One Day in Paris

One of the many great things about living in Scotland is that it’s a stones through from much of Europe. Popping over to Europe for a few days is reasonably easy and inexpensive. I recently discovered that popping over to Europe for just one day can also be easy, inexpensive and lots of fun. This is what I got up to for one day in Paris.

During one of those conversations that start with ‘Wouldn’t it be nice…’, a friend recently commented how it would be lovely to go to Paris for lunch.

She had me at Paris. I was all over it like a rash.

Fast forward a few days and flights were booked, a guide book was purchased and we were busy planning our itinerary. We would have about 11 hours in Paris from touch-down until take-off. Realistically that meant we’d have about 7 hours to explore.

We landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport around 10:20am, and despite having to wait in a ridiculously long line to buy train tickets, we were in central Paris by 12noon.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Our first stop was Notre Dame. It took about 45 minutes to get there from Charles de Gaulle. I stepped off the train, walked up the stairs to street level and there before me, in all its majestic glory was Notre Dame Cathedral.

What an amazing first impression of Paris! Notre Dame Cathedral is the largest Church Building in the world. Its impressive architecture and stunning location, a small island in the middle of the River Spree, makes it a must see.

Due to the long queues, we didn’t get to go inside Notre Dame. Instead we admired its splendid exterior for 20 minutes or so, before returning to St-Michel train station to catch a train to The Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower

I was a little disappointed to discover that the Eiffel Tower is bordered with large security gates and crowd control barriers. You can no longer walk to the base of the Tower without first standing in line and undergoing bag searches and other security checks. Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why. And sadly, in this day and age, I agree it’s necessary.

Standing directly under the Tower I felt dizzy as I gazed up, excited about my trip to the top.

We had bought tickets for the Eiffel Tower online before we left Scotland. I’m really glad we did. Although we arrived half an hour before our allotted time slot, it was over an hour before we got to go up the Tower. We spent the time in between wandering in and out of the official Eiffel Tower shops, dodging birds (the only thing I didn’t like about being at the Eiffel Tower were the hundreds of birds flying around our heads, occasionally dive-bombing unsuspecting tourists), taking photographs and generally being excited about where we were.

At the top of the Tower, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of people. There were a lot of people, but not so many that it felt overcrowded. Actually, the top of the Eiffel Tower was probably the least crowded of all the places we visited in Paris.

Seeing Paris from above was as beautiful as I’d imagined. Each corner of the Tower provided a different, but equally impressive view. A personal favourite of mine was the shadow of the Tower across the City.

We spent around half an hour at the top of the Tower before the bitter cold became too much and we descended back to ground level to walk to the Champs-Elysees.

River Seine

Who wouldn’t want to walk along the River Seine on a beautiful sunny day?  From the Eiffel Tower, we crossed the road and sauntered aimlessly along the River, periodically looking back at the Tower. I seriously couldn’t take my eyes off it.

We crossed the bridge over the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel. I didn’t realise the significance of the tunnel until I spotted the Flame of Liberty, a full sized replica of the Statue of Liberty torch, gifted to France by America in 1989. The sculpture was adopted by mourners following Princess Diana death in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in 1997 and is now unofficially widely regarded as a memorial to the late Princess.

Avenue Montaigne

Heading in the direction of the Champs-Elysees, we found ourselves on Avenue Montaigne, Paris’ answer to Rodeo Drive. We strolled passed expensive boutiques, high-end designer stores and expensive cafés and restaurants before arriving at our next destination, Champs-Elysees.

Champs-Elysees

Remembering our initial reason for visiting Paris (wouldn’t it be lovely to go to Paris for lunch?) we stopped in a small Bistro on Champs-Elysees where we ate Croque Madame and sipped on Champagne cocktails before wandering a mile or so west for a quick glimpse of the Arc De Triomphe.

Christmas Market

We couldn’t leave Paris without paying a visit to the famous Champs-Elysees Christmas Market. It was a charming Market, decorated with hundreds of decorations and illuminations and around 200 wooden chalets selling a host of Christmas paraphernalia, mulled wine and sweet treats. It was jam-packed, but despite the difficulty of maneuvering our way through the crowds without spilling our mulled wine (which I did on more than one occasion), it was a lovely festive way to end our day.

And that was my day trip to Paris! I think we managed to cram in quite a lot in 7 hours. And the best bit? I spent around £150, which wasn’t much more than I would’ve spent on a day out at home.

What do you think of our itinerary?