The city of lights, as it is called, is one the most beautiful cities you will ever visit. Be it winter, summer, spring or autumn. The city will make you fall in love every time, anytime! We just spent 2 and half short days in Paris, but promised that we will visit again soon. We went in late October, being autumn there was a slight chill in the air, the leaves were yellow, orange and red, the weather was crisp, I thought it was a beautiful time to be there. It was a little cold, but just a light sweater was needed. Luckily for us, it did not rain the two days that we were there.
Just two days was actually enough for us to cover almost everything (everything touristy and the landmarks that is). There might have a been a couple of gardens that we missed out on, like Canal st. Martin, the Luxembourg Jardins and the artists at montmartre. Here is our itinerary to help you out, if you are planning a short trip to Paris!
Day 1: We flew into Paris from Barcelona. We took Air france and got a pretty sweet deal on the tickets (40 euros one way). We reached Paris by mid afternoon and took a cab to our hotel. We did not rent a car here, and you really don’t need a rental car because the city metro system is great! We got around everywhere by metro and also cabs a couple of times. We had booked a hotel walking distance from the eiffel tower. It was about a 10 – 12 minute walk (the hotel was in the tour eiffel area). So we reached the hotel, grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafe in the hotel and headed out walking towards the Eiffel tower. There were tourists, but not as many as there would have been in the summer! We spent about an hour there, taking pictures and taking the surroundings in. After this we returned to the metro station at Champs de mars and took a train to Sacre Couer. Now going to the sacred heart cathedral at sunset is ideal, but I have been there once before at sunset and it was PACKED! There not a spot to even take a step. However this time, it was already dark by the time we got there and there were very few tourists. We got a great view of the city at night and the church. Once we were done here, we walked towards some local shops and restaurants behind the church. I do not remember the name of this area, but there was a guy playing music on the side of the street on his violin, another guy doing portraits of people and another guy selling roses. It just felt like I was in Paris in a movie, it was all so romantic! 🙂 Anyhow, we headed back to the hotel after this and had a quick bite to eat at a restaurant before going to bed!
Day 2: This was our first full day in Paris. We started early, got dressed and walked down the street to a local Parisian crepe/breakfast cafe. If you are in Paris you’ve got to try crepes! 🙂 I had a delicious coconut macadamia nut crepe and some coffee. Day well started! Then we headed to the Louvre in the metro from Champs De Mars. Again, being october there were not a lot of tourists so we got our tickets and got in quickly. Now, I love arts and culture, so much to my better half’s dismay we spent about 4 – 5 hours there. You do need that much time! Some people spend days there. We saw all the iconic art works and were on our way. Next we headed to the Notre Dame church. Before this we grabbed some lunch at a local restaurant opposite the church. The dessert menu was so tempting, we couldn’t resist and ordered a decadent Tiramisu and an amaretto coffee. Next, we made our way to the Notre Dame cathedral. There was a very long line of tourists here to get in and a whole of pigeons outside 🙂 After the spending some time at the Notre Dame we headed to the Musee d’Orsay and spent about an hour there looking at amazing Van Gogh artwork and other sculptures. After this, we headed back to the hotel to take off our shoes for a bit after all the walking!! And then guess what, my hubby took me to the Louis Vuitton flagship store got me a gift (Best gift ever and best surprise ever) :D!! Ok, so after all this excitement of getting an awesome gift (it was dark by this time), we headed to the Arc De Triomphe. Took some pictures, reflected on the significance of the monument and paid our respects. We also went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, it was really windy but the view was well worth it. Again, we took some pictures of the city at night and the Champs elysees. Phew! That was a long day, we headed back to our hotel after dinner and slept like babies after all the walking!!
Day 3: This was our last full day here and we took a 90 minute train to Versailles to visit the Palace of Versailles. And oh what a place it was! Opulence at its peak. Regardless of the history the palace has, the interiors and the gardens are so well maintained. We had to stand in quite a long line to get tickets. The tickets for the gardens and the palace are sold separately. We got both. Again, lots and lots of walking and lots of pictures. We spent almost the whole day here and it was very well worth it. Autumn had made the gardens a beautiful shade of gold and green. The palace had regal interiors like you might have never seen before. We left to head back to the train station after seeing everything there was to see at the palace. Got some coffee at a starbucks opposite the station and made our way out of Versailles to head back to Paris. It was dark by this time and we had heard that the view of the Eiffel tower at night from the Trocadero is not to be missed. So we headed to the Trocadero once we reached back and saw the amazing eiffel tower in all its glory, lit up, sparkling and shining at night.
This was pretty much the gist of our flying visit to Paris. I would like to think we covered all the major landmarks. Maybe a few have been missed out, but we will get to them on our next trip 🙂
Trivia: Did you know it is not legal to share photos of the Eiffel tower lit up at night!! I would have liked to share the pics of the tower we took at night from the Trocadero, but can’t now!! 😀 I didn’t know this until very recently. Some more information on this here.
Hope this post has helped! As always, please feel free to ask any questions you might have about the itinerary, places we visited, hotels, restaurants, etc.. And please let me know the other amazing places we missed in Paris so we can get to them in future! Until next time…. au revoir
Dream . Wander . Dine . Create 
Sounds like such a nice trip. I’ve been to Paris twice but perhaps the next time I’ll focus on Versailles, too, your photos are quite inviting me there 🙂
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