Paris

Mum and I got the chance to have a lovely girly holiday last week.

We headed to Paris on the 17^th of April for 6 days- Ben was joining us later which was perfect as we got loads of time to tick of lots of girly things before he arrived.

The trip started off a little slow, we headed to St Pancras and there were major delays. Luckily we were leaving pretty early so we had a 3.5 hour delay but made it. Most people on trains after ours didn’t get there at all on Thursday so we were pretty lucky- lucky enough to get a free return journey to say sorry!

 

Day 1- We ended up arriving at about 4pm so we dumped our stuff at the hotel and decided to have a little wander around and find our feet. Blown away by the pretty buildings we walked to the Lourve, wandered through Sephora drooling over all of the amazing make up and then and then went and got some dinner and a beer. Mum thought what a great idea to go into a shoe shop about 5 minutes after we arrived, which of course had me swooning over a pair for the duration of the week.

 

 

 

Mum's first purchase- Wine!

 

 

Our First Meal

 

Day 2 started with our complimentary breakfast, we went downstairs, and it consisted of baguettes and croissants, with spreads and tea, coffee or juice. Rather un-interesting but free none the less.

We went to meet Sylvia and Vic at the Lourve, and really discovered the beauty of it all. Before meeting them we went into a gorgeous little church, it was so old and medieval looking, and so calming and peaceful in there. I felt it was a really good opportunity to do something for a friend, who is suffering with cancer at the moment- I lit a candle for her and though I’m not that religious it really helped to put good vibes out into the universe for her.

Inside the Church

 

 

Me at the Lourve

 

Little Bear at the Lourve

 

 We wandered through the gardens and up Champs -Elysees and up to the Arc de Triomphe. Such a lovely day, and such a lovely walk if only we could afford to shop there! We got to the Arc and said good bye to Sylvia and Vic and I managed somehow to talk mum into coming up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. She’s rather scared of heights, and claustrophobic so not the ideal combination when climbing inside a concrete building up a metal spiral staircase, 300 stairs to be exact.

First sighting of the Eiffel Tower

 

The Arc before the climb

 

There was a bit of hand holding, resting and pep- talks but we got to the top and it was so worth it. The views of Paris were breath-taking, and it was the first time I got a good look at the Eiffel Tower.

Mum was so proud of herself, and so was I. She’s a first time traveller, and what I’ve learnt about living abroad is it’s the things you are scared of doing or don’t want to do that end up being the best memories and the most fun.

View from the top

A happy mummy

 

 

View down Champs

 

After ticking that off the list, we decided we had a little more in us, so we caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower to check her out. After a bit of confusion we managed to work out the metro system, which the tube system here definitely prepped me for we got to Trocadero, and there the Eiffel Tower was in all her glory. We took a few photos, ate a baguette each and made our way home for a bit of a rest, 7 hours on foot was all a bit exhausting!!
 

 

 

Post nap we went out for dinner at a diner dressed as a train carriage, the ‘Victoria Station’. We shared a pizza and a salad, it was such a cute little restaurant and yummy food… as we were discovering was the norm. Ordering dinner and general chat was a bit of a mission. We tried to get the hang of a bit of French, but couldn’t do much more than a Bonjour and a Merci. It was a cute little evening, apart from the couple pashing behind us slurping their tuna pizza’s all over each other.

 

Inside the resturant

 

After and early night,  on day 3 we thought we would have a chilled day. We walked up to Galleries La’fayette (the Harrods of Paris) and wandered through there for a while. On the way out trying to locate Metro to head to Versailles we spotted the shop where the shoes I were in love with were. I tried them on, ummed and ahhed and realised they weren’t perfect for me. Feeling defeated we stumbled upon another store that looked rather inviting. That’s when I spotted some even cuter heels- perfect for the wedding in June, and any other anything I might go to! I purchased them- with a little help from Mum and we went about our day with them in tow.

 

 We tried and failed to get to Versailles, so went to the opera house, and walked down the river, to Musee d’Orsay but the queue was outrageous so we flagged it and had a spot of lunch on the river and soaked up the sun- one would say a rather unsuccessful tourist day- if it wasn’t for the shoes!

The Opera House- abosolutly stunnung building

Lunch of baguettes

We had dinner at Pasta PaPa, two nice big bowls of pasta with mountains of parmesan. It was so yummy to really dig in and stuff my face with my favourite dish!
 

gelato for dessert

 

Day 4 saw the arrival of Ben, mum and I had a big sleep in, then more baguettes and croissants for breakfast (getting rather tired of this already!). Mum almost missed her church service- she wanted to go back to the church we went to on day 2, it was Easter Sunday and all. I left her too it and stayed in bed for a little while longer, before setting off on a little bit of exploring, slowly making my way to the station to meet Ben.

I walked down to Pl de la Republic (the peoples Square) and up and around in a big circle to come back to Gare du Nord to meet Ben for 2pm. I’m not sure it was such a good idea, I mean I survived and it was an interesting walk but I ended up in a more undesirable area of Paris I think. I stayed calm and tried to just find my way out the best I can… it was a good half an hour panic though that’s for sure!

I made my way to a nice little fountain and sat in the sun for 20 minutes to relax and waste time before walking down to Gare du Nord to finally greet, my still bearded boyfriend. 3 nights away from each other was more than enough!

Gard de Nord

 

We got a rather average lunch for Ben, and headed to Sacre Coeur, we should in hindsight, have sat down and relaxed for a while, as it all proved too much traipsing through the heat up the stairs to the masses of people! It really was a beautiful sight, and the views were awesome. Montmartre is also a pretty cool little suburb!

 

 

 

We headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner, we left mum to her own, and went out with a few friends, Steph and Nicky were there, and Simon and Ali as well. so we went out with the 6 of us and Steph’s friend Kiri who lives there, we started off in an Irish pub by Hotel De Ville, then headed off to a real French restaurant. The food was amazing, and the drinks certainly flowed, unfortunately 3 tequila sunrises, 2 shots and a bottle of wine before much food ended in tears.. I was so drunk I hardly remember eating the escargots and my veal pasta dish.

Safe to say Ben wasn’t happy that we had to leave during dinner, and I was pretty embarrassed in the morning that’s for sure!!

 

Me with the Pompier

 

Day 5 was safe to say I woke up with a pretty sore head. No time to rest, it was more stupid baguettes for breakfast and off to the Louvre for a look at Mona Lisa.

The line wasn’t too bad, just a half an hour wait, and I got in for free!! we wandered around for a while, saw Napoleons apartment, which was gorgeous! Was amazing to see, and imagine what it would have been like with them there, the bedroom was massive, but because they were such tiny people the bed was so small! I probably wouldn’t have even fit! Certainly not me and Ben together!
 

Napolean in all his glory

Napolean's Bed

 

 

 

 

We headed over to see Mona Lisa, which was bigger than I thought. After EVERYONE says its smaller than you imagine, I was almost expecting it to be the size of a postcard!

Mona Lisa

 

The art Connoisseur

 

There was some gorgeous art, and we spent an hour or so in there- left mum to explore to her heart’s desire, it started to get too hot, and they started closing the exits in some places so getting out became a bit of a palaver but we got out in the end and carried on to enjoy our day.

 

We walked down to the lovers bridge, well the little one anyway. Put a padlock there, and then realised that the real bridge was the next one over… fail! But we did it again and now our love is double locked!

 

We headed back and stopped at McDonalds… worst ever I certainly don’t recommend it! then went to the pub for a few drinks.

For dinner we went to Chartier, it was across the road from where our hotel was, and every day we had walked past at lunch time there was a line out and down the road, and then at dinner time after 6pm up until closing at 10! So we thought we must, it was a cheap eat, and recommended by Trip Adviser. It was such a cool experience, it’s a 19^th century restaurant and was so cute.. and very French, the waiters were great. It was a great night, and a cute experience.

 

Waiting outside Chartier

 

 

 

 

Spot of Champagne with dinner

 

one of our starters- SNAILSSSS.

Even the snails were in love- see the heart in the shell.

 

Day 6 was the last, we got up had more bloody hotel breakfast and headed to the Eiffel Tower, took a few cute snaps and headed down to join the line go up. on seeing the line at 9:45am it looked about 3 hours long! I was pretty keen to go up but we were leaving that day and we didn’t want to make it stressful! So we had a crepe, I brought a bracelet to add to my collection and we walked back along the river. The weather was gorgeous so it was a lovely walk.

Ben loves pictures!

 

 

Had to be done...

 

 

We saw the Grand Palais, Madeline and walked through the streets lined with shops calling my name. we made it back to the hotel, got a baguette before the walk and headed up to the station to go our separate ways. Mum was off to Brussels to continue her adventure, and Ben and I home.

I didn’t get to hug mum goodbye as we checked in and I didn’t realise we wouldn’t link up again, so I said bye through the glass, had a little cry and we continued our journeys.

there she is, sitting all alone :(

Paris overall was a really lovely holiday, the buildings are so pretty, but the streets are filled with homeless alcoholics, and it smell of urine in every corner. But it’s a really interesting place and I look forward to going back, with my free trip of course.

xx