Paris, the city of love! As part of our three week honeymoon, M and I traveled to Paris after being in London for two days (London blog post here). This was both of our first times visiting Paris and we were so excited. I have heard and read a lot about Paris that I was most looking forward to this destination out of all of our honeymoon destinations. Paris did not disappoint and below is our itinerary on how to enjoy Paris in three and a half days.
First, we traveled from London to Paris on the Eurostar train that travels under the English channel at rapid speeds. The total time on the train was about 2 hours and 15 minutes give or take. However, you do not feel like you are on the train for 2 hours and you’re above ground for most of it–I could not feel or did not know when we were traveling underground. The train is a very smooth and fast ride, the seats are very comfortable and the train provides a lunch (that you pay for with the purchase of your train ticket). Overall, 10/10 would recommend this transportation from London to Paris.
When we arrived we took a taxi from the train station to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Pont Royal located in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. We loved this location and were able to walk or electric scooter anywhere we needed to. We took taxis to/from the Paris train station and airport. We booked the Deluxe Superior Room with Eiffel Tower View which provided us with our own balcony with table and chairs.
The hotel ambiance was 10/10, bed was comfortable and we had a hotel front facing room with Eiffel Tower views and a balcony with a bistro style table and chairs. It was LOVELY. Perfect view of the eEffel Tower and walking distance to great restaurants/cafes as well as the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay museums. Two things worth noting about the hotel are
- The hotel shower is hand-held (not my favorite) but this also caused a mess because the shower is not completely closed and had half glass “wall” coverage.
- The air conditioning barely functioned in our room. We were there in August so it was very hot, but we slept with our balcony door open most nights so the no air conditioning did not bother us much. Worth noting though if you are going to solely rely on air conditioning to cool off.
The first night we ate at Le Gevadan and it was delicious, traditional French food and wine. Afterward we walked around the Saint-Germain-des-Pres district and returned to hotel to sleep.
First Full Day in Paris
The first full day of Paris we ate breakfast at Cafe Du Flore (walking distance from hotel, ~15 minutes). We arrived when they opened and there was no wait for a table. Excellent food and hot chocolate. Tip: They have small tables so do not over order. After breakfast we walked (~20 minutes) to the Louvre museum. Here is where we had a fast pass private guided tour for 2-3 hours and it was well worth it, highly recommend this as the lines to access the Louvre are extremely long no matter what time of day/month you visit. We ate at Les Antiquaires (French and American food options) on our walk back to our hotel from the Louvre and enjoyed this meal a lot. Later after lunch we walked (~35-40 mins) to Atelier Choux for souvenirs. We rode a stand-up scooter to Notre Dame (currently under construction, cannot access the inside at this time–again, August 2022). After our walk back to our hotel we stopped for a nap and then later walked to Chez Fernand (TIP: not the best food, but we sat outside in the “street” and that was a fun experience). Before heading back to the hotel we stopped at La Creperie Du Clown for crepes. 10/10 recommend this place. Excellent crepes. Then we returned to the hotel to sleep.
The Second Full Day in Paris
The second full day in Paris we ate a quick breakfast at a bakery by Musee D’orsay and walked to the Musee D’orsay museum (~10 min walk from hotel). We listened to the free Rick Steves guided tour app on our iphones to tour the Musee D’orsay and would say this was good enough for us. We didn’t need a private tour of this museum and saw everything we wanted to with the Rick Steves tour. Later, we stand-up scootered our way to the Eiffel Tower (semi-private tour, skip the line pass). This was our first time seeing the monument and it was exactly what I imagined it would be. Huge. With our semi-private tour we were able to skip the lines to access the Eiffel Tower (worth it) but did stand in line for the elevators to go up into the Eiffel Tower (there are no tickets to bypass this line). With this tour we were able to go to the first floor (restaurant is on this floor), second floor (open air viewing) and to the top (summit). We of course went to the summit and are so glad we did! At the top they have caviar and champagne you can order (we did not) but it is a WHOLE VIBE up there. Excellent views of Paris from the summit and IMO worth the money to access it. 10/10 recommend this. Our semi-private tour of the Eiffel Tower included a ferry tour on the Seine River but we were unable to do this as we had dinner reservations this night and touring the Eiffel Tower took much longer than we anticipated. (TIP: allow at least 4 hours to tour the Eiffel Tower if you go to the summit, lines for the elevators are long). After the Eiffel Tower tour we got wine and cheese at a nearby restaurant. (TIP: restaurants/hotels near the Eiffel Tower are obvi much more expensive). We ate dinner at Girafe this night and will include a picture of the view from our table outside. I would say the view is worth eating at this restaurant, but overall the food is 6/10. We were very vigilant walking around the Eiffel Tower area at night as it was very busy around eleven o’clock at night but overall would say we felt safe. We stayed in well lit areas and got on scooters to return to our hotel when we saw scooters available. (TIP: I would not recommend walking around intoxicated or after hours near the Eiffel Tower as it was so busy I could see it being easy to be pickpocketed).
The Third Full Day in Paris
The third full day in Paris we ate breakfast at Las Antiquaires and walked to the Metro Train station (~20 mins from hotel) to grab a train to Versailles. (TIP: the bathrooms in the metro train stations are not great, you have to pay seven euros to access and they were not clean). The train runs every 15 minutes and takes about 30 minutes to/from Versailles. Versailles was beautiful, it was about a 7-8 minute walk from the train station. We had a semi-private guided tour of Versailles and the Garden of Versailles. (TIPS: fireworks on Saturday nights in the summer and there are golf carts you can rent for the Garden of Versailles if you do not want to walk it). If you are on the fence about visiting Versailles or the Garden of Versailles while in Paris, I would recommend visiting both–you won’t regret it and the property is very beautiful. After we returned to Paris we ate dinner at Kodawari Ramen near our hotel (Michelin star rated) and it was so good! We love ramen and waited about 45 minutes to get in (we got drinks and apps at a restaurant nearby to hold us over while we waited).
Our last half day in Paris we ate breakfast at Las St Germain restaurant near our hotel. Then got a taxi to the airport (~40 min drive). We are off to Roma!
Things to remember about Paris:
- No wine hangovers, for me—YAY!
- A lot and I repeat, A LOT of French smoke, especially when eating so if you choose to sit outside at a restaurant, most times expect to have smoke as your appetizer and dessert.
- There are a lot of sweets and therefore (at least in August) there are A LOT of bees if you eat outside. So much so that we had to change our table during breakfast one day.
- We got around mostly by walking or stand-up scooter. I just rode on the back of M’s scooter and you pay via an app. We recently read Paris was trying to ban these scooters as a way of transportation so if you are relying on scooters to get around Paris during your visit after reading my blog post–please confirm stand-up scooters are still available in Paris to ride.
*There are a lot of other things to do in Paris as well, this is just what we had time for and made a priority during our trip. We plan to return to check other Paris sites off our list.
-Have you been to Paris? If so, what was your favorite part of Paris?
Xo
@thedailyallis
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