Welcome to my Paris post! I hadn’t been back to Paris since I was about 11 years-old and I was so excited to visit the acclaimed wonderful and romantic city with my boyfriend. We decided to stay for New Years Eve in Paris and had really high expectations of the city! While I did enjoy this visit, I feel like I don’t need to be back for a while! It’s a beautiful city but so big and crowded, I prefer the smaller cities!
But anyways, we spent three full days in Paris and I’m sharing a few highlights of what we did below!
Louvre: We bought skip the line tickets ahead of time and I would definitely recommend doing this. Unfortunately, we will had to wait in a decent line to get into the Louvre but it was significantly shorter and faster than the non-skip the line tickets. For me… when it comes to the Louvre, I think as long as you’ve seen it once, it’s not worth going back. Both my boyfriend and I had been and we ended up just walking fastly though the museum.
Notre Dame: This church is absolutely beautiful – i’m a sucker for gothic architecture. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to climb to the top of the Notre Dame – it was freezing and the lines were long – but if I was to come back, I would definitely make that a priority!
Musee de Orsay: If I had to choose between this museum and the Louvre – I would pick the Musee de Orsay. It’s in a converted train station and it’s absolutely beautiful inside. It hosts some amazing sculptures, and pieces of Monet and Van Gogh. We got there right when it opened (9:30 a.m.) and the line wasn’t long. I would definitely recommend getting there first thing in the morning and going straight to the 5th floor. This way to get this clock all to yourself, and it makes it easily to work your way down through the exhibits!
Moulin Rouge: I mean, you get a bottle of champagne and you get to see some fun burlesque dancing. I definitely thought it would be more like the movie (singing and all) but it was fun to watch! The down side – it started an hour later then the ticket time so the show went really long.
Eiffel Tower: Because our hotel was so close to the Eiffel Tower, we were able to see multiple views of it. My favorite would be to skip the crowd under the Eiffel Tower and go to the steps at Trocedero. You get a straight on beautiful view of the tower and don’t have to fight for a good photo. Also, those macaroons by Laduree are amazing!
Sainte-Chapelle: Travel Hack** we really wanted to visit this beautiful small church but the line was about an hour long for a 10 minute stay within Sainte-Chapelle. So while we were waiting in line, we decided to purchase skip-the-line tickets directly from a website, and it allowed us to move in front of the line and straight into the church! This church has some of the most beautiful stain glass work that I have seen – it’s definitely worth visiting!
*We bought a two day hop on hop off bus ticket – I would DEFINITELY recommend doing this because it’s the most cost efficient and enjoyable way to see this city in a short time frame!
We stayed at a boutique hotel called Le Parisis Hotel Paris. The location was absolutely fantastic – only a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. But I wouldn’t recommend staying here – it was incredibly tiny and the staff were not the friendliest! If you have any great paris hotel recommendations, let me know!