Paris is one of those cities people long to go to for their entire lives. It’s special, to say the least. In 2019, we had planned to spend a few days here and fall in love with the city we had heard so much about. Croissants in front of the Eiffel Tour. Incredible wine over a romantic dinner. A day wandering the Louvre. There were so many places to visit in Paris ready for us to explore. We had found the perfect Air BnB, we had our trains booked, we were ready.
And then, the riots happened.
The unions in Paris were in an uneasy state, causing riots in the streets. While it wasn’t constant, the uneasiness of the situation caused the US embassy to put up a Level 3 warning, meaning we should avoid if we could. This happened only a week before our trip, throwing us in a tailspin.
Have you ever had to change your trip 7 days out? It’s not pretty.
Changing Our Trip in Less Than 7 Days
Since it wasn’t a “real” emergency, our hotel wouldn’t refund us the money making us take a huge hit to the overall budget. We quickly cancelled the trains we had booked and realized, that was all we really had to cancel as far as Paris. But we had to do quick research on where to go next. Spain? Ireland? Iceland? Norway? A different part of France? Somewhere else? We only had about 3 days, we were flying into London, and had to make our way to Bordeaux after.
We reached out to our travel community, friends, and family. Multiple people recommended Dublin, so we were able to find a hotel, an inexpensive flight, and booked it right away. Dublin turned out to be one of our favorites, but we still were extremely sad to be missing out on the illustrious Paris.
After spending a few days in Bordeaux, we were setting up our trains to get back to London where we had a few days set up before our flight home. During that planning, we realized our trains were going to give us about an hour layover in Paris (what a tease!). So, we dug a little deeper into the options and realized we could push out our second train 6 hours. 6 glorious hours to explore one of the most well-known cities in the world. Seems doable…
Tip: The train station at Gare du Nord had a spot that you could rent a locker for a few hours so we didn’t have to lug around our bags. This was a huge life saver so we didn’t get weighed down while we were walking.
Notre Dame
We visited the infamous Notre Dame exactly one year ago today. The 850-year-old medieval Catholic cathedral is a well-known landmark in Paris and is a towering 226 feet tall. This was absolutely on our stop as a must-see place to visit in Paris.
Plus, in case we haven’t mentioned in the past, Jackie loves to check out churches. The architecture and history in undeniable in these buildings, and we always enjoy learning about what has taken place in then. Anyway, Notre Dame has gone through many transformations and rebirths over the last 850 years. After being damaged in the 1790’s during the French Revolution, the building was neglected. The infamous novel by Victor Hugo “Notre-Dame de Paris” which was then adapted by Disney as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, displays a period of time when the cathedral was in deep disrepair. The novel, written in 1831, sparked interest in the building again and the government launched a restoration project in 1842. In the 20th century, it survived two world wars, and its bells rung on liberation day after World War II in 1944. Inside the church, you will find visual time lines of all the changes that occurred, showing off the transformations. In 1991, UNESCO recognized Notre-Dame as a World Heritage Site and it now boasts about 35,000 visitors a day, reaching over 13 million a year.
And five days after our trip in 2019, this gorgeous building caught fire. The world watched as the infamous Spire at the top, parts of the roof, and the high alter all were burning up. The intricate lattice work the building was known for as well as statues and structural elements that cannot be replaced were burning for hours before they could get the fire out. A year later, the building is still closed and being repaired. They, unfortunately, haven’t announced when it will reopen.
Places to Visit in Paris #1
A fellow blogger wrote this great blog on 10 facts about Notre Dame Cathedral – Check it out here: https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/10-facts-about-notre-dame-cathedral/
The Louvre
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we walked into the Louvre. We did know we wanted to see the Mona Lisa if we could, not knowing when we would make it back to Paris. I also was very excited to see the opposing pyramids (thanks Dan Brown). This museum is a mammoth though, according the NY Times, it would take about 3 days to see every room – and that’s barely appreciating the art! As one of the places to see in Paris, we knew we were going to make it work. We only had about two hours.
Huge Tip: Buy your tickets online in advance! We skipped at least a 90-minute wait by already having our tickets so we were able to jump in quickly.
While I wish we could have seen more, we were grateful to see the Mona Lisa even though as many have said before, there is a lot of pushing to get close enough to take a photo. It ruins the experience a bit. But, as most things, getting there early would help thin the crowd. I particularly enjoyed the French history paintings that have so much detail and are massive, making it easy to get taken aback by them. I also loved seeing the Italian paintings, found near Mona Lisa. There are five more Leonardo paintings in this area as well as other well-known artists Raphael, and Edouard Manet.
The building itself is a marvel, serving as the previous royal palace in the 16th century before turning into a museum in 1793. Inside you can visit Napoleon III’s quarters and jaw dropping rooms such as the Apollo Gallery. There is gold seeping from the walls and art on almost every surface, including the ceiling. This particular gallery was started as the Galerie des rois (Gallery of Kings) in 1661 and painted by Charles Le Brun who ended up leaving it unfinished when we went to work at Versailles. It was eventually finished in 1851 by Eugene Delacroix. Outside you will find the Tuileries Garden, beautiful in its own right and a beautiful spot to sit and have lunch after you have been exposed to so much art.
Places to Visit in Paris #2
Eiffel Tower
This rainy day in Paris left the gardens in front of the Eiffel Tower surprisingly empty. Visiting this iconic site was a definite but on this particular trip we didn’t have time to take a trip up it. We enjoyed it from afar, taking in the treasured land mark. I don’t think anyone visiting wouldn’t have this on their list of places to visit in Paris. A little history, this ‘Iron Lady’ was built for the 1889 World Fair, and stood as the tallest structure in the world for 41 years. Fun fact: it was meant to be demolished 20 years after being built. In fact, more Parisians hated it, calling it useless and monstrous. Thankfully, the architect turned it into a radio tower making it more useful to the military, thus keeping it from being destroyed.
Places to Visit in Paris #3
Our six hours in Paris is one of our favorite stories. It can be easy to get caught up in the food or the wine, but the history and the beauty of a city is what makes each one unique. We loved our brief visit to Paris and plan to go back and enjoy a longer trip!
Cheers to chasing our compass!
Mandy & Jackie
