PARIS Travel Diary - Day ONE

Day one started out EXTREMELY early in the morning with a 7am flight which meant I was up at ... wait for it ... 4:30 am (*cry*) but it meant I had landed by 9am which was so good. I found the flight so easy and quick, I read two chapters of my book and we were there. We also met a lovely woman on the plane whose husband was running in the Paris marathon!
Navigating our way through Charles de Gualle wasn't as bad as we thought, we managed to get down to the train station, hop on the RER B train and then even transfer onto the metro before arriving at our hotel to drop off the bags.

Once we had arrived, the first place we headed to was the Arc de Triomphe. Being the first Parisian landmark I had ever seen in real life, it took my breath away. The intricate design and details were just incredible and it was so cool to stand in the middle of the island seeing all of the avenues radiating outwards from it.

From there, we took to the Champs Elysee, (where else?!) Where my first stop was, of course, Laduree. Before this trip, I had never tasted macaroons being determined that my first ones would be from Laduree in Paris. I got vanilla, lemon, raspberry and chocolate and oh my god, they were amazing. We then walked past large high street shops like Zara, H &M, a 5 floor Jimmy Choo and even a Renault garage with a slide in it before heading for some Moules Frites. Obviously making a stop in Sephora along the way.

After this, we walked futher along the Champs Elysee to see it spread out into gardens a little more with some pretty magnificent buildings to look at along the way (I feel like they're palaces of some sort, and I also think fashion week is held in one of them but correct me if I'm wrong). Then we took to the Place de la Concorde to see Cleopatra's Needle before heading back to the hotel for a nap (Ben was tired). So we actually didn't complete my plan of walking along the Jardin de Tuilleries and seeing the Louvre in front of us. But to be fair it was a LONG way and we'd been up since 4am.

 At night time we had the idea to take the metro down to the Galleries Lafayette for a bit of last minute shopping but it was just closing as we got there so we didn't get a chance to go in argh! But we did see the beautiful opera house lit up at dusk, that was pretty amazing. And then we walked down to the Musee de Louvre to see that lit up at night too. In all honesty, if you don't have the intention to go inside the Louvre, I think the best time to see it is at night because it is stunning! And there are barely any people there so that's a bonus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, day one in Paris was pretty amazing. I love the view of the Eiffel Tower from outside our hotel - it was so comforting. I definitely got to experience the true Parisian culture I think (or at least the true tourist Parisian culture - haha) But it was really great, we just walked around and looked at everything mostly, Paris is one of those cities where no matter, how much time you spend there, you'll never be able to explore it all - and definitely not in 3 days!
See you in my next one!
CJ x


If you liked this travel diary, you should definitely check out my two previous trips that I've blogged!

London Travel Diary

Prague Travel Diary