I wasn’t planning on visiting Paris on this trip. My plan was to head for Amsterdam after Barcelona to visit a friend I met while backpacking in Peru. But when I was looking for bus and train routes, I realized that I’m gonna end up traveling all day, maybe for more than a day if i go straight to Amsterdam. I figured I’d stop by somewhere. There was a train from Barcelona to Paris. From there i can take another train heading to Amsterdam. I remembered that I have a couple of friends based in Paris, and it would be great to meet up with them just to catch up.
I’ve been to Paris several years ago, so at first i thought of just chilling at the hostel until my friends were free to meet up. But I no longer have pictures from that tour years ago, so I figured i might as well walk around and take some photographs.Some people may argue that there’s not enough time to see everything in a day. I say it’s possible to see the top attractions, you just have to pick a good location to stay.
I chose to stay near Gare du Nord rather than in a more central area since i’d be taking a train from there the next day. Yes i have already learned my lesson. i already missed one bus on this trip, and i almost missed all the others. In a way staying near the attractions would be more convenient since you can just walk from one attraction to the next— but the attractions in Paris aren’t exactly near each other. Yeah you can walk, and walking is indeed recommended in Paris because the city is indeed beautiful.. but it’s gonna take some time and sooner or later you’d get tired and hop on a bus or on the Metro. And if you wanna visit many attractions in one day, walking from one place to the next may not be ideal. So staying near the station was an excellent choice. I could easily visit a lot of places, and I definitely won’t miss my train to Amsterdam. Since I was only about 2 minutes away from Gare du Nord, I could easily take a Metro to any attraction of note. I took a Metro to the Notre Dame Cathedral first. I could walk for 45 minutes to an hour, but that would be wasting a lot of time. There’s nothing of note on the way there anyway.
Entrance was free so I figured I might as well go in. There was a long line outside but it moved briskly. I was already inside after about 20 minutes. From there I walked for about 20 minutes to the Louvre Museum. i didn’t go inside, museums just aren’t my thing. But if i went in i’d still have a lot of time left during the day to visit all the other attractions that I wanted to see. From there, i walked for another 20 minutes to Champs Elysees and Place de la Concorde, a great place to just sit back, relax, and watch people. From this place i could easily walk to the Eiffel Tower but I had to meet up with my friend. The Eiffel Tower looks better at night anyway, I figured I’d visit it later. I rode the metro and met up with her in a quaint little restaurant near the Arc du Triomph. It has historical significance so it’s a must visit, but perhaps it would be better to visit the place early in the morning or late at night since it’s located in a very busy area in the city. Lots of vehicles will obstruct your view.
After hanging out for about an hour, we figured we should start walking to the Eiffel Tower since it was about to get dark. We arrived just in time, they just lit up the sparklers. Man it was a beautiful sight. From here we took a leisurely walk along the River Seine. Paris is indeed even more beautiful at night.
I met up with another friend for drinks that evening. It was a good thing he lived near another attraction– The Pantheon. Looking at the map I could’ve walked to that location from Notre Dame. Funny I seemed to be going around in circles. lol. He took me to a place where locals hung out. Thank God I knew a local, otherwise i would have broken the bank if I kept eating at all the overpriced restaurants all over the city. We had a snack at this place called Oroyona. Man, they served the best crepes that i have ever tasted in my entire life. And it was really cheap too! We then had drinks at a nearby pub called The Wall. The draft beers were really good. And the best part was the drinks were way cheaper compared to other bars in the area. Like I said, it pays to know a local! 🙂
If I didn’t meet up with friends, clearly I could have visited a lot more places. So yeah, one whole day is enough, though it’s gonna be a bit rushed. My friend told me two days would be ideal so that you’re not rushing things, maybe three. One week is overkill. lol. He was recommending other places in France worth visiting. He showed me pictures of those places, and man those were beautiful. This short trip wasn’t planned though, and my itinerary was no longer flexible. I guess I have a lot of reasons to go back to France. This beautiful country has so much more to offer besides Paris.
no roads to follow 