One of the many perks of working in the travel industry is having access to industry rates on flights, hotels, tours, and pretty much everything you would ever want or need for travel. Since starting at Flight Centre I have made the most of every opportunity for cut-price travel, but so far the most money saving trip was our team trip to Paris where transport expenses were absolutely free - all the joys of a weekend trip to one of the most iconic cities in the world without the cost of getting there and back! A pretty good deal by anyone's standards!
The free part of our trip was a return ticket on the Eurostar, originally it was intended as a day trip but a colleague and I decided to go all out and do the full weekend, and when hotels are as cheap as they are with agent rates why would you?!
It was definitely a whiz-stop tour of Paris but I'd never been before and, for me, it was the perfect introduction to the city. Would I recommend this is how everyone does 48 hours is Paris? Probably not. There was a lot of breadth to our trip (we saw a lot) but there wasn't a huge amount of depth (you'll see what I mean). But as the infamous Casablanca quotes says "we'll always have Paris".
If you're coming into Paris by train then chances are you'll be starting your jaunt at Paris' Gare du Nord, one of the main train stations in Paris, and as far as starting points go this is a pretty good one. One of the many joys of the Eurostar is that when you step off the train in Paris, you are already right in the middle of things and when you are on a time sensitive trip this the best thing you can ask for. So, when we arrived into Gare du Nord at 09:45am we headed straight for the Metro to grab a map and buy a 10 pack of tickets (I would definitely recommend doing this, it will save you time and money throughout your trip). By 10:30am we were soaking in the culture at our first stop, the Arc de Triomphe after a few quick snaps hunger got the better of us and we wandered off down the side streets in the hope of finding something suitably Parisian for breakfast.
After coffee and croissants we wasted no time and headed back to the Arc de Triomphe to make the walk down Paris' most famous boulevard, the Champs-Elysée. In my eyes, Champs-Elysée is basically Regent Street in London, lovely architecture, fancy shops and a lot of tourists. But it is still worth the walk down to get to the Grand Palais and it's adjacent Petite Palais. The Grand Palais holds a host of exhibitions and the Petite Palais is home to the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts, both are probably worth a visit, but for us they were a pretty distraction en route to the main attraction - the Eiffel Tower. This was a bit of a round about route as you can see from the map at the bottom of this post, but I'd argue it was worth taking the scenic route for the walk along the river. I am a complete sucker for river walks in any country so I wasn't going to miss out on a leisurely stroll by the Seine!
The Eiffel Tower, as expected, is pretty easy to find. Turns out it's pretty huge and that helps with the navigation when you can just look up and judge if you're walking in vaguely the right direction. Eventually we turned a corner and found ourselves directly under the most iconic landmark in Paris. We did the obligatory photo taking, but passed on climbing the tower in favour of moving on to our next stop - lunch!
Honestly, of all the things we did and saw in Paris, lunch was definitely one of the highlights. We went to a restaurant called La Bouillon Chartier, on a recommendation from a colleague and what a good choice that turned out to be! La Bouillon Chartier, or just La Chariter, is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris (founded in 1896) and is something of an institution. When we turned up there was a solid queue already formed outside and there was a strong temptation to choose another restaurant. Thank god we didn't because the 20 minute wait for a table was definitely worth it. The service is quick and verging on rude, but the food is excellent. Our waiter had very little patience for our garbled French and we relied heavily on the one member of our party who can speak comprehensible French, but once we'd managed to order the food was divine. A special shout out would have to go to the beef cheeks, which were melt in the mouth delicious.
Day 1
If you're coming into Paris by train then chances are you'll be starting your jaunt at Paris' Gare du Nord, one of the main train stations in Paris, and as far as starting points go this is a pretty good one. One of the many joys of the Eurostar is that when you step off the train in Paris, you are already right in the middle of things and when you are on a time sensitive trip this the best thing you can ask for. So, when we arrived into Gare du Nord at 09:45am we headed straight for the Metro to grab a map and buy a 10 pack of tickets (I would definitely recommend doing this, it will save you time and money throughout your trip). By 10:30am we were soaking in the culture at our first stop, the Arc de Triomphe after a few quick snaps hunger got the better of us and we wandered off down the side streets in the hope of finding something suitably Parisian for breakfast.
After coffee and croissants we wasted no time and headed back to the Arc de Triomphe to make the walk down Paris' most famous boulevard, the Champs-Elysée. In my eyes, Champs-Elysée is basically Regent Street in London, lovely architecture, fancy shops and a lot of tourists. But it is still worth the walk down to get to the Grand Palais and it's adjacent Petite Palais. The Grand Palais holds a host of exhibitions and the Petite Palais is home to the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts, both are probably worth a visit, but for us they were a pretty distraction en route to the main attraction - the Eiffel Tower. This was a bit of a round about route as you can see from the map at the bottom of this post, but I'd argue it was worth taking the scenic route for the walk along the river. I am a complete sucker for river walks in any country so I wasn't going to miss out on a leisurely stroll by the Seine!
The Eiffel Tower, as expected, is pretty easy to find. Turns out it's pretty huge and that helps with the navigation when you can just look up and judge if you're walking in vaguely the right direction. Eventually we turned a corner and found ourselves directly under the most iconic landmark in Paris. We did the obligatory photo taking, but passed on climbing the tower in favour of moving on to our next stop - lunch!
Honestly, of all the things we did and saw in Paris, lunch was definitely one of the highlights. We went to a restaurant called La Bouillon Chartier, on a recommendation from a colleague and what a good choice that turned out to be! La Bouillon Chartier, or just La Chariter, is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris (founded in 1896) and is something of an institution. When we turned up there was a solid queue already formed outside and there was a strong temptation to choose another restaurant. Thank god we didn't because the 20 minute wait for a table was definitely worth it. The service is quick and verging on rude, but the food is excellent. Our waiter had very little patience for our garbled French and we relied heavily on the one member of our party who can speak comprehensible French, but once we'd managed to order the food was divine. A special shout out would have to go to the beef cheeks, which were melt in the mouth delicious.
After lunch we continued our romp around Paris but walking through the Pigalle district. Known to be the sleazier side of Paris we passed more sex shops than I have ever seen on one road until we reached the Moulin Rouge at the end of the road. For me, the Moulin Rouge was a little bit underwhelming - I guess I've seen the Baz Luhrmann film too many times - but I can only imagine the atmosphere of seeing a cabaret show with a bottle of champagne; that is one thing that is definitely on my list for next time! From the Moulin Rouge we moved uphill and into Montmartre, we were heading for Sacré-Cœur but on the way we stumbled upon Le mur des je t'aime, a wall mural covered over and over in the phrase "I love you" in all different languages. Hidden in a tiny city park, the wall isn't somewhere that we would have gone if we hadn't stumbled across it, but it's a lovely place to watch the couples searching for "I love you" in their language and it makes for an excellent photo opportunity as well!
From Le mur des je t'aime we finally made our way up the hill towards Sacré-Cœur. You can take the Montmartre funicular for an easier time getting up the hill, but we decided to walk, and it really wasn't all that bad especially when you come out in the Place du Tetre, a small cobble stoned square full of street artists and little trinkets. For me, the Place du Tetre was what I wanted Paris to be like, small romantic squares filled with Bohemian types (again too much Baz Luhrmann) and all the small winding streets to Sacré-Cœur were probably some of my favourite in Paris.
Sacré-Cœur was one of the few sites that we actually took the time to go into, and I'm glad. It's a beautiful church and we were luckily enough that there was a service taking place while we were there - an organ always makes a church seem more atmospheric. But I think what most people come up to Sacré-Cœur for in the view over Paris, and it's easy to see why. On a sunny day you can see right across the rooftops and off into the sprawling suburbs of Paris, I think everybody is a sucked for a view and this has to be one of the best views in Paris.
After taking in the views and Sacré-Cœur it was almost time for half of us to catch the train home so it was back down the hill and we wondered down whatever street took our fancy, passing through a flea market and a boulangerie on our way back to Gare du Nord. At this point Victoria and I bid farewell to the other two and headed to out hotel for the night, it had been a long day of walking and exploring so I think we were both glad to stay in for the night.
It was a fantastic first day in Paris, and we managed to get a lot of the key sites in, but there were a few important spots that were missing...thankfully we had day 2 for our 48 hours in Paris!
Find day 2 here.
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| Day 1 in red, day 2 in purple |
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