The Paris Diaries: 5 Best and Worst Things!

Hello everybody!
And welcome to my final instalment of the Paris Diaries! (*cry*) Today I'm going to talk about my five favourite and most disliked experiences of my trip. This varies a lot from food to attractions to general experiences. I hope you like it and let me know what you're most liked and disliked parts of Paris are.

Worst

5. The amount of armed police EVERYWHERE. To some people, this may not be a bad thing and I'm sure a few did feel more secure in the presence of these police especially since the Charlie Hebdo attack. However, for me, I have never seen this kind of thing. It's not like I'm not use to cities, yes I've seen guards outside Buckingham Palace etc. But this felt a lot worse. The first armed guard we saw was just walking through a car park next to our hotel. They were in groups of 3 outside the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, everywhere. And I for one actually felt less at ease because it was if there was a threat to be protected from. Not what you expect in Paris

4. The randomness of shop opening hours. Once again, this wasn't a massive disappointment but it was just strange. We didn't make it to Galleries Lafeyette because we just never knew when it was open! Some shopping districts were open till midnight, some were closed on Sundays, some were closed in the middle of the day. It was just very unpredictable

3. The price of beer. Now I'm getting more into the things that really angered me. Yes, I do understand that Paris is a city and it is expected for it to be more expensive than anything that I'm used to (bearing in mind that I come from the North of England where I'm not used to paying more than £4 for a beer - and that's in a city). HOWEVER, there was absolutely no need for the cheapest place we found to have a drink to be Hard Rock Café. No. Previously, that was the most expensive place to drink but we were so relieved to see that Belgian Beer was only 7 euros. I'm about to make you all faint right now but Ben actually paid 20 euros for a beer in Le Crazy Horse, not even a pint, 20 euros. No.

2. The queues. Sometimes unavoidable, but some of them were just unnecessary. I'm British. I am used to queuing. Queuing for the Eiffel Tower, yes I don't mind it is the most visited attraction in Paris. Queue jumpers? Oh no. You know why? There is absolutely nowhere for you to go once you get past the person you're jumping, you just have to stand there. But people really didn't care. The queue for Versailles was absolutely insane! It zigzagged all around the courtyard and it just seemed like everybody in Paris was there. Argh. It just bugged me.

1. The scammers. Absolute hands down WORST thing about Paris. And I could sit here and tell you that once you know about the scams, you can avoid them, but you can't. We knew there were ladies with petitions asking for donations, we knew about the gold ring scam (didn't get that fortunately), we even knew about the bracelets that people would try to put on you. But there was no way of knowing that if you refused one of these bracelets, that 3 men would grab your arms and drag you away from the security of the crowds to call you disrespectful and racist Seriously, for not wanting a bracelet. My advice to you - pretend you don't even understand them.


Best
5. The gardens. Yes, yes. 'Why Paris? There are gardens everywhere in the world!' And I do agree, but there's something about Paris in the Spring. On a good sunny day, everything's in bloom and everyone's out. Just strolling around the gardens is like being in a postcard. Jardin du Luxembourg, Jardin du Tuilleries, the gardens at Versailles and next to the Eiffel Tower. Every day we sat in a different one. You can just act like a Parisian. Sit and eat your croissant, read your book and take in the scenery.

4. The public transport system. Once again, this is a love/hate for some people. If you can work it out and at least act like you're confident with it, it's amazing. Ben and I just took the plunge. As soon as we touched down at Charles de Gualle, we headed downstairs to it's train station and just did it. We pretty much got the metro or walked everywhere. The only time we got a taxi was after we saw a mugging so nobody can blame us! The metro is so efficient, always on time, easy to work out and just great.

3. The food - crepes, macaroons, croissants- need I say more? Like oh my god. I know you can get this stuff In England but it's nothing like the food in Paris. I had my first taste of Macaroons from Laduree, which were INCREDIBLE. The crepes under the Eiffel Tower are amazing. And pastries are just mouth watering, everything's so good. Aaaaah. One thing I will say is, it might have been my choice of restaurant but the mussels came in second best to the ones in Brussels, just saying.

2. The architecture. I'm serious when I say this is breath taking. But then pretty much every European city has stunning architecture. There's just a surprise around every corner and I don't know but Paris just feels so Parisian! I can't describe it, it was everything I was expecting and more. There were monuments hiding in the most unpredictable places and beauty hidden extraordinarily well.

1. The Eiffel Tower SPARKLES. Yep, it actually sparkles. Now I hear you saying 'Why is this your number one?!' 'I was slightly underwhelmed by the Eiffel Tower.' But for me, this was everything I was waiting for. I was pretty used to seeing the Tower by day 3 as you could see it as soon as we walked out of the hotel, but on the final day I decided to time it to catch the twinkle lights. Every hour after sunset, on the hour, the twinkle lights come on for about 3 minutes I think. When I saw them I actually cried, it was so amazing and definitely worth timing your outings around!

OK, so there's my top 5 best and worst things about Paris! It was an incredible experience and I would love to return regardless of some of the bad points. I hope you enjoyed this and if you have any good or bad points that I've missed, let me know!
CJ x

PARIS Travel Diary - Day Three

Bonjour!

Welcome to my final day of my Paris Travel Diary, I actually left Paris on the fourth day in the afternoon, but there isn't all that much to tell apart from we had crepes for breakfast and sat beside the Eiffel Tower until about 1pm.

 

Day 3 however, was very interesting! This was a day full of churches and landmarks that we hadn't previously seen. It started out when we walked out of our hotel and took a picture of the original Statue of Liberty. She was right outside our hotel entrance and the sight became so familiar that we had to take a photo. We then went around the corner for breakfast in the shopping centre right behind our hotel (I really don't know what it's called I'm afraid but any Parisians out there might know - it's in the 15th arr. and has a very modern structure). After that, we walked down to the metro station and headed up to Montmartre.  

 

I absolutely loved the streets on Montmartre. They were so narrow and winding yet so welcoming. The main street from the metro station to the Sacre Coeur is filled with Souvenir shops but some of the backstreets have really cute cafes and definitely give you that Parisian feel. I loved being in the place that was once home to artists like Van Gogh. However, it is a completely different story once you get to the main hill and steps up to the church.

There are people trying to sell you bracelets, but they won't come up to you and ask if you want to buy one. They will literally grab your arm or hand and start braiding this bracelet onto you and then will not let go of you until you give them payment. Although we were aware of this scam, it didn't mean we were any more prepared for it. There were two or three men at a time and they didn't think twice about grabbing you and dragging you off to the side. If you politely say you don't want a bracelet, they tell you it's for the church, everybody has one and you have to have one too. If you then continue to tell them no, they will accuse you of being racist and disrespectful towards them. Now, this may not apply to all men selling bracelets outside the Sacre Coeur, but they did target a particular type of people - anybody who was English, or anybody who was white and blonde for that matter. It may not be all the time, but we felt that all other nationalities were being ignored and they would steer for us. It could be that we were young, blonde, English, small, whatever. But we were definitely being targeted. Watch out for this.

Putting those several incidents beside, once you reach the top of the hill and are staring up at the Sacre Coeur, it really is breathtaking. The church is gleaming white and the views from the hill looking over Paris are stunning. There are armed guards at the top, so the men I mentioned previously  were not around, but that doesn't mean that there weren't pickpockets. We didn't see anything happen but we definitely got some dodgy vibes from a few people.

After admiring the Sacre Coeur in the sunshine we headed on down to gaze upon Notre Dame. Another seriously beautiful landmark church that Paris has to offer. It's amazing that it took over 200 years to build Notre Dame and that it's around 700 years old now, but looking at the towering buttresses and gargoyles, you really appreciate how much work went into constructing it. It is a gothic architectural masterpiece.

We then walked over to Pont des Arts (otherwise known as Love Locks bridge) to see that it was all boarded up. This really hit home about how a trend can become so catchy and everyone has to do it to get that perfect instagram picture so that it ruins the idea entirely. The bits of the bridge that were exposed were so over-filled with locks upon locks that it was just sad to look at. Nevertheless, it did offer some of the best views of the city that we've seen.

We then walked down to the Jardin de Luxembourg, doing some shopping on Rue de Rennes on the way, to chill for a little bit before exploring the Latin Quarter. The gardens were extraordinary and it was so cool to see this city just rest for a little bit. Children were playing, there were people young and old just sitting on the grass reading books. It was great.

The Latin Quarter was pretty cool too. We definitely felt the vibe that it was the area for students and 20 somethings. We had some great pizza while we were people watching, then took a quick look at the Pantheon before heading back to the hotel for some rest! Phew!

Night time came around and we didn't go out until like 9/9:30 so we decided to hit up Hard Rock Café. Something we always have to do when we go to a new city. As we were nearing the entrance, we actually saw a guy get mugged! That was me deciding to get a taxi back tonight ... the wait was short and the beer was the cheapest we'd seen in Paris! We sat down and I usually order the local legendary burger but when I found out that Paris' specialty was mashed duck I decided against it.

The taxi ride back to the hotel was great and our driver even pointed out the Hotel des Invalides which we hadn't seen before! So that was a good way to top off our last day.

All in all, I absolutely loved Paris and there are only a few things that we didn't get to do - which I find amazing because we managed to cram so much in! There are obviously some down sides but it really is a beautiful city and I can't wait to return.
Au revoir,
CJ x

 

 

 

If you missed any of the other Paris blogs you can catch up here:
Day One

Day Two

You can also check out my other travel diaries from previous cities!

London Travel Diary

Prague Travel Diary

 

 

 

 

PARIS Travl Diary - Day Two

Morning everybody!
Day two in Paris started off pretty early, it was a Sunday morning and I heard that next to nowhere was open before 12 on Sundays (if they were open at all). This is true for shops and some cafes and restaurants but if you're worried about where to get breakfast on a Sunday morning in Paris, don't. Almost every boulangerie is open on a Sunday morning and they are heaving with both locals and tourists grabbing a quick croissant before going about their Sunday.

Fortunately (or unfortunately - whichever way you want to look at it), the Sunday that we were there was also the day of the Paris marathon, so practically everyone was up.
So we got up on Sunday, grabbed croissants from a boulangerie around the corner and walked down to the Champs de Mars train station to get the RER C train to Versailles. I know I know, you think we're crazy for going to Versailles on a Sunday as it's the busiest day of the week to go, we had no other choice, it was closed on Monday and we were leaving on Tuesday. Versailles is so easy to get to from central Paris and I don't understand why people warned us that it was so far away. It took us less than 30 minutes to get there, easily. And it was on a DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN. As you can tell, I was amazed.

And everybody was right, the palace of Versailles was insanely beautiful, and insanely busy! The queue to go inside the palace zigzagged all around the courtyard at least 3 times. Fortunately for us, we weren't too bothered about going inside the magnificent chateau, so we didn't waste half a day queuing to get in. Instead, we walked through the pillars to the much more manageable line to walk around the gardens (it was actually 9 euros to do this even though most guidebooks say it's free?!)

This though, was absolutely worth it. I have never seen gardens this magnificent, there were loads of fountains and just too many acres to explore in one day. The best thing we did was have a little stroll and then sit beside the canal for lunch watching the swans, ducks and fish all swimming around. Along with people rowing boats along in the most idiotic ways.

After our lovely morning at Versailles we got the train back to our station and weren't really planning on doing too much until night time. However, our stop was connected to the Champs de Mars station (the Eiffel Tower station) and when we came up, we were stood at the feet of the Eiffel Tower and couldn't resist going up any more.

We made the pretty good decision of WALKING up - yes I did just say that. All 668 steps to the second floor and then the lift to the top. This was such an incredible experience - the queue is way shorter, it's cheaper, less crowded and you can really appreciate the beauty of Paris with every single step. Once we got to the first floor we had a mooch around, the Eiffel tower gift shop was too good looking to resist (although - I didn't buy anything - go me!), I do wish we at least had a cocktail at the bar or restaurant though. I absolutely loved walking on the glass floors, much to Ben's dismay who hates heights! I couldn't get him anywhere near the glass. After we reached the second floor and wandered around we waited about an hour/hour and a half to get a lift up to the top.

Most people say that the Eiffel Tower was a disappointing experience, I can understand this but I think it completely depends on the circumstances. It is breath-taking to look at all of Paris stretched out in front of you, but myself and Ben were so fortunate with our decisions. I've heard that the lifts sometimes break and one of the stairways has to be fixed so then everybody is crammed into one stairway. Or that one of the lifts to the top is broken so it takes twice as long to get there. We had perfect weather - a none crowded walk up and a reasonable wait to get to the top. I couldn't ask for anymore.

After our Eiffel Tower adventure we had some Nutella and Strawberry crepes - yes, it is true. The crepes under the Eiffel Tower are the best crepes. And I will save you some time, unlike me and so many others who've heard this and spent the best part of an hour wandering around the corners of the Eiffel tower looking for the place. The crepes are from a little stand next to the carousal on the trocedero side of the Eiffel tower. Just across the road from it.

That evening, we headed out to the burlesque show we had booked: Le Crazy Horse. I actually think this is the original one and there are some others around the world, there's definitely one in Vegas. Anyway, this was .... interesting. If you're wanting a proper cabaret show with comedy and can-can dancers, this is not it. This is definitely on the more adult side of entertainment (not too bad but getting there). It is probably one of the most famous burlesque shows in the world, and just looking at the wall of fame of it's visitors, you can tell. One warning though - do not go to this show expecting to drink because the prices are INSANE. It was 20 euros for a 330ml bottle of beer and 10 euros for a 250ml bottle of water?!

An unpleasant taxi ride later we were back at our hotel absolutely exhausted.
So that's day two for you! I hope you enjoyed it, it was probably the most eventful out of all of them. If you missed my first day of Paris you can read it here.
And you can also find links to my other travel diaries on the blog too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris Day One

Prague Travel Diary

London Travel Diary

Keep a look our for day 3! Coming soon!
CJ x

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