Walking Tour of Paris

We spent the last long weekend we have until Christmas in Paris. We've been there before, over Christmas in 2010, but it was so cold we found it hard to enjoy the city, and we didn't get to explore Paris as much as we had wanted.

So when trying to think of where we wanted to go for the long weekend, I came across really cheap Eurostar tickets. So Paris it was!

We arrived late on Friday evening, so headed straight to our hotel to settle in. Upon entering our room, we discovered a bottle of wine and some chocolate's had been left for us! I had forgotten I'd put it was our anniversary on the booking form, asking for a nicer room. 

This usually works, we always get put in perhaps a better room or higher floor than we would have otherwise. And it was our anniversary when I booked the room...

Feeling slightly guilty. But not enough to not eat the chocolate's and enjoy the wine!

We were staying in the 11th Arrondissement, coincidentally the same hotel our flatmates had stayed in a few months previously when they had visited Paris. It was a bit too far away from the main sights to bother going out at 10.30 p.m. at night, so we decided to have an early night and make an early start the next day.

We woke up early on Saturday, enjoyed the buffet breakfast that was included in our room, and headed off to explore Paris.

Because it was so cold when we last visited, we caught the Metro everywhere, and didn't get to see very much of the city above ground. So this time, because the weather was a lot nicer, we had downloaded a few walking tours of the city.

Armed with these, we headed off in the direction of The Marais district and Bastille.

Our first stop was the Place des Vosges, the oldest square in Paris. It has been used as the prototype for a lot of other squares in Europe. At one end is the King's Pavilion, mirrored at the other end by the Queen's Pavilion, both built as ordered by King Henry IV in the early 1600's. All the building's surrounding the Place des Vosges are symmetrical, and match the Pavilion's at each end.

We did have some strange weather for the two days we were in Paris. It would be hot and sunny, and then the storm clouds would come from nowhere and bring strong rain and winds. It would then go back to being lovely again. It was very confusing. We didn't really bring any warm clothes with us, so we were glad the sunny weather seemed to be more prevalent than the rain.

After leaving the Place des Vosges, we continued wandering through the streets of the Marais, known for its historical buildings and for being the aristocratic district of Paris. It was still quite early, before 9.00 a.m., so none of the shops were open, but it was nice to walk through the streets and admire the shop windows.

We came across the Centre Georges Pompidou very suddenly, we turned a corner and there it was. It was opened in 1977, is home to a huge Public Library and the Musee National d'Art Modern.

It is an amazing building to walk around, we're not too fussed with modern art, so didn't really have any interest in going inside, but it was fascinating to walk around the outside.

The Stravinsky Fountain reminded me of the toys in Toy Story

Salvadore Dali outside the Centre Georges Pompidou

Hotel de Ville - Paris City Hall

We continued our walk to the islands in the middle of the Seine, Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint-Louis. Ile de la Cite is home to Notre Dame, the beautiful Saint Chapelle church and La Conciergerie, a former palace and prison.

We had already been inside Notre Dame on our previous visit, so we decided not to go inside this time. Plus the lines were a lot longer than they were the last time we visited, they stretched all the way around the block, and there were hundreds of people milling around outside.

Cathedrale Notre-Dame

We continued walking around the side of Notre Dame, into the Square Jean XXIII. The small park was almost deserted, and once again, by walking only slightly off the main path we managed to avoid all the tourists.

We had to take shelter under the trees after a sudden downpour, with the rain coming in sideways our umbrellas were pretty much useless, but just as quickly the sun came back out and we dried off pretty quickly.

This small park on Ile de la Cite was completely submerged in water when we last visited. That would mean the Seine was at least one or two metres higher than it is now.

We walked down to the Pont des Arts, the bridge famous for the hundreds of locks left by couples professing their love for each other. The Paris officials keep threatening to remove the locks, but so far haven't done anything. There are stands on each side of the bridge selling locks and pens for 5 euros if you forgot to bring your own.

Brad and I decided not to leave a lock, I kind of feel like it's tempting fate to leave something saying your love is forever. If it really is, you don't really need cheap locks to prove it!

Either way, the locks were an amazing sight. The best ones were the huge, brightly coloured bike locks.

The Institut de France

We continued our walking tour by heading into the St Germain district, South of the Seine. St Germain is one of Paris's most upscale districts and its streets are filled with cafes and boutique stores.

We were starting to get hungry for lunch, so we stopped into a sushi place and grabbed some sushi to takeaway. We were close to the Jardin du Luxembourg, so headed over there to have lunch al fresco in the park.

There are hundreds of chairs throughout the gardens as you're not allowed to sit on the grass at all. There aren't very many signs, so when we stepped over the ankle high 'barrier', a guard whistled at us and gestured furiously to get off the grass. Honestly, don't have such lovely grass if you don't want people to walk on it!

The chairs were really comfortable, and we enjoyed lunch in the sun until we were scared off by a bee who was far too interested in our food!

After lunch we visited Le Bon Marche, one of the best known department stores in Paris. It's about four stories high, full of designer clothes, home-wear and beauty products. On the ground floor is the Grand Epicerie, an amazing supermarket. 

The store is so beautifully set out, with goodies from all over the world. We spent a long time exploring the store, and eventually left without buying anything.

By this time we had been walking for hours and we were getting pretty exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel. On the way back, we went past Sainte Chapelle, the only surviving building of the Capetian palace on the Ile de la Cite. The Chapel was commissioned by Saint Louis IX, to hold his collection of Christ's relics, such as the Crown of Thorns.

It was damaged during the French revolution, but has undergone extensive renovation, especially to the stunning Stained Glass windows, which is the Chapel's most famous feature.

When we had walked past in the morning, the lines outside had been quite long, so we didn't go in. In the afternoon however, the line was much shorter, so we joined the end of the line and went inside.

However, once inside, we then had to wait for another half an hour before we were able to get inside.

The upstairs Chapel is filled with amazing stained glass windows. There are 15 huge windows in total, and almost the entire Chapel is glass instead of stone. They were beautiful with the afternoon sun shining through.

The windows actually tell the story of Christ from the beginning to the end, so you can trace the entire story as you move from window to window.

Looking into the upstairs Chapel from the balcony

We went back to the hotel to rest our feet before we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We had made a booking for the evening so we also wanted to put on some sightly warmer clothes in case it was freezing up the tower.

This was our first time up the Eiffel Tower. The second level was closed when we last visited, plus I couldn't imagine going up in the icy wind, so we were definitely going up this time.

I pre-booked tickets online, mostly because I hate waiting in queues, and because I wanted to have a definite time so we would have to go. When we arrived, the lines were huge. The wait was over an hour just to get in the lift. We went to the gate for pre-booked tickets, and breezed straight past all the people waiting and got straight in a lift. It was all I could do not to yell "in your face line losers!!'....

I was a bit nervous about going up to level two, so I was thinking I'd go up to level one and then have time to get used to that before going higher. Nope. They don't give you a choice. The lift goes straight from the ground to level two, so I had a little freakout when we got out and didn't venture too close to the edge. It was so windy, my hair was just blowing all over the place.

We had only bought tickets to level two, not right up to level three, because I thought that would just be too high for me. When we got to level two, you get in a separate lift if you want to go higher, and the wait for that was over 45 minutes, so even if I wanted to go higher, I could never be bothered waiting in line for that long.

Bradley took most of the photos of Paris from above, I was too busy inspecting the walls in the middle, far from the edge..

Don't look down.. and don't look scared!

Looking towards the Esplanade du Trocadero

After spending a while watching the sunset from level two, we headed down to level one. I enjoyed level one much more than level two. It was much less crowded, and I think we got a better view over Paris. I also didn't find it is scary since it wasn't as high, so I could spend more time admiring the view.

We came down just before 9.00 p.m., just after the sun had set, and we were in time to watch it light up. The Eiffel Tower sparkles for a few minutes on the hour, it's an amazing sight to watch.

Sparkling!

We left the Eiffel Tower behind and walked along the Champ de Mars to find a Metro station. We were beyond exhausted after our huge walking tour of Paris and were looking forward to going to bed.