Passport to Paris

In March 2018 myself and my Mam went on a trip to Paris for 4 days. 4 days was more than enough to take in Paris in my opinion. We took our time on day 3 and by day 4 were ready to go home.
I had been to Paris before but with school so I didn’t have a choice about what we did. My Mam had never been before so was very excited to visit the city.
I wouldn’t say we were disappointed but the city definitely didn’t live up to our expectations. I’m not really sure exactly what it was but we both had the same feeling of we thought the place would knock us off our feet a bit more.
We still had a lovely time exploring the city and it was such a nice experience going on a break with my Mam, as that is not something we’ve really done before.
Below I have a brief outline of the top Paris attractions I would recommend doing in 4 days based on my experience there and I then go into more detail about my trip!
How I’d recommend spending 4 days in Paris

• Day 1 - Eiffel Tower & Seine Cruise (Book before you go!)
• Day 2 - Sacre Couer & Opera Garnier
• Day 3 - Disney Land Paris
• Day 4 - Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, Ferris Wheel & Louvre

And depending on where your hotel is based you could visit Notre Dame on Day 1, 2 or 4. It doesn’t take long!

My experience in Paris

Hotel
We stayed in Saint Louis Marais which was just around the corner from the Place de la Bastille and a 15-minute walk to Notre Dame. The size of the room was small enough but perfect for what we wanted.
There was a bakery around the corner where we got fresh pastries every day and a supermarket around another corner where we got wine every evening, what more could you want! 🙈
We booked the hotel on booking.com as we found this to be the cheapest by far! When doing some research for the trip we found Paris Airbnb to be quite expensive.
Getting from the airport
This was oh so tricky! We could not believe the length of time and hassle it took to get from Paris airport to the city centre.
We flew into Charles de Gaulle Airport and had to take an internal train. Then buy train tickets get onto a train into the city and then a metro to our hotel.
It was not clearly signposted and no one was very helpful in guiding us. If I didn’t have Google Maps I honestly do not know how we would have made it!
I would highly recommend planning your route from the airport to your hotel before you land.
Day one - Eiffel Tower & Seine Cruise
After we eventually found our hotel we dropped off our bags and headed to the metro. We purchased a carnet of 10 tickets which would give us 10 single journeys, this cost €14.90. You can also get single tickets which are €1.90. I'd highly recommend downloading a Paris metro map app so that you can easily plan your way around.
We headed to the Eiffel Tower as I had pre-booked our trip up the tower along with a cruise along the River Seine.
We started off with the hour-long cruise where we learned a bit about the history of the city and then went back to the ticket office where we were guided up the tower. I didn’t realise it when booking but we actually had a guide bring us up the tower and walk us around pointing out the different sites of Paris.
We booked the cruise and tower together from Get Your Guide and I would highly recommend doing this as it saves you from queuing on the day. Make sure to book in advance though as the spots fill up fast!
We got food in a great pizzeria just up from the Eiffel Tower called Gusto Italia. I'd highly recommend it!
Day two - Sacre Couer & Opera Garnier
We got the metro to the Sacre Couer area and spent some time taking in the incredible views. We then went into the church and took our time walking around.
This was by far the highlight for both of us. We then decided to walk around for a bit and headed towards the Moulin Rouge theatre (which was quite underwhelming).
I then discovered (all thanks to Google Maps) that we were only a five-minute walk from Vincent Van Goph’s house so we took a stroll to look at that. We had a lot of time to kill so decided on a whim that we would walk down to the Opera Garnier and when we got there we decided to do the tour.
We ended up getting the last two tickets for the English tour. This was really  interesting and absolutely beautiful! Tickets for this were €15.50.
Day three - Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, Ferris Wheel & Louvre
For our third day, we got the metro to see the Arc de Triomphe. We walked around the roundabout to admire the monument from its different angles.
It took us walking all the way around it to figure out how to actually get under and to the monument. We decided not to go up it as we had been up the Eiffel Tower already but this is an option and Arc de Triomphe tickets cost €12.
We then walked down the Champs Elysee taking in the culture of this famous street. We took our time strolling through the streets and ended up finding a market on the banks of the river.
With plenty of time to kill we decided to go on the Ferris wheel where we got an eagle-eyed view of the city. It was quite windy but the views were worth the slight bit of fear. This also allowed us to get some nice pictures of the Eiffel Tower!
After the wheel, we then strolled down to the Louvre. We decided not to go in as neither of us are that into art however you can pre-purchase tickets and it costs €17.
We did, however, spend a ridiculous amount of time getting the standard lean against the glass pyramid image!



Day four - Notre Dame and wine
We walked to Notre Dame and honestly could not get over the crowds that were there. Compared to Sacre Couer it was just so touristy. It was not as a serene experience at all.
That is not to take away from the church at all. It is one of the busiest tourist spots in the world!
The entire area was surrounded by police and the security queues to get in was quite lengthy. After this, we decided to head to a bar along the river and enjoy a bottle of wine before catching our flight home, when in Paris eh!
What would I do differently

• I probably would have gone to Disney on day 3.
• I'd have rearranged my days to how I recommended them at the beginning of the post to get the most out of the time there.

Some useful links

• For booking tours - https://www.getyourguide.com/s/?q=paris&customerSearch=1
• The Metro - https://parisbytrain.com/paris-metro/