride

Cap'n Jack Sparra

Big Thunder Mountain

Bit gutted that the Indiana Jones ride was closed, but no matter. 

I adored the visual feast of the Coco Mexican Cinco de Mayo themed part of the park! So delightfully colourful. I have recently watched the film that goes with this as well - it is excellent. 

We had green hamburgers for Halloween lunch, and delicious scary pumpkin shaped chocolate mousse for dessert. 

Camera doesn't adequately capture greenness of bun

Such delicious chocolate mousse!

About 2pm we stopped for a Disney Villains show that was on by the castle, which was fine. Lots of singing and dancing etc. I think if you go to Disney Studios, there are more shows to choose from. 

We started finding a space to watch the lights display at about 7pm, and it started about 9pm, so quite a bit of down time just minding our spot, but it was worth it - we had an excellent vantage point, and the display was definitely worth sticking around for - it is a sight to behold. 

We left the park with about 10 000 others at 9:40 ish after the lights show and waited to get an Uber. Trying to public transport back from there to our Airbnb would've involved something like 3 different trains, which neither of us were up for at that point. 

Day 2: Saturday, Oct 12

Bakery

We set out from our inner-city Airbnb about 9am, and were met with a boulangerie bringing out their freshly baked goodies to their street stall! There is nothing quite like a French bakery, and the croissant I got was amazing, melt in the mouth goodness. 

This is not the Boulangerie mentioned, but a beautiful candy shop

This is the Boulangerie, with all of its flaky pastry goodness

We bought a carnet at the train station - a set of 10 tickets that you can go anywhere on the Paris Metro with - for €17, and proceeded to fontaine de St Michel to start our walking tour. 

Walking Tour

We went from the St Michel's fountain, to Notre Dame, or the shell of it.  

Notre Dame

across to the Ile-de-Cite where there is the second most amazing gothic cathedral which one should see in lieu of Notre Dame, 

The spire in the background there, behind the Assemblee Nationale, is second most awesome Gothic cathedral

followed the Seine down to some clock which I can't remember much about other than it was designed to help the poor be on time for their jobs, 

and then to Pont Neuf bridge with it's creepy relief faces. 

Apparently the faces were sculpted after a free feast was thrown and these are all the drunken Barons

Our learned guide was a character. A Brit living in Paris, who carried a selfie stick with an old sock on the end of it so we could find him in amongst the crowded Paris streets, he spoke of the gentrification of Paris in the 1800s and that that was why so many of the buildings looked the same because they were built in and around that time. 

We then proceeded to Love Lock bridge - which has subsequently had all the locks removed as the sides of the bridge buckled and fell off with the weight of them. Next, we arrived at the Louvre, where we walked through the courtyard, and then finished by the Tuileries gardens.

I was interested by his explanation of the glass pyramid in the middle of the Louvre saying that it echoed many of the original artistic and architectural sentiments of the Louvre, and while it is a stark contrast to the original architecture, is has purposes of function and form in that it lets in light to the basement of the Louvre, serves as an entrance, echoes historic monuments like the pyramids, as well as being iconic and artistic. 

I'm not sure if this helps or hinders your understanding of the scale of the Louvre?

Somewhere in the Tuileries Gardens

Parisians just casually chilling by a pond in the middle of the Tuileries Gardens on deck chairs

Jess and I then wandered through the gardens, and stumbled upon the Musee de L'orangerie that was created to house some of Monet's work - 2 full rooms of 360 degree canvasses of what some of the scenes in Monet's garden looked like. 

We then tried to escape the Tuileries gardens, and could't find an alternative exit to save ourselves, so ended up retracing our steps and going out where we came in about 1km further back. 

Our next appointment was with the Eiffel Tower at 4pm, where we were met with 600 or so stairs to get to the second level. Turns out to get to the summit or use the elevators, you have to book (much) more than a week in advance.

Eiffel Tower

There was a bit of a line to get through security at the bottom before being allowed into the Eiffel tower complex, so if you're going, allow time for that. 

The hike up the stairs was arduous, but not as bad as say the Devil's staircase on Tongariro. If you can do the Durie Hill steps in Whanganui and then the tower, I'd say it's about the same.

The view over Paris was lovely, and we had an amazing day for it, but having been up a bunch of towers and such this year, I'm a little over the view-from-the-heights thing, mostly because I'm a bit sketchy on what I'm looking at. I feel like I need to know much more about the local geography to be able to full appreciate the view. 

We were there for about 2 hours, then had Seine River cruise tickets (€14 each from our walking tour guide) which you can use at any time, but we wanted to get sunset on the river. We coughed up €25 for a bottle of bubbles as they don't seem to mind about BYO, and departed from Bateaux Parisiens. We had a couple of drinks each while we sailed up the Seine, and just before we turned around to go back down the other side of the Ile-de-Cite, we spotted some people dancing on the side of the river.

Seine River Cruise

We arrived back just as the Eiffel tower lit up for the evening, and the moon was rising. It was positively idyllic!

Next, we picked up a much more reasonably priced bottle of wine (€10) and hired scooters and set about finding the dancers that we saw at the opposite end of the Seine. Lime scooters are an excellent way to get around Paris! Avoid the cobblestones though.

Eventually, we found them, and we danced the night away until about midnight, and being the Cinderellas we are, went home before we turned into pumpkins. Some of the men who we were dancing with had alternative priorities other than dancing, but thankfully there was a Grandpa type figure who was politely asking those types to leave, and some actually awesome dancing ensued, in and around and despite them. 

Jess' Cinderella moment - she even lost her shoe

The dancing took place on a little mini amphitheatre type thing that if one was to make a false move, one would end up in the river, but the music was cranking, the dancing was amazing, and the night was warm and beautiful, bathed in full moon light, and with the nimble afro-french dancers, such false moves are not really a problem. 

Day 3: Sunday, 13 October

Markets

We started our Sunday adventures dropping off our bags to a hotel that could store our luggage for the day, then headed to Porte de Vanves flea markets. 

There, we discovered amazing fried potatoes with rosemary, and beautiful produce - the kind of nectarines I've only heard legend about - the size of pomegranates. We stocked up on earrings, fruit and other essentials and set off to our next port of call - Montmartre. 

Montmartre

Tourist mecca of Paris, Montmartre has been home to many fabled artists such as Picasso and van Gogh, and also the Sacre-Coeur. 

We made our way up from the train and ascended the hill to the Basilica, pausing on the grassy slopes to enjoy our fruit from the markets. 

Wine and food festival

At the top we were swept up in the mass attending an annual wine and food festival. We wound our way through the stalls, sampling 3-4 different wines, and stopping for such delights as a baguette covered in molten cheese and pastrami, and tartaflette - potatoes with cheese sauce and bacon. I can't really explain the food in France fully, but everything just tastes better there. They're passionate about the basics and they do them really, really well. 

Molten cheese baguette place!

Tartaflette!

We meandered down the hill towards the Moulin Rouge - just to say we'd seen it - and proceeded to our next destination. 

Arc de Triomphe

Whatever you think about Napoleon, it is probably a British propaganda generated lie. He was not, in fact, short nor was he any of the other things that the British made him out to be. 

He was responsible for the creation of the Arc de Triomphe and many other spectacular works to celebrate himself throughout Paris and France. The Arc de Triomphe celebrates a bunch of military victories, and the relief sculptures on its walls each speak to a different triumph. They are cleverly crafted and indicative of French military might. 

There's a poignant memorial for an unnamed soldier in the middle of the archway also, bringing home the reminder of how involved France was in both World Wars last century. 

I'm not sure how many other countries this is true for, but there's actually a replica of the Arc de Triomphe in Vientiane, Laos, as it used to be a French colony. It's called Patuxay and it's significantly smaller, but it is also in the middle of a ridiculous round about where 6-8 roads converge and all then try and switch between 3-4 different lanes to try and exit to their desired path. Not quite as crazy as the 12 that fan out from the Arc de Triomphe.

Concluding that we'd ticked off everything on our list for the day, and for our trip, we collapsed in one of Paris' many parks for an hour or so, before moving on to reclaim our bags.

We stopped at one of the many bars in the environs of the hotel that was looking after our things, and discovered another amazing French dish - steak with mashed potatoes, but not just any mashed potatoes, like creamy cheesy mashed potatoes.... I had to go before I got a chance to order anything remotely that delicious, but I had much food envy of the snaps that Jess sent me of her dinner.

Their house red wine was some of the best I've ever tasted

My French language that I've been dabbling with since uni days helped us in a few situations, but I realised that I'm terrible at actually understanding spoken French. 

Most conversations I tried to hold went:

Me: [speak in French]

Them: [reply in English]

Me: [Ok, I guess I'll proceed in a language I can understand]

or 

Me: [speak in French]

Them: [reply in French]

Me: ??

However, it was great impetus to keep learning, so that I can get better and then go to all kinds of interesting places like Les Hautes Alps and Nice and Normandy and pretty much everywhere. If all we did was go to different places in France for our holidays while we lives in Ireland, I would be so OK with this.

Thank you for having us Paris. Everyone we encountered was excessively lovely and accommodating, and didn't seem to mind we didn't speak much French at all, so shout out to Parisians, good job at looking after tourists.

I arrived back in Dublin at midnight to 8 degree weather with sideways rain, and wished I could've returned immediately to the blissful beauty that was Paris.

My love affair with France has only just begun.