Paris - a beautiful place to see!

Paris is a lovely as I remember – this is my 2^nd visit here and I could come back again & again!

When we arrived in Paris we decided to walk to where we are staying from Gare du Nord, one of the main stations in Paris. It was an interesting walk to say the least. We wondered if we had arrived in India, Africa or somewhere in the Middle East. It looked like anywhere, but Paris. However, once we got to where we are staying it was quite different, but still a very diverse area.

We had pre-purchased ‘Paris Passes’ and these needed to be picked up and validated. We were advised we could walk to where we needed to go, the Hard Rock Café. We set off with the route worked out on a map. Then the rain come down and we then discovered that Paris streets ‘do not’ correspond with the map! After asking several people for directions we finally got there with a very wet & soggy map.

 

A very wet and soggy map - no wonder we got lost!

 

I don’t think I have ever walked so much in one city – Paris is made to walk and walk and walk! We have been to:

·         Notre Dame Cathedral – always lovely and the gardens at the rear of the cathedral are stunning and many people don’t take the time and visit the gardens. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is probably my favourite church in Paris because of its Roman architecture & Byzantine architecture.  The amazing Madeleine Church was designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleons Army.

 

 

The gardens at the back of Notre Dame Cathedral

 

·         L’Orangier Art Gallery – I most impressed with all the Monet’s water-lilies – they were stunning. Many other painting by other well-known artists such as Renoir, Cezanne etc. were also on display.

·         You can’t come to Paris and not see the Louvre – it is huge and full of wonderful paintings and other artifacts. Napoleon’s apartments were worth seeing.

·         D’Orsay Museum – on the left bank of the Seine is the place to go if you are interested in seeing work of the Impressionists – another fabulous place to visit.

·         We walked to the top of the Arc de Triomphe – 284 steps up and of course back down. The walk was well worth it and the view from the top was amazing.

·         The top of the Eiffel Tower – last time I was here I did not go up the Eiffel Tower as the queues are huge. This time we pre-booked tickets and we went all the way to the top. An amazing experience and a bit scary going up, but the view was wonderful.  

 

At the top of the Eiffel Tower.

·         One of the highlights was a tour of the Paris Opera House known as The Palais Garnier it is a 1979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875. This is another fabulous building and is where the “Phantom of the Opera” was originally written and performed. These days the Opera House is mainly used for Ballet. Doing an organised tour was the way to go as we learnt so much about this great Opera House. In the early days when the Opera House was open, it was a place for people to be seen rather than see opera or ballet. The Grand Salon was where people went during interval to be seen!

 

The "Grand Salon" at the Opera House

 

I mentioned that we purchased a “Paris Pass” this included entry into most places we went plus all transport in Paris. We have just done our sums; we think it was good value.

Paris is known as the ‘City of Light’ it is a wonderful place to visit and there is never enough time to see everything.

One more day in France!