Paris - Is Paris always a good idea?

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Every website or blog about Paris usually starts with a declaration of love for this city. Well, I have to shamefully admit that even after my 5th visit, I am still not in love. The mysterious Parisian feeling of “je ne sais quoi“ still didn't get to me. By now I’ve overcome the French attitude and embraced both the language and the culture, but what still disturbs me the most is the structure of the city. There isn’t a traditional centre of the city, a main square or point of societal gathering. It’s a cluster of sizable arrondissements around the river Seine, each minding its own business. Due to their magnitude, this structure makes all of the Parisian sights and points of interest rather displaced and distant from one another. There is indeed a good and efficient metro network which will connect all the dots, but It’s kind of sad that you need to go underground with so much beautiful architecture on every corner of the city. On the other hand, if you decide to stroll along the streets of Paris or by the river Seine, prepare for a palpable grandness and distances under your feet. The city can easily overwhelm you, tire you out and make you frustrated. After lengthy walks and race against time, it will push you into endless waiting lines for each and every sight. Honestly, I didn’t enjoy my first experience of Paris. But slowly, with every recurring visit I started to find my way around and finally discovered the hidden charm of the city. Maybe there wasn’t love at first sight, but we did become good friends after all. Nowadays we come prepared, with all the tickets, tours and restaurants pre-booked moths before my visit. After numerous lousy Parisian hotels, we’ve finally found a nice, clean and charming accommodation in the Hotel Eiffel Tourenne. We come relaxed, confident in our time management and well aware of the places we want to see. I especially enjoy having my morning coffee and croissant in some small Parisian café and our dinner experiments with grenouille (frogs) and escargot (snails) in Quartier Latin. I admire the art collections of Louvre and Orsay, especially on the first Sunday of the month when there is a free entrance to all Parisian museums. I love the boat rides along the river Seine because they are both visually pleasing and a very useful mean of transport. But what I love the most about Paris is its architecture. There aren’t many places in the world which open up to you as an encyclopaedia of architecture. Paris gives you all, from the very essence of Gothic style, trough Renaissance and Belle Époque to modernism and Art Deco. If nothing else, this makes every visit to Paris worthwhile. And while it’s still not our most favourite city in the world, Paris indeed is (from time to time) a very good idea.

Our favorite parts of Paris

1. Île de la Cité

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The island, Île de la Cité, is the very heart of the city and also a location of the most important religious sight of Paris, the famous Cathédrale Notre Dame. With almost 2 centuries of construction, the Cathedral is until today one of the best examples of French Gothic. There isn’t the best time to visit the Notre Dame, as the Cathedral is attracting attention of each and every visitor to Paris, but seeing its vaults, the famous north rosette and the stained glass windows is well worth a wait.

While queuing, you will have plenty of time to explore the west portals of Last Judgement, Saint Anne and the one of the Virgin. Another well worth line is awaiting for you around the left corner, where the entrance to the Towers of Notre Dame is located. As the first one, this queue is well worth it, because after 422 steps you will have a unique gargoyle’s perspective of Paris and a direct view of the famous Emmanuel bell. Another jewel of the Île is the amazing Sainte-Chapelle. This royal chapel has been for a long time under renovation and we were excited to see it after the re-opening in 2015. The chapel is located within the Palais de la Cité, so to enter it you will need to pass through the Palace walls and its courtyard. You will not be able to see much of its exterior, but the most amazing thing is anyway inside. After climbing up to the second floor of the gothic chapel, you will be surrounded by 15 stained glass mosaic windows depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament. The chapel offers a schematic guide through the windows to ease your recognition of the scenes, so I highly recommend using it to get the full experience of this amazing mosaics.

2. Rive Gauche

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If there would ever be some imaginary competition between two sides of Paris, my vote would always go to the left bank, the Rive Gauche. Unlike the grand palaces and wide avenues on Rive Droite, the quartiers on the left bank are full of small streets, alleys and passages. Both Quartier Latin and Saint-Germain-des-Prés are very lively neighbourhoods filled with restaurants, bars and souvenir shops. It’s usually crowded with numerous vendors and tourists, but then again it is the place to go to for eating and drinking. The usual walking route through this area goes along the Rue de la Huchette and Rue Saint-Andre des Arts to Rue de Buci, but don’t forget to peak into side-streets and passages like Cour du Commerce Saint-Andre, a location of the oldest café in Paris, Le Procope, which was once a famous meeting place of Moliere, Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. We tried a number of French restaurants in this area, but one of the best escargots and grenouille we had was in Roger La Grenouille (reservation required).

Further along the left bank of the river Seine is my all-time favourite Parisian museum, Musee d’Orsay. Today’s museum is located in the old railway station and the interior of the building, with grand glass vaults, is really amazing. The permanent exhibition is dedicated to 19th century French artists, Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin and others, so plenty of impressionism for everyone’s taste. When inside, don’t miss the impressive clock in the central hall and the clocks on the 5th floor looking onto the river Seine.

If you continue further along the Seine, Rive Gauche offers plenty of places to relax by the riverside or grab drinks in a couple of bars located under the Pont Alexandre III. From there on, you are not far away from the Tour Eiffel itself. And if you are not in a walking mood, there is always a tour-boat waiting for you.

3. Boat ride along the river Seine

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As I mentioned before, taking a boat ride along the river Seine is not only a worthy touristic experience but also a great shortcut between the Parisian top sights. We usually take a boat on one of the stops around the Île de la Cité (Batobus Notre Dame or Vedettes du Pont Neuf). The ride will take you through the main sights on both left and right banks of the river, with additional focus being put on the famous bridges over the Seine. The few I particularly like are the oldest one, Pont Neuf, with 381 grotesque faces of mascarons, and the former bridge of lovers, Pont des Arts, which lost a bit of its old charm when the love locks are relocated to the Square du Vert-Galant at the top of the Île de la Cité. Further along the river Seine, connecting the Grand Palais and Les Invalides, is the most impressive bridge, Pont Alexandre III. It’s a classic example of Beux-Arts style, with plenty of decorations, from lamps to statues of cherubs, nymphs and golden winged horses. Pont Alexandre III is worth visiting also on foot, to get a closer look at all decorative details.

1er arrondissement de Paris

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First arrondissement or arrondissement du Louvre is one of the oldest and smallest neighborhoods in Paris, but it is probably the most renowned as it hosts Le Louvre and Palais Royal. The grand Louvre, once the main residence of French kings, later turned into a residence of artists and subsequently a museum, today hosts over 38 000 art objects, making it into the largest art museum in the world. If you decide to enter Louvre, plan your visit well, as the number of exhibits and the size of the museum itself can easily take a whole day. Handpick your artistic preferences and be aware that the famous Mona Lisa is a very small painting surrounded with millions of tourists every second of the day. Even if you don’t enter the building itself, its surrounding provides enough of artistic and architectural beauty. The front part of Louvre is opening into a Place du Carrousel with famous glass Pyramide and Arc de Triomphe du Caroussel (have in mind that the main entrance to Louvre is underneath the glass Pyramide and next to it a new shopping mall, in case you need anything).

The square further extends into a Jardin des Tuileries, a very relaxing public park ideal for resting and sunbathing. Whenever we are in Paris we always end up on the chairs around the first fountain, Grand Bassin Rond. Great place for both nature lovers and for people spotting.

Next to Louvre, across the Rue de Rivoli, is another point of interest, the Palais Royal. The building today hosts the French Ministry of culture but the surroundings is open to the public, especially the inner courtyard with Instagram famous black and white striped columns, Colonnes de Buren, and the royal gardens.

5. Top sights

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There are some things in Paris that you need to see at least once. And while they are now not my first preference, I have visited all of them, so it wouldn’t be fair not to mention it here as well. The Tour Eiffel and the surrounding Jardins du Trocadero and Champs de Mars are impressive and very photogenic, but the waiting lines to reach the top of the Eiffel tower can be rather discouraging. The view from the tower is of course amazing as well as its iron construction. On the very top of the tower, there is an exhibit of a private apartment that the architect, Gustave Eiffel, built for himself and for entertaining his guests.

Another crowded area of Paris is the famous shopping avenue Champs Elisees. Almost 2 kilometers longs, the avenue is ending on the Square Charles de Gaulle where the famous Arc du Triomphe is located. On Champs Elisees you can find all of the famous high end fashion brands, but while there, I would recommend to visit the original Ladurée macarons shop and tearoom, as it not only sells these delicious cookies but tells the whole story of its origins. Next on the list of top sights of Paris is the Montmartre, the hill of artists and a location of the Basilica of the Sacre Cœur.

The top is easily reachable by a funicular ascending from Place Saint-Pierre. The area behind the basilica is full of small alleys and houses which once hosted art studios of Modigliani, Monet, Renoir, Mondrian, Picasso, van Gogh and others. Today numerous street artist paint and sell their art around the area, so if you are interested in your portrait or caricature, it’s the place to go. The last part I would single out is the area around Centre Georges Pompidou, a postmodern building easily recognised by the steel tubes on its façade. It is now a National Museum of Modern Art, which hosts selected work of Matisse, Picasso Kandinsky and Warhol. Around the museum there is a number of charming restaurants and bars, similar to Quartier Latin, and also a modern shopping centre on the location of the former fresh food market Les Halles.

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Taking a look back, we have to admit that we’ve got quite into the whole Parisian thing. We have our favourite areas, our favourite restaurants, bars and hotels. We will always have Paris, but the rest of the world is still waiting for us. So, where next?

V&S