This past weekend my dad and Marie were here for a very quick trip. They flew in on Thursday and out on Monday, but we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Paris... booked last minute on Thursday! We just went to Paris for one night but for a two day trip, we did Paris right.
We took the Chunnel on Saturday morning. There's been a big problem with refugees and migrants camped out at the tunnel entrance in France trying to sneak into the UK by walking through the tunnel at night. Our train was delayed by about 45 minutes because of reports of people walking on the tracks. It's quite sad actually because the tunnel is so dark and long that it's highly likely you will be killed if you attempt to make the dangerous trek.
Once we arrived to Paris, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed to the river. We walked along the Seine and then over to Notre Dame where we boarded a river boat that cruised around. We had to wait for a while to get on but it was a gorgeous day.
As night settled in, we started to think about dinner. I was growing a bit hangry so Aaron googled "best areas for restaurants in Paris". Something came up so we hopped in a cab and off we went!
The main street the cab took us to was packed. Aaron spotted a side street that looked quaint and we stumbled upon a restaurant that was made to look like a French ski lodge. It was amazing!! The owner was incredibly nice, food was delicious and atmosphere was inviting. I had raclette which I had never had before- it's similar to fondue but is a specific type of cheese that is thinly cut. You melt the cheese on a skillet board over open flames and then once it's bubbling and melted, you lift the board on one side so the gooey deliciousness slides down onto your plate of veggies and meat. YUM!
After dinner we took a taxi ride to an area that has an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower at night and then around the Arc de Triomphe before retiring back to the hotel for some rest.
The next morning, we woke early and headed to the Eiffel Tower. It opens at 9:30 and we got there at about 8:40. There was already a line, so we divided up: two people stood and waited while two others got coffee and croissants at a nearby bakery. The woman at the bakery very clearly hated tourists/Americans because she was stereotypically rude but the croissants were stereotypically delicious. Go figure.
We made our way up to the top of the Eiffel Tower almost immediately after it opened. This was definitely the way to see it because we beat the crowds and for the first 10 minutes at the top, it was actually peaceful... until all the other tourists arrived!
After that, we made our way to the Louvre. We've been to Paris once before since we moved but weren't able to do the Eiffel Tower or Louvre because the lines to get in were so long! Once we knew we were going to Paris, I tried looking up "how to see the Louvre", etc so when we got there and the line at the Pyramid was 2 hours long, I remembered I had read about another secret entrance. We went to another entrance in the mall and the line was 1.5 hours long there, but I wasn't convinced that was the entrance I had read about. Aaron began researching and we soon stumbled upon an amazing secret Lion entrance - no waiting, no line - immediately we got inside the Louvre. And on the first Sunday of each month, the museum is free... so our entrance was free! We timed that one pretty well. We saw the Mona Lisa and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower all before noon- now that's pretty cool.
After the Louvre, we made our way to the train station and then headed back to London. We both agreed this was our best experience in Paris. If you're going to do Paris, this is the way to do it!
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