After four hours of travel from Frankfurt, the high-speed train arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris, and it was two different worlds. Compared to Frankfurt, the Gare du Nord was a mess; very busy with all sorts of people and rather dirty looking. Anyhow, it was time to move to our apartments. We spent the afternoon catching up and getting ready to discover Paris on the next day.

Expectation vs Reality

The image I had of Paris was that of what was very often referred to as the city of love, but reality was somewhat very different as of what the actual Paris has become. Being with family, some places of Paris felt very insecure and truth be told, I even got robbed of my mobile phone on this very first day, especially a little out of the center. Anyhow, we managed to get hold of ourselves and my first itinerary following my plans was the Air and Space Museum in Dugny.

Air and Space Museum – Dugny

I was always fascinated by aircrafts and this was a very good occasion to admire them up close. From old to very old, and recent ones, this museum has a very nice collection of aircrafts, including the Concorde and some fighter jets, all of which are real airplanes. Afterwards we roamed around, had lunch and it was around 7pm when we went back home. Contrary to Mauritius and tropical islands, in Europe the sun sets around 9pm during summer months, so it was still very bright outside.

Natural History Museum

The next day we went to the Natural History Museum where one can observe a gigantic collection of all sorts of animals’ skeleton including those of prehistoric creatures. The visit follows on two levels and thereon to the Plant Garden but we skipped this part.

The Pantheon

The Natural History Museum was quite fascinating and from there we walked towards the Pantheon for a quick visit of the outside only and the surroundings. It was more of an explore adventure.

Luxembourg Garden

It was already lunch time when we stopped by the Luxembourg Garden to eat something and relax a bit. The Luxembourg garden is a very animated place, especially during those summer days that we were around. On one part we could hear bands or artists singing and on the other side people just relaxing and enjoying the moment. There is also a children corner on the far left side with carousels and other entertainment, including pony rides.

MontParnasse Tower

Having spent some 45 minutes in the Luxembourg garden we then walked towards the MontParnasse tower in the 15th Arrondissement. I wanted to get an overview of the city and there is no better place than the 56 storey high MontParnasse tower, or the Eiffel Tower, but the latter seems to have an endless queue before going through. The view over the city is breathtaking and we can observe almost everything Paris has to offer from up there.

Jardin D’Acclimatation

The next morning we headed towards the Acclimatation Garden which is an entertainment park, and truth be told, it was very fun. We enjoyed very much and what I liked very much was the fact that you need not queue up long before enjoying the infrastructure. We spent the whole day there and didn’t regret at all. For families with kids, this is a must-do!

The Paris Zoo

On the fourth day we started off our first activity at the Paris Zoo. Having previously visited the Frankfurt Zoo as well, we wanted to see how things compare and also discover animals we might not have seen. The Paris Zoo is a very big park and everything is well organised. The vast collection of animals was impressive indeed.

Musée D’Art et Métiers

This Museum is rather an industrial museum that houses many scientific instruments and inventions, including weird cars and planes. Out of curiosity we visited this place on our fifth day and I’ll have to say that it was quite nice even not really child-oriented. Some of the vehicles were quite uncommon indeed.

L’Hotel de Ville

Afterwards we roamed the streets towards the Seine river up to l’Hotel de Ville, which is another magnificent building dating from the 19th century housing the city hall. The architecture in itself was like a piece of art and the craftsmanship behind such a creation must have been very skillful. The metro station from this place follows the line 1 and we ended the afternoon at La Defense for some shopping.

Paris Aquarium

Days are going by really fast and the next morning we visited the Aquarium of Paris which is found next to the Trocadero garden. It’s a great family place and children will certainly love it, especially the coi fish pond where they can pet the fishes bare hands.

Trocadero

Afterwards we had our lunch at the Trocadero garden as well as fancying the great view on the Eiffel Tower. This place is so crowded during those summer days and relaxing by the big fountain provides some fresh and cool air during these hot days. From there we continued our way towards the iconic Eiffel tower just to get a closer view, and along the Champ de Mars up to the Military School where we took the train back home.

DisneyLand Paris

Disneyland needs no introduction. Located in the east of Paris, this park is every child’s dream place I believe. Organising for such a visit is a well planned activity and even tickets were booked months before. Waking up early is a must and we reached the already-crowded gates around 9am even though the park opens officially at 10am. The attractions caters for different ages and the most famous ones have queues up to 2 hours (yes, you have to queue up for 2 hours to enjoy 5 minutes or less of a ride…) If you are having small kids I would highly recommend saving up and buying a priority pass instead of the regular pass. It will save you lots of time and stress, and saving time means enjoying more of what the park offers. I could elaborate about the attractions I liked but since I haven’t been able to do them all and that each of them depends on your personal liking I’ll just leave this to the official website. Those I visited that I could take pictures are below.

On the next day we took the high speed train again to visit another town of France; Nantes. After spending two days, we moved back to Paris but in the 8th arrondissement this time. Read more about Nantes here.

Paris 8ème

For this second part in Paris I wanted to be more in the centre and as such I booked an airbnb apartment in this area because from my plannings I identified that most of what I wanted to visit was within walking reach.

The Champs Elysée

This very animated street leading to the Arc de Triomphe war monument is famous for being posh and high class in what it offers. Lots of shopping outlets, prestigious brands, luxurious sports cars, and so on.

Walking Around

Exploring the region took us to various interesting streets and monuments, namely; Grand Palais, Pont Alexandre III, Quai D’Orsay, Place de la Concorde with its beautiful fountain and obelisk, Rue Saint-Honoré, Saint Augustin, Place Vendome, Palais Royale, Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, The Louvre Pyramid, Tuileries Garden, and so on. These took two days approximately to explore.

The Eiffel Tower

Visiting Paris without climbing the Eiffel Tower… nooo. Having observed how busy this monument is, we booked our tickets the day before and early in the morning arrived at the enclosure to access the monument. I purposely chose to climb the stairs instead of using the elevator to spend more time admiring the views around and of course to be more physical. The visit up to the second floor only and back down took us two hours but was well worth it. We then proceeded towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Arc de Triomphe

This well-known monument stands gloriously at one side of the Champs Elysée and overlooks much of this part of Paris. The monument can be visited up to the top and if climbing a lot of stairs isn’t a problem, I would highly recommend visiting. same for all tourist attractions, the best times would be either very early in the morning or near closure time to avoid the very long queues. On the positive side and something I very much appreciated from the authorities, which happened in my case, being with a child gave us priority some kind of priority and was taken to a separate queue leading directly to the stairs and within minutes we were already at the top, not even having to queue for 3 minutes. The top offers an interesting view over all roads leading to this monument and even other structures around.

On the same day I decided to do a solo trip to the Trocadero to admire the Eiffel tower at dawn and see how the evening can be in Paris. I must say that the Eiffel Tower at night is wonderful and so is the night life around.

The Army Museum/Napoleon’s Tomb

On the last day we were spending in this area (before moving to our next destination: LONDON!) we visited the Army Museum and Napoleon’s tomb. This museum is so elaborated and big that we didn’t complete the whole visit as we got tired.

On the next day we departed to London and spent 5 more days there, before moving back to Paris again. The trip to London continues here. So, the next two days before leaving Paris was a rush, visiting the remaining planned places quickly and finalising the shoppings.

Le Moulin Rouge

In this same evening back to Paris from London, I went for a solo trip to the famous Moulin Rouge in the 18th arrondissement to see how it looks all lit up, but of course to see from the outside. The place at this time is so crowded, tourists from everywhere.

Quartier du MontMartre/Sacré Coeur Church

Early the next day I went to visit the MontMartre region, strolling the streets much everywhere up to the Sacré Coeur church. This part of Paris is so touristic yet quite scenic as well. Over the hill of MontMartre, one have a wide view over the residential Paris. It was around 4pm when I decided to change direction and took the train to Chateau de Vincennes.

Chateau de Vincennes

This 14th-century royal castle with a moat, towers, a pavilion & state rooms wasn’t so big as I expected and an hour of visit was enough to cover the interesting parts. This area of Paris was rather quiet and even the visit to this castle was rather at ease. Ended this long day with some shopping at Rosny-Sous-Bois mall.

Back Home

The last day was rather short and with lots of suitcases we departed from the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport towards Dubai for a small transit and home sweet home.