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I always wanted to do Paris in November (during US Thanksgiving!). Many warned and cautioned us that it may not be the best time considering the chill but we went ahead and did it anyway. While what people said was somewhat true that it was cold, it wasn't as bad as people thought it would be. Anyone who can handle a little bit cold, it's a wonderful time to cover Paris.
A couple weeks before our trip, there was the tragic terrorist attack and everyone recommended we post-pone our trip but we didn't want to and our families were a little concerned with our decision to travel. We had heard many stories about how the Paris'ians are usually rude and un-welcoming. We didn't feel either. As a matter of fact, everyone we met on the street or in hotel or restaurants or local trains were extremely warm and advised things that we should cover while we were there. We came back with a completely different view of Paris'ians!
The Travel: We reached Paris Friday morning. Since we traveled pretty light, we took the train to our hotel. We checked in right around lunch and
quickly headed out.
Day 1: Since our day didn't start until 2PM, we wanted to go straight to Eiffel Tower first (who wouldn't), you go to Paris to Eiffel, right! The concierge suggested we first go to Luxembourg Gardens (aka Jardin du Luxembourg). It was a 10 minute walk from our hotel. The gardens itself is maintained by the French Senate and it is picturesque. It had a lush green garden with flowerbeds and it appears more like a park that families can spend time with kids. There was construction going on but it didn't take away the beauty of the place.
Honestly speaking, I was looking forward to going to Eiffel Tower and we spent only a couple hours at the gardens before we were on our way to the famous Eiffel Tower. When we reached Eiffel, it was as majestic as I had always imagined it to be. When we got there and saw Eiffel for the first time, we couldn't believe we were actually there. We spent time taking photos and we just couldn't stop talking about it's beauty. We did the famous, kiss in front of Eiffel before we bought tickets and went to
the pinnacle.
Inside the Eiffel it was very commercial, many gift shops, restaurants, cafes. We enjoyed a cup of coffee in the Paris chill and went outside to take more pictures of the city. The city looks beautiful from that high up there. If you are going to Paris for the first time, we do suggest going up there. The tickets are a little pricey but in grand scheme of things, when you have paid so much for the trip. The price of the tickets wont hurt much. It's totally worth it for the views you get of the city. We spent so much time up there that by the time, we came down, it was dark.
By the time we came down, Eiffel Tower was lit with the beautiful lights, it is so beautiful that we spent more time clicking photos after we came down with the lit Eiffel in the background. You should see the tower both times, during the day and at night.
From there, we took a train to another famous place "
Champs-Élysées". The Arc de Triomphe was lit and it looked wonderful at night. Champs-Elysees was decorated with upcoming Christmas holiday lights
and it added to its beauty. We spent a lot of time walking up and down the boulevard, ate the famous French crepes. French Crepes didn't impress us much, I guess we have had many such crepes here in the US so it didn't really have the 'WOW' factor we were expecting. I guess our expectations were too high. The street itself had all the designer stores with the biggest designer names you have heard (and some you may not have heard). We spent the evening there, had dinner at one of the local joints and went to a bar nearby.
By the time we reached hotel it was past midnight.
Day 2: We took a train up to Palace of Versailles (aka
Château de Versailles). It was about an hour long ride. Train ride itself was okay, didn't go through any country side. A very short walk from the station, we reached the palace. There was some sort of a protest going on in front of the Palace so naturally (after the terrorist attack), there was a lot of Law Enforcement presence there.
The palace itself was very beautiful and we spent almost half
a day there. One of the photos we clicked outside the palace in the gardens became our photo for holiday cards.
We took a train back around early afternoon and reached Sacred Heart Basilica. It was a medium walk in front of a lot of gift shops who can get pretty pushy or as i like to say it, insistent that we look around their shop. Once you reach the bottom of the Basilica, you have an option to either walk up to go up to the hill top where the basilica is located or take a gondola ride up there. We opted for the gondola ride as were exhausted with all the walking. Sucky part was there is a premium to take the gondola ride. Once up there, we spent about couple hours inside and outside the basilica.
From there, we went back to Champs-Elysees to have dinner. The charm of that place kept taking us back there every night to have dinner. We finished dinner and went back to our hotel.
Day 3: After an exhaustive couple days, we were mentally prepared for a lot of walking again. We started our day with Notre Dame. There was a pretty long line to get inside but surprisingly the line moved quick and we were inside within 15 minutes. A must see especially if you are a Church lover or simply architecture admirer. It is truly amazing how they have kept this building so beautiful for so long.
Right behind Notre Dame, the river Seine flows and you can get good views of the river smack in the middle of the city. We walked around the banks of the river sipping our coffee.
From there we went to the famous Louvre museum. Once in, we took photos around the glass pyramid and went in. It is the largest museum in the World and it meant more walking for us. We covered almost all of it (or that's how we like to think). We covered all of the museum highlights fairly well. Considering people spend at least 4 days wandering inside the museum, we covered all of the museum in 5 hours. You can imagine what that must have done to our legs and backs. But it was every bit worth it.
That wasn't the end of day for us yet, we went to Place de la Concorde to see the Paris version of London eye, Luxor Obelisk and Fountains. There was a Climate Summit starting the next day where all the World leaders were supposed to be there. So we could see a lot of law enforcement and many convoys of the leaders. We guessed they started pouring in. We spent about 3 hours there.
Had dinner and crashed for the night. We had a flight back home the next day and it took us a few days to recover from all the walking we did in Paris. But there is no better way to cover the city than on foot.
Thank you
Paris for the wonderful time we had and the lovely Paris'ians. Some of whom went an extra mile to make us feel comfortable in wake of all the things that happened there couple weeks ago. Regardless, Paris, you were lovely and we cant wait to be there again.
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