France – Part 2- Paris
I have always wanted to visit Paris…although I lost the 5 years of French that I took in middle and high school! But Peter, that is another story, it was not on his list – he said he doesn’t like French wine, cheese or cigarettes and doesn’t wear a scarf – so why go – Italy is better (spoken like a true New York Italian boy). I convinced him that we would do Disneyland Paris as part of the trip and he agreed. I will talk more about that part of the trip next week!
During our 3 days there, we visited all the main tourist sites so let’s talk about them first. As we do in every new city we visit, we had a private driver/guide named Philipe. He was amazing and since he was a local – knew everything that you would want to know about everything. He took us all around the city in his Mercedes sedan. Which apparently was a magic car – because we were never in an accident – even though we were convinced at times we would die. The Parisians, like most Europeans, don’t really follow any traffic regulations. Free for all comes to mind when driving around Paris. Our guide took us to a little spot on a narrow street, outside of a café called Le Vigny, where in 1882 if you looked from the café tables you would have seen the Statue of Liberty under construction. It was very cool. Of course, my nerdy husband knew the answer when our guide asked what you would see from this spot.
So, our guide dropped us off for our first tourist site, the Arc de Triomphe, which was originally commissioned by Napoleon. The French view it as a symbol of liberty, unity and resilience. It is covered with sculptures that depict over 500 battles and generals. We also had the tickets to go to the top, which gives you an amazing view of Paris and the 12 streets that go out from the roundabout where the Arc de Triomphe sits.
Our guide also dropped us at the Eiffel Tower, later that day and we had the tickets that took you to the very top. Be sure to buy those in advance because none were available for those that did not plan in advance! The Eiffel Tower was created for the 1889 World’s Fair to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The tower is surrounded today by a glass wall, that limits access to the entire site. It was amazingly safe (had to go through 2 security screenings,) but it did take away a little of the romantic history of being able to just stroll around the base, but in today’s world it’s one of the things we have to deal with at these historic sites. The elevators to the various floors were interesting in how they “climbed” the tower. And the observation decks were amazing – the views were everything you see on tv and in movies. It was definitely worth the visit!
On our next full day, our guide picked us up early for our drive and tour of the Palace of Versailles. This was an enormous place between the palace itself and the gardens. The palace itself is known for its Baroque architecture, and the Hall of mirrors is not to be missed with its 357 mirrors! The palace is not only a French historical site but is one of the most visited attractions in the world. So, I cannot stress enough that advance planning is necessary.
On our final day in Paris, we visited the Louvre first. Which was very close to our hotel. We were told we should hire a guide, but honestly, we just googled a 2-hour overview of the Louvre and were amazed with what we saw in a short time including the Mona Lisa, Napoleon’s apartments, the Venus de Milo and the Great Sphinx of Tanis (along with a ton of other Egyptian artifacts). We spent about 3 hours there and felt like we got to see what we wanted but you could easily have spent the whole day there and not seen everything.
We then made our way to Notre Dame, which was very beautiful and free to visit, but getting a timed entry made it much easier to go in vs waiting in a long line! However, once inside you did have to follow a set route through the church and it was hard to deviate or really spend time as there are so many who visit.
A few unexpected things from our visit to Paris included the Dinner Cruise down the Seine. I would say that this is worth doing as it was not very expensive, you got to see all the landmarks of Paris and especially the beautiful Eiffel Tower that was lit up when it got dark!
One unexpected thing was when our guide surprised us on our drive around the city. He stopped on a busy street, parked the car and walked us over to what looked like the entrance to a building courtyard. But when we went through, we saw the Arenes de Lutece, which was a Roman gladiator amphitheater, literally behind some buildings! You would never know it was there, but it is now a park in the Latin Quarter.
We will definitely go back to Paris at some point as we enjoyed our time there and there are many things that we still want to see but just didn’t have time in our 3 days. For the first time on one of our trips, we didn’t really book any fancy restaurants – we just found our meals on the fly, and it was great. Peter even managed to find some French wine he liked, probably ate some cheese, but did not buy a scarf. Our next stop was Disneyland Paris.
