Our trip to Paris!

About a month and a half ago, I went to a trip to Paris with my boyfriend, and I've finally got round to writing a blog post all about it!

It started by me and my boyfriend saying we want to try go away together one weekend before Christmas. Then, I messaged him one night at 3am saying, mostly as a joke, "shall we go to Disneyland for Halloween, the tickets for their Halloween event are only £58 lol" or something along those lines. Totally expecting him to think I was being daft, as at this point it was only maybe 2/3 weeks away from Halloween. But, instead we ended up looking further into it and of course, we ended up making it actually happen.

We were staying in Paris Monday to Friday, but as we were going on the Eurostar from London at like 7am we decided to stay in London the night before. So we got a coach to London at around 12pm on the Sunday, and didn't arrive until 6pm. It wasn't too bad though, we were mostly excited!

We both paused our music at the same time to say something to one another, and we both were listening to the same song. What a coincidence? That's how you know you've got a good 'un. 

When we got to London we had a quick wander around but it was really busy, as you would expect. So we mostly just went for some food (at a nice little Italian restaurant) and then headed back to the hotel to wind down and relax. And then sleep, since we had to be up at 5am.. how fun. 

Getting up at 5am was painful to say the least, but we made it. The international travel part of the station was actually busier than we expected (I don't think we knew what to expect to be honest as we've never been on Eurostar before) but we made it through, and before we knew it we were on the Eurostar to France!

(Us looking knackered on the Eurostar, this is what getting up at 5am does to you kids).

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Once we arrived in Paris, we went to see if we could drop our luggage off at our hotel. It was only around 11am but check in wasn't until 2pm. The staff were really nice and helpful. They spoke English, which was a relief since we spoke bare minimum French and were a little bit clueless never having being to Paris before. They even gave us a map, and a free drink (which we forgot to claim, oops). 

Our first thing on the list was obviously to get some breakfast / brunch. It was our first experience of the holiday where we tried to order with the language barrier, so it was awkward but also quite funny. I think they could just tell we were English, can you blame them? Actually scrap that, it was hilarious. Because when we didn't know what they were saying, we just went silent and stared at each other. Absolute muppets, I tell ya.

The Louvre was apparently only a 20 minute walk, so we decided we'd try and get the Louvre done if it wasn't too busy (especially since 2 of our days were mostly taken up by Disneyland). It was nice to walk around the city, and we found some lovely little shopping arcades.

On our walk down to the Louvre we also came across Hard Rock Cafe. Of course, we had a little look in. We only looked briefly and mostly at the shop section, but later on in our trip we came back for Cocktails and food (more on that later). Also, it had a lot of funky Halloween decorations up which was cool to see!

"I've never seen that. I've never seen that in my life" 

"Never seen what?"

"A policeman on Rollerskates" - Liam

So afterwards we finally stopped wandering around and we arrived at the Louvre. Now apparently the Louvre is the biggest museum in the world - they say it would take you over 100 days to see everything in the Louvre, and even thent you would only be able to spend 30 seconds at each piece of art. So it's fair to say we didn't see everything (I mean we only had a day) but we spent around 4/5 hours in there. 

I was expecting gigantic queues, but thankfully they weren't too bad. To say we got there at around 1.30pm - we were in by 2pm. And I'd have heard horror stories of people queuing for hours and hours - probably in the summer though, and the more touristy seasons. Also, if you're in the EU and you're under the age of 26 you get free entry - get in! Shame us Brits won't be getting those perks for much longer when we've officially left the EU. 

Here's us outside the Louvre before we went in! 

We looked at the Egyptian stuff first, but we didn't realise how much there actually was, so we kept getting further and further in. We eventually made the decision to leave the Egyptian section and explore other parts of the museum, because at this point we'd spent around 2 hours in the Egyptian section alone.. oops.

After the Egyptian stuff we went to explore the Renaissance section, and we also found the Mona Lisa. It was super overcrowded though, so we couldn't get too close. But it was pretty cool to see it in real life, even if it was a little under whelming. 

I've got to admit, the fancy ceilings and architecture were one of, if not my favourite part of the Louvre. Maybe that's why I had neck ache the next day, because I was constantly starting up to admire the ceilings. They're beautiful.

 
                 

We'd been in the Louvre for maybe 3 and a half hours and we were getting a bit restless. It was getting busier and we were knackered as we hadn't drank for hours and we'd been on our feet non-stop. But we realised we hadn't seen any of the Greeks and Roman stuff yet - so after a while of trying to get past the masses of people, we managed to find them. Finally.

 
                         

We finally left the Louvre and took the opportunity to get some last minute touristy photos before we headed off.  Including this cute photo of my boyfriend trying to point at the Eiffel Tower. I spotted it first though, I won. 

After we left the Louvre, we decided to go back to the hotel and rest for a bit before getting ready to go out for some food that evening. We planned to go for a meal and maybe for a few drinks somewhere, but we couldn't stay out too late as we were going to Disneyland the next day.

We ended up eating at this pretty disappointing restaurant, so to make up for it we decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe again for some drinks. We spent 17 euros each on these huge cocktails (because why not, we're on holiday right?). They were delicious though, and we got to keep the glasses afterwards - bonus. Can't go wrong with the music either, was nice to see Black Stone Cherry playing on the TV screens while we were enjoying our cocktails.

 

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Day two

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We spent the whole of Tuesday at Disneyland, but I've decided I'm going to write all about Disney in a separate blog post. I'm doing this because we got a lot done in Disneyland itself, as well as lots done while we were in Paris. So to shorten this post somewhat, I've separated the two. I'm sure this post is going to be long enough as it is, and I'm sure the Disneyland post will also be relatively long. You're welcome. 

You can read about our time in Disneyland here.

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Day three  

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This is the day of Halloween! Today we had planned to go to Disneyland again in the evening, as we had tickets for their Halloween Spectacular. The doors opened around 5pm, but it didn't officially start until 8.30pm. So we decided to do a little bit of sightseeing before we went back to spend another day at Disney (link above to see what we got up to at the Halloween Spectacular). 

Our hotel was only 15 minutes away from the Sacre Couer, so we decided to go check that out. Little did we realise it was all up hill though, and probably took double the amount of time - because hey, I thought it was a good idea to wear platform boots that were weighing me down, especially on the stairs that lead up to it. But also because we kept trying to spot somewhere nice to have lunch as we weren't planning on having another proper meal this day since we'd be at Disneyland. 

 The views from the Sacre Coeur were pretty cool, but unfortunately on this day it was rainy and foggy. So therefore, the views over the city could have been better. But y'know, you can't have everything? Guess they do make some pretty atmospheric photos though!

The Sacre Coeur itself was super pretty! I love architecture, especially churches, cathedrals and basillicas. Super beautiful. I actually kind of like how atmospheric the weather made the photos look to be honest. 

  

The inside was amazing, again I am obsessed with architecture. Chances are I'm always looking up more than elsewhere. Arches, pillars, statues and ceilings, I just find them fascinating. Not to mention the stained glass windows!

                     

The following photos are some of my favourite from the whole trip. Especially the middle one. I find the art on the ceilings and windows so fascinating. I just can't get my head around the fact this was made by hand, and how it's a shame we don't really get anywhere near as much detailed architecture as this anymore.

I'm not the most religious person, but I do really appreciate and admire cathedrals and churches. We both also lit some candles for our loved ones that have passed away.

       

      

After spending a good hour or so in the Sacre Coeur we decided to head back to the hotel to get all dressed up for Disneyland. Again, you'll see all about that on my Disneyland post. 

I'll tell you something, the way down was a lot easier than the way up. And if I ever visit again i'll make sure to not wear such heavy boots all uphill.. my bad. There is also a lift up the stairs too, but we didn't notice it until the way down. And weirdly enough, it had pretty busy queues for it too. Though I moaned while climbing the stairs, I'm sure it'd actually be quicker than queuing up for the lift. 

We spent the rest of the day at Disneyland, and didn't get back to the hotel until 4am... yikes.

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Day four

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On this day we planned to do some sightseeing and touristy things that we hadn't yet done since we'd spent half our time at Disneyland. We were shattered to say the least after getting back to the hotel at 4am the night before, so we didn't get out and about until around 12pm. We definitely underestimated how difficult it would be to get up early every day and do everything we possibly could, when we were deprived on sleep all holiday. But it's fair to say we did a good job of cramming as much as we can in!

We went for a walk around the city which was lovely, and our main thing on the list to do this day was the Notre Dame.

It was rainy when we arrived at the Notre Dame, and the queues were pretty long which we were a little miffed about. But I'd heard the queues apparently go down quite quickly - which was true, we only queued for maybe 10 minutes - opposed to the hours I've heard people queue in the tourist seasons.

I was definitely mesmerised when we got inside. It was huge. Like, real huge. Again, little Becky here obsessed with architecture, but it really was impressive. We lit some candles for our loved ones again, and we also went into the treasures section that you had to pay for - though it was about 3 euros so, why not?

We spent maybe an hour inside, having a look at everything there was to look at, then sitting down in the middle and just taking it in and appreciating it's beauty. We also got some gorgeous memorabilia for our family.

I am obsessed with the stained glass windows, I just think they're stunning and it fascinates me how they were made and obviously displayed in these medieval gothic churches and cathedrals.

 Once we left the building, we tried to go up at the top but unfortunately you had to book in advance and as we were leaving the next day, realistically we couldn't fit it in. Definitely a little disappointing, but at least we got to see the rest of it anyway!

Afterwards we made our way back to the hotel, and did a little shopping on our way back. Tried to get all those little last minute souvenirs for our family - not like we hadn't already got them enough as it was. Oops.

Once we got back to the hotel we got showered and got dressed up because earlier on we had made a reservation of one of the oldest french restaurants in Paris. We thought we'd treat ourselves to a fancy meal on the last night, because why not? We're on holiday after all. (As you can tell, that was our excuse for most of the holiday - why the eff not, eh?).

The food, of course, was expensive. But it was delicious! It was nice to go to a traditional french restaurant seeing as we hadn't yet, and the place gave me proper 1920's vibes. Mirrors all over the walls, fancy lights, and all the waiters were in super smart suits. 

Of course we had to be typical tourists and get some snaps of us there. Classic Becky whipping out her huge camera in quiet, sophisticated settings.

After we finished, it was time for us to finally go check out the Eiffel Tower! We'd booked to go up it (yes, right to the top) at 9pm, so we had a little time to kill, but we pretty much went straight there so we could check it out. 

Now even when you do book a time slot to go up the Eiffel Tower, beware there are still queues. And a fair amount of them. Nothing crazy, but we had to queue maybe 3 times. We queued to get in, and then we queued at the lifts to go up each levels. So prepare yourself if you plan on visiting. We didn't actually leave until almost midnight! 

Not gonna lie, it was daunting. It was hella trippy looking underneath right to the very top. "Right to the tip tip tippity top" as Liam said. We kind of felt dizzy before we even entered the tower. And me being me, was wearing heeled boots and I was actually terrified of the thought of climbing all the way up. Turns out there's lifts too, and my ticket allowed me lift access, so I was relieved for sure. 

Not going to lie... it was actually freezing at the top. Which I mean, as you'd expect really. But we were definitely not appropriately dressed to deal with the cold, nor the wind. 

After we went up the Eiffel tower, we went for a little walk to take the opportunity to get some nice shots of the tower from a small distance. Unfortunately all the grass area was fenced off, but we still managed to get some photos with the tower anyhow.

 

After we got some snaps infront of the Eiffel Tower, we headed back to the hotel to start packing and get a decent night sleep, as the next day was our last.

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Day five

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Our last day in Paris! This day it was surprisingly nice and sunny - the best weather we had our whole trip! We accidentally fell back asleep and ended up being late to check out, but thankfully only by like half an hour so we weren't charged or anything. We started our day with some breakfast before we went out and about to do our last little bit of sightseeing.

We went to the Luxembourg Gardens, which I was already wanting to visit - but the nice sunny weather just made the experience that little bit nicer. The park was full of people sunbathing.. yes sunbathing in Paris.. in November. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Liam was Mr. Photographer this day - after moaning about all the photos I was excessively taking all holiday, he decided to have a go at taking some 'snap snap snaparoos' and as you can tell, he enjoyed it. Probably because he spent most of this time making some videos and trying to wind me up for some quality content (I am making a montage video of our trip at some point with this footage). 

After the gardens we really wanted to check out the Catacombs, and had a nice walk around in the sun on our way there. Unfortunately the queue for the Catacombs was huge (probably because there can only be a certain amount of people in at a time) and we hadn't booked tickets (we were eligible for discounted tickets, but you can't get the discounted ones online). We were also limited for time as we were going home this evening, so we decided to go for a walk to the Montparnasse Tower (apparently the highest viewpoint in Paris).

On our way there we ended up walking around a huge graveyard - not the one where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde werte buried though unfortunately. Interesting none the less though. I think we must have walked around 3 times before we finally found an exit.

And then we arrived at the Montparnasse Tower.. it was huge. There were two viewpoints, an indoor one and then an outdoor one on the roof. And for some reason they had those huge human hamster ball things for people (or I imagine, kids) on the roof - I mean, come on.. why would you? Anyway the views were pretty fascinating, and it was nice to see all over Paris in the daytime, and the sun made it even better. I think we did pretty well actually!

After trying to spot all the sights we've visited and also taking an excessive amount of photos of each other and trying to be candid, we decided to go for food at Hard Rock Cafe again before we went to the train station to get the Eurostar home. Naturally, we got more cocktails (because who can resist - we can't) and I had these delicious fajitas where as Liam had a burger. All in all, success.

And there we had it! That was our trip to Paris. It took a long time for me to get this out there as I like to go into detail, ramble on about things, take an excessive amount of photos and struggled to find the time to sort this out while I had uni work and a lot of other things to do. But it was a lovely holiday, our first together and I can't wait for when we hopefully go on one together again.

I'll be posting my Disneyland post next! So keep an eye out for that. 

Thanks for reading.

-x.o, B.E.J