Hi!

The first big trip that I took from London was to Paris! My boyfriend and I went together and had the best time! If you're interested in going, here's a rough outline of our trip and some suggestions which I hope are helpful.

To get before you go

• Citymapper - I will never stop recommending Citymapper because it is super user-friendly and easy to use. It gives you multiple routes to get to your chosen destination and gives you the prices, travel times, etc of each. It also automatically switches depending on what city you're in and makes traveling in a country with a different language much more comfortable. And it's free!

Things to do

• Notre Dame (outside - not open yet)

• Eiffel Tower (duh!)

• Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House) - 10 euros

• PDG Stadium Tour - 27 euros

• Shakespeare and Co

• Bakeries/Cafes (Croissants of course, eclairs, sandwiches on baguettes, macarons)

• Luxembourg Gardens

• Arc de Triomphe

Things we skipped

• The Louvre - too busy, time consuming for our short trip

• Moulin Rouge - too expensive, we weren't totally interested in attending

Saturday, February 24th

We didn't arrive in Paris until fairly late, around 10:00pm (22:00). We left for Gatwick airport around 5:30, and the commute was very easy! We took the tube and then the Gatwick Express, all of which took apple pay so we didn't have to buy train tickets ahead of time. Our flight (Vueling) was only around an hour long and was very smooth. Also, our flight was around 72/person. Not bad! I've heard that taking the Eurostar to Paris is beautiful and worth it, but that tends to cost a bit more so we decided to save the time/money and fly. The first night, we stayed at a hotel by Orly airport. The hotel said that there was a shuttle service, but finding the section for shuttles was more difficult than we thought and we ended up missing it. We then had a lot of trouble calling an Uber (no one would take our request) so we ended up taking a taxi to the hotel. While I was nervous and thought it would be expensive, it wound up being about $14 which is the same as what the Uber would have cost.

Sunday, February 25th

Sunday was a fantastic day! We woke up and took the bus and train into the city (which only took about an hour) and immediately went to see the Eiffel Tower. It rained pretty much all day Sunday and Monday so, while it was dissapointing that we didn't get good weather, it was certainly memorable! After checking out the Eiffel Tower, we got hot chocolate at Cafe Fleur and sandwiches for lunch a few stores down. Pro tip - a bunch of cafes/coffee shops will have fairly cheap sandwiches that are SO good! Especially the bread - which we were expecting, but it was wonderful. We got sandwiches like these for lunch a few times, as it was a good and quick meal when we were on the go. We checked into our Hotel - Hotel Victoria (Hotel Victoria Paris on some websites), and then went back downtown to explore. We stopped at Notre Dame (sadly still under construction), Shakespeare and Co. (which was SO cool!), and saw some awesome churches and stores as we walked around. One of the nice things about Paris is that dinner time tends to start later, so happy hour/deals are often available at what would be my regular dinner time. Anyway, we then went back to our hotel to change (the rain soaked us through) and then went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up/sparkle. It was beautiful and so nice to watch. There are also some great boat restaurants/bars along the river which will give you a great view of the tower at night! We then headed home for bed - long day!

Monday, February 26th

Monday was also wonderful! We started off by getting brunch at a cafe by our hotel (once again, amazing baguettes and pastries!). We then went and toured the PSG stadium. The tour was super interesting, and I had a great time even though I'm not a PSG fan. We then met up with our friend, who showed us around the city. We walked to Luxembourg Gardens, had Macarons at Laduree, went to some bookshops, and had dinner at a local spot.

Tuesday, February 27th

Tuesday was the last day of our trip, and we left for the airport around 2. Before that, we visited Palais Garnier, the Paris Opera House. As a The Phantom of the Opera fan, I had a wonderful time. The Opera house was beautiful, educational, and really exciting to visit. After that, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. While it was cool to look at, we didn't go to the top. There was a huge line and you aren't allowed to brings bags to the top. Since we had just let our hotel, we were carrying our bags with us. After that, we trained to the airport. It was an easy ride and citymapper was a very useful tool to get us there.