Bonjour Paris!

Day 1

My Europe trip officially started in Paris. Angela and I arrived at Charles de Gaulle early in the afternoon. From the airport, we bought one way tickets to the city centre (€9.25) and one day metro passes called mobilis (€6.4). From Charles de Gaulle, we took the metro to our hostel, Auberge Internationale des Jeunes (AIJ-Paris). The Paris metro was easy to navigate—the signs were clear—and we had no trouble finding our way to our hostel.

          Directions to AIJ-Paris from CDG
          RER line from Charles de Gaulle to Châtelet
          Line 1 (direction Château de Vincennes) from Châtelet to Bastille
          Line 8 (direction Créteil) from Bastille to Ledru-Rollin

Our plan for the day was to simply visit the Louvre at 18:00. It was a Friday and on Fridays, anyone below 26 can visit the Louvre for free after 6 PM. After settling in at our hostel, we used our spare time to book our reservations for our train to Madrid at Gare d'Austerlitz.

View of the Pyramid main entrance from inside the Louvre

Then from the Gare, we made our way to Palais Royal Musée du Louvre station via the metro, just in time to visit the Louvre Museum. With only our passports (to prove that we're under 26), we easily found ourselves in the midst of paintings and sculptures. This was my first European museum visit and for someone who knows nothing (and I mean nothing) about art, the vastness of the Louvre and the numerous collections it houses were a bit overwhelming. It will take a couple of days to actually appreciate all the artworks in the Louvre but as tourists who simply want to see the masterpieces, we just picked up a brochure and headed towards the pieces that we wanted to see. Guided by Rick Steve's free audio guides, we visited Venus de Milo and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa among many other works of art.

         Directions to Musée du Louvre from AIJ-Paris 
         Line 10 (direction Place d'Italie) from Gare d'Austerlitz to Bastille 
         Line 1 (direction La Défense) from Bastille to Palais Royal Musée du Louvre

Love padlocks at Pont des Arts

We exited the Louvre through the pyramid, admired the scenery surrounding the pyramid entrance and met our friend Bon, who lives in Paris. With Bon, we traversed the Pont des Arts, a bridge that crosses the Seine River where we found found love padlocks (les cadenas d'amour).

Fontaine St. Michel

Notre Dame de Paris

We headed towards Fontaine St-Michel and to the famous gothic cathedral where Victor Hugo's Quasimodo came to life… the Notre Dame de Paris. We trotted Boulevard St. Michel until we reached the Pantheon, with Bon pointing out landmarks along the way and giving us an overview of the Parisian life. For someone who has never been to any part of Europe, I found myself marveling at the elegant facades of the buildings around me. These buildings may seem old and preserved from the outside but inside, they are actually quite modern. Walking around Paris at dusk and throughout the evening was the perfect way to end our first day in Europe.

The Pantheon

 Day 2

The Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe and Sacre-Coeur… these were the three attractions on our itinerary for Day 2. We have been warned that the queue to the Eiffel tower was always long and since only one lift was operational at that time, the queue was expected to be even longer. It's usually best to reserve a ticket online but at that time, there were no tickets available online. We were supposed to wake up early and arrive at the Eiffel tower while there aren't many people yet… but we didn't.

        Directions to Tour Eiffel from AIJ-Paris 
        Line 8 (direction Balard) from AIJ-Paris to Bastille 
        Line 1 (direction La Défense) from Bastille to Franklin D. Roosevelt 
        Line 9 (direction Pont de Sévres) from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Trocadéro

La Tour Eiffel

After approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes in the cold—I mean in the queue, we finally got our tickets (€12.5 for under 25). Having a travel companion makes it easy to beat the dullness of waiting in line. It was also the best time to observe the people around you and study the map of Paris. From the entrance to the exit, the Eiffel tower is crowded. Nonetheless, the view is amazing and the fact that you're standing on top of the symbol of Paris is worthless. At the top floor, you'll find flags of several countries on top of the windows and the tallest building of each country, in comparison to the Eiffel tower.


        Directions from Tour Eiffel to Montmarte  
        Line 6 (Direction Charles de Gaulle Étoile) from Bir-Hakeim to Charles de Gaulle Étoile
        Line 2 (Direction Nation) from Charles de Gaulle Étoile to Pigalle 
        Line 12 (Direction Porte de la Chapelle) from Pigalle to Abbesses

Le Basilique du Sacré-Cœur 

Since we were a bit behind schedule, we decided to skip l'Arc de Triomphe (we figured we could easily visit this again when we come back) and went straight to  Sacré-Cœur . By metro, we exited at Abbesses station and climbed a very long flight of stairs to the top. We got lost around Montmarte but we saw a lot of pretty houses along the way. I didn't expect to see much but when we arrived, I found the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur simply breathtaking. I liked the view of the basilica more than the view of the city. But that's just me.

We left Montmarte through Lamarck Coulaincourt station. And at around 17:00, with our backpacks, we made our way to Gare d'Austerlitz to say au revoir Paris.