Paris Is Always A Good Idea

I visited Paris in February 2013 with my friend Loriley, I'd been to Disneyland Paris before but for some reason had never been to the actual city itself. We booked our flights with Air France for quite cheap from London Heathrow to Charles De Gaulle. The hostel we decided to stay at was Plug-Inn, which for £113 for 3 nights we considered a bargain! It was placed just a short walk away from the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre, was clean and had all the basics we required. The only downside to it was the noise late at night, however that's to be expected with what we paid so we were quite happy.

We arrived around midday at the hostel having navigated our way around the metro system. It works similarly to London, however the barriers aren't quite so generous with space. It was fairly difficult squeezing our suitcases through! We left our suitcases in the baggage room next to the reception desk and decided to go for lunch. Just around the corner was the restaurant Cafe des Deux Moulins which is where part of the film Amelie was filmed. We were served by a rather dishy waiter and had our first glass of wine along with a Croque Monsieur which was rather tasty.

We made our plans for the rest of the day and having bought a 2 euro bottle of wine, a bottle opener and some straws from a supermarché we headed back to the hostel to move our suitcases into our room. After a few sips (half the bottle) of wine we ventured back onto the metro, to go visit the Louvre. We got a bit snap happy outside but were chased away by the various men trying to sell minature eiffel towers and other Paris paraphenalia. You can only say 'Non, merci!' so many times!

The morning of our second day we woke up early and jumped on the metro to travel to the happiest place on earth - DISNEY! Most of the journey was spent singing along to the Disney album I have on my iPod. Walking through the park made me incredibly nostalgic as I had visited Disneyland a few times as a child. I remember not quite reaching the 'You Must Be This Tall To Ride' sign for Space Mountain and asking my Mum to measure me every year before we went. When I was finally tall enough, we never went back! So for this reason I made a beeline for the Space Mountain ride, it definitely met my expectations - I'm a massive rollercoaster fan! We also visited the Walt Disney Studios park where we went on other rides such as Tower of Terror and Rock n' Roller Coaster before we headed out to dinner. We decided on the Rainforest Café where I had the best salad I've ever eaten in my life (Volcanic Cobb Salad), I definitely need to visit the London one and get it again!

On our third day we decided to do some hardcore sightseeing and see how many we could fit into one day. Our first stop was Notre Dame which was celebrating its 850th anniversary, unfortunately because of this there was a MASSIVE queue which we didn't have the time to wait in. We then popped over the road to a little cafe where we got some lunch. I had ordered a salad since it was such a beautiful day and it turned up in a bread bowl which amused us quite a bit! 

We then visited a shop down Saint-Germain-Des-Prés that my friend had read about online called the Kilo Shop. For 20 or 30 euros you could buy a kilo of vintage clothing depending on the colour of the tag. We spent quite a while in there humming Macklemores Thrift Shop to ourselves, however we stupidly were wearing our fur coats so got a bit hot!

Here's the link to the site in case you are interested in looking the shop up: http://kilo-shop.fr/

Having made a few purchases we then toddled along to the Eiffel Tower, as we were on a budget we couldn't afford to go up it. But just being able to see it and have some pictures with it was enough, we watched a flashmob and a beautiful wedding from the photo point instead.

 

Our next stop was Champs-Élysées where we looked in the windows of all the beautiful shops at all the beautiful things we couldn't buy. We attempted to make a stop at Laduree for some of their famous macaroons, however once again the queue was ginormous. We spotted a McCafé across the road and decided to go there instead where they also had delicious macaroons and a well needed coffee. At the end of the Champs-Élysees is the famous Arc De Triomphe where we took a few more final photos before heading back to the hostel. Just up the road from where we were staying we found a lovely little restaurant where we decided to go for dinner. I had to have the obligatory moules and I can assure you I did eat them the French way!

 Our final day we packed our bags and moved them down into the baggage room again, we were taking a quick trip to Sacre Couer before we left. Once again we were being hounded by the men who sell trinkets so we ran up the first lot of steps to try and escape. The weather was lovely, we took a few pictures and grabbed a bite to eat for lunch before we retrieved our suitcases and headed to the airport.

Paris is such a charming city, full of things to do and see and unfortunately I didn't have the time or the money to do everything I wanted to. I definitely want to visit again so I can go up the Eiffel Tower, in the Notre Dame and visit the Lovers Bridge. I'd like to spend more time in the Louvre as I only really got to see the Mona Lisa and paintings en route to where she is and visit the Centre Pompidou. Hopefully I can go back there again next year and do a few more things.