Spending a weekend in Paris was amazing. Out of all the cities that I have visited in the last 6 months, Paris has been my favourite, for a number of reasons.
The architecture is different to anywhere else. The old terraced apartment blocks with plants dangling out of most windows, and the modern buildings go surprisingly well together. The things that you see whilst walking around Paris are some of the most popular places in the world. We stopped by the Church of Notre Dame, The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe all on the first day. Since we were only had a weekend in Paris we wanted see all of the key places on the first day, giving us time to explore some of the inner streets on the Sunday before catching the train back to London.
The people in Paris are generally pretty friendly. But I wasn’t surprised when the occasional local completely ignored us if we spoke to them. Not all French people love the English :). The only bad side of Paris is the scammers. All of the tourist spots are swarming with people trying to get your contact details or lure you into fake gambling games. Watching these scammers at work was really interesting but pretty sad. It’s crazy that these people spend their entire days trying to trick or steal money from tourists.
Paris Video
Paris had been hit by some serious rain in the days before we arrived. The river was 5 meters higher than usual, completely covering the footpath that usually runs along the riverside.
Like most people, the highlight of visiting Paris was seeing the Eiffel Tower. I took so many photos of it, from every angle. We also went back at night to watch the light show, which happens on the hour until 1am. You can see part of it in the video towards the top of this post.
One of the best possible views in Paris is from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Rather than going up the Eiffel Tower, we spent our money going up here so we could actually see the tower. Once you get to the top you realise how symmetrical and flat the city of Paris is. You can see 360 degrees, right across the city. This was one of the best views that I’ve ever seen and definitely a highlight of our weekend in Paris.
It was a shame to only spend a weekend in Paris. We saw all of the typical tourist attractions during the two days, but it would be nice to spend a week there to really experience the city. Although we’re heading back to France very soon. Both Sarah and I only have one more week at our jobs here in London. We are then traveling through Europe for all of July before heading back to London and flying to New Zealand in August. The next couple of months is going to be absolutely crazy. At this stage July is looking like:
- South of France
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Italy
- Croatia
- Greece
July in Europe is super hot and busy with tourists, but it should be an amazing month. I’m looking forward to taking a lot of photos.
Until next time,
2 Comments