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Earlier this year, the city of Paris was all over the news when a massive fire broke out at the Notre-Dame cathedral, heavily damaging the spire and roof of this iconic building. My boyfriend and I visited the cathedral when we spent a long weekend in the city back in 2012. It was actually the first time I planned a trip from scratch and while I didn’t quite fell in love with this city like I expected to, I do still think of Paris as a very beautiful and romantic place.
In the end we really enjoyed our 3 days in the City of Love. I invite you to travel along.
Day 1
We arrived in Paris early in the morning and once we left our luggage at the hotel, we set out on foot to explore the neighbourhood of Montmartre. We climbed the many stairs up the hill to the Sacré-Coeur so we could get up close to this beautiful white basilica and were rewarded with a wonderful view over Paris.
After browsing the cute shops and art galleries near the Sacré-Coeur (be sure to buy some cookies at La Cure Gourmande, it’s expensive but soooo worth it!), we took the metro to the Place de la Concorde.
During the French Revolution the Place de la Concorde was a site of public execution by guillotine, but these days there are just two lovely fountains and an obelisk that came from the Luxor Temple in Egypt. From the square we could see the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.
After lunch, we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries towards perhaps the most famous museum of Paris, the Louvre, where we spent the rest of the day until the museum closed its doors.
Day 2
After breakfast at our hotel, we took the metro to Trocadero for what is possibly the best view of the Eiffel Tower. Sadly, the weather wasn’t very cooperative that day.
We crossed the bridge over the river Seine and started to climb the Eiffel Tower. It’s possible to take the elevator up, but we were feeling energetic and took the 719 steps to get to the second level. To get to the third and highest level we had no choice but to take the elevator up (and maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing). At every floor we stopped to admire the views.
After a lunch with a view (on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower), we made our way back down and walked along the Seine to the Hôtel des Invalides where we visited the Army Museum and the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Next stop: the Musée d’Orsay. I was actually more impressed by the former train station that houses the museum than by the art exhibition itself.
We ended our day with a stroll along the Champs-Élysées and a visit to the Arc de Triomphe. From the top of the Arc (after climbing another 284 steps) we had a great view of the city by night. We could also see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, beautifully lit up at this time of the day.
Day 3
We started off our last day in Paris with a visit to the Panthéon, a former church which now functions as a mausoleum and houses the tombs of important French citizens like Voltaire and Pierre and Marie Curie.
Of course we couldn’t leave Paris without making it to the iconic Notre-Dame. She was truly beautiful, both outside and inside. I especially liked the colourful rose windows in the back. It was also possible to climb the gothic towers for what was probably a very nice view of the city, but we didn’t feel like waiting in line for about an hour so we skipped out on this.
There’s another church close by, the Sainte-Chapelle, which we also visited but this didn’t make a lasting impression on us (the church was covered in scaffolding at the time). We did like the Conciergerie next to the church. This used to be a royal palace and later a prison where Marie-Antoinette was held captive until her death.
Before we hopped back on the metro, we walked over to Centre Pompidou to have a look at the industrial-style building and the colourful fountains.
Our last stop in Paris before heading back to our hotel, was the infamous Moulin Rouge. I really wanted to see this because the musical Moulin Rouge (with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor) is one of my favourite movies. We didn’t go to a show (the tickets are a bit pricey and we didn’t think it would be up our alley) but I was happy just to see the windmill.
And that’s how our 3 days in Paris ended, but luckily for us our weeked wasn’t over yet. The next day, we spent a couple of hours at the Palace of Versailles before driving back home.
Getting Around in Paris
My favourite way to get around any city is to walk. That way you get to experience the vibe that is unique to every city and you get to see places that you would’ve otherwise missed out on. I still think this is the best way to experience a city.
That said, Paris is a big city and you’ll probably do a lot of stairs, so to get from one part of the city to another, the metro is your best choice. It’s cheap, easy and super fast. We stayed at a hotel outside of the city centre so we could get a better rate and we used the metro to get everywhere we wanted.
