A Weekend In Paris

Until last November I had never really visited Paris. As someone who loves food, fashion and beautiful European cities it seemed mad that I hadn’t ever really explored the city, especially when it’s so close. Paris is a city that’s so easy to fall in love with, after one weekend I was longing to go back and never leave. Let’s be honest though, Paris is expensive and there’s so much to do that know how to get the most out of a quick 1-night stay can be a little overwhelming. We managed to see so much of the city, enjoy the food and take in so much of what it had to offer without feeling as though we spent the whole time clock-watching and jetting across the city.

We arrived bright an early Friday morning and left on Saturday evening but managed to fit in so much. We walked miles, prioritised what we really wanted to see and we’re also not big on fancy meals and fancy hotels, so don’t go expecting to find those from this post. Instead it’s how you can immerse yourself in Paris even if you’re only there for a short while.

Walk everywhere: On our first day we walked 35,000 steps, on our second it was near on 20,000 (cut short as we had to go home…). I know to some people that’s hell and the total opposite to what a break should be, but for us it’s heavenly. It gives us the change to explore all the side streets, pop into any shops that we fancy and to meander our way through the city. You get a different feel for a city by foot and if the weather is nice then it’s even better. We walked up from Gare Du Nord across to Sacré-Coer to explore the beautiful area of Montmartre. We wanded through the sleepy Parisian streets and all the way down to our hotel (just a simple Ibis) located in the 15th Arr. The route we walked took us straight down next to the Seine, across to the Eiffel Tower, by the École Militaire and along to our hotel. Yes, it took us a few hours but we saw so much. We also walked around the Champ de Mars early on the Saturday morning and through the back streets up by Notre Dame. It was the best way to see the city before people started to stir and wander around the city.

Prioritise what you want to do: Paris is a city with so many amazing views, we did three but there are only two I’d reccomend: Sacré-Coer and the Arc Du Triomphe. The first is a steep climb up a lot of steps and if you hate tight spaces you probably wont enjoy it. The views across the city were incredible though, from the iconic tin roof-tops to the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The second is the Arc Du Triomphe, particuarly at night. We ended up going up around 7.30 so after we’d seen the city and taken in all the sights we waited for the Eiffel Tower to light up and sparkle as it does every hour, on the hour. If you’re under 26 then take a form of ID with you because you can get into the Arc Du Triomphe for free. Again, accesibility isn’t great and it requires you to climb a fair few steep stairs but if you’re able to then it’s worth every second of climbing. We knew we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and walk around the gardens of The Louvre and Jadins Du Luxembourg but queueing to go inside some of these places just didn’t appeal to us. So instead we wandered around and just took in the view. We still got to experience the atmosphere but didn’t spend half of our trip standing in line.

Don’t fixate on the food: In a city like Paris it can be easy to get caught up in the pressure to have the perfect meal. So much of the food is amazing that you’re paralysed by choice but if you’re only there for a few hours or days then it’s not worth wasting precious time. We ate more crossaints and pastries than I care to admit (when in Paris…) and we had a good breakfast at The Hardware Societié in Montmartre but other than that we didn’t fuss too much about food. In fact, one of my favourite meals was eating a crepe in the Jardin du Luxembourg. It wasn’t fancy, it was exceptionally messy but the surroundings were so beautiful and much more preferable than worrying about whether we were picking the best cafe in the city for a quick mid-afternoon pick me up or not. Instead of getting too fixated we just found places that looked nice, made sure there was something on the menu for us (being veggie in Paris is harder than I imagined) and headed straight in. Granted, we love food but we aren’t massive foodies and if you’re going to the city for the food then sure, you probably want to ignore this. But for two regular folks who just want to see as much as possible this approach served us well.

Paris is a beautiful city, we all know that. When a city carries that much hype you can almost feel yourself being dissapointed before you visit though, how could it ever live up to the epectations? We took things slow, we wandered around, we saw the sights like the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame and Arc Du Triomphe but we cherry-picked the things we really wanted to explore more of. We prioritised what really mattered to us, so we saw more of the city and less of standing in line doing at the things you “should” do in Paris like The Louvre and climbing the Eiffel Tower. There’s always more to see in a city like Paris and I have no doubt that I’ll go back but if you’ve only got a couple of days you can still explore some of the city and fall for it.