Europe Trip – Paris

Day 3

This is our day two in romantic city of Paris. If you have not read my previous blogs do read – my start of Europe trip here and our first day in Paris here.

We were tired on our first day as I have travelled first from India and then Amsterdam to Paris and finally not so good experience with Paris Metro. After our seine river cruise, we straight came to hotel had dinner and slept.

After a good night sleep, heavy b/f we head out to spend our day in the beautiful city. As mentioned in my previous blog we used bus for the rest of the days in Paris, well mostly. Bus stop was some ½ km from our hotel.

After you plan your day do check if stroller is allowed/feasible for those places else take baby carrier. There is no place to keep stroller if it is not allowed at an attraction. So, plan accordingly.

We started with Arc de Triomphe, took bus 22 from place near to hotel took around 35-40 min. It’s an iconic triumphal arch built to celebrate Napoleon’s victories, with an observation deck. It’s a 50 mtr high arch and the observation deck is on the roof.

There are 2 types of tickets for most of the attraction in Paris, one is normal where one must stand in line and wait for your turn. Second is skip the line where you can go directly to the front or say near to entry point.

Normal ticket cost around € 10-12 and skip the line on viator will be € 14. We didn’t go on the roof didn’t find if worth as we have already booked summit ticket of Eiffel. But the view of ‘Champ Elysees’ can be enjoyed from the top.

Arc is on the centre of a busy road, at this juncture 12 roads meets. You can get some beautiful pics here with the beautiful Arc de Triomphe. We clicked some pics and then headed towards our next Destination Notre dame.

You find all the useful information about Arc de Triomphe here.

Notre Dame has historic importance and it’s one of the finest examples of French gothic architecture. This cathedral witnesses the coronation as Emperor of Napoleon Bonaparte. It took quite long to finish the cathedral.

This is a beautiful cathedral from inside as well as outside. It’s active church and very beautiful. The entry to the church is free but there are tickets to enter the tower and treasury. Tower ticket costs € 10 and treasury € 8.

One need to book the time slot on there app if you want to climb the tower and witness the view from there. There is no more waiting in line as there is an app ‘DuckTheLine’ where you need to book your slot in advance and be there on selected time.

There is no price for the app or for the booking the slot, you just have to book the slot, purchase there € 10 ticket and be there on time.

This app even reminds you about your time. One thing that you need to make sure is be on time else they won’t allow you to enter as this happened with us, we have purchased the tickets and were late and they didn’t allow us.

Also make sure you book the slot as early as possible as the number of people per slot are limited and it is booked quite fast.

The line to enter the church was too big and it is usually big, we have waited for at least 1 hr to enter the church. There are benches where you can sit while waiting.

You can get all the information about the opening/closing days timing ticket pricing here.

From here we went to ‘Sainte – Chapelle’. It’s a royal Chappelle. It is located with a palace where the king of France stayed till 14^th century. It is also based on gothic style architecture.

The most famous thing about this place is it’s huge mid-13^th century stained glass windows. This part is located on the first floor of the Chapelle. Even the ceiling of both the parts of the Chapelle are beautiful.

The stained windows displayed different historical events and there are placards available in different languages which helps you understand what is displayed on which window.

There is ticket to enter the Chapelle and they have an app through which you can zoom in the windows and know the meaning of the art on it.

Ticket cost is € 10 pp and it’s always better to book the tickets in advance to avoid the queue. When we went there the queue is not that big, but it was there. If you have tickets, then directly go the front show the tickets at the counter and enter.

You can get all the information about the opening/closing days timing ticket pricing here.

For tickets of Notre Dame and Sainte- Chapelle we have used official website of Paris convention and visitor’s bureau. Here the tickets are available in all sort of combinations unlike other websites where they sell guided tours only.

Guided tours are good for some but not always required.

After this it’s time to visit our last destination of the day and most awaited one – Eiffel Tower.

If you really want to enjoy this place and don’t want to wait in long queue, then you should spend additional money and book a priority entry ticket which might include small guide session on the second level.

We have booked out ticket from Musement. We paid € 72 for 2 and it include small guided tour on the second level and summit access. There office is in a lane near to Eiffel tower.

You can also buy the tickets from the official website of Eiffel tower and you have option of second floor ticket which will cost € 16 pp and summit ticket which is € 26 pp.

Summit ticket includes Second level access also. You need to select the date then available time slots will be shown.

Earlier you book better are the chances to get your preferred date and time.

One more benefit of booking from an agency is they will get you in, in a group so you don’t have to be in a line at the security check gate, then you don’t have to wait in a line at the lifts and you will get little history lesson by the guide at second level.

Eiffel is really an architectural beauty. Such a massive structure, standing for so many years. It’s huge. Lifts from the ground floor will take you to the second level and then if you have summit entry ticket they you can go. There is only 1 lift to go to summit.

It was our lucky day there was no queue to go to summit. We were alone with the lift operator lady. She also said you are lucky otherwise there are huge queue. There are stairs as well to climb up or come down.

Once you reach second level the view of Paris is magnificent. We have booked our ticket for evening. Evening is perfect time as you can enjoy the view, sunset and then enjoy the Paris in artificial lighting.

Believe me it was mesmerizing. When we there it was still cold and there is lot of wind, so if you are visiting in winter do carry good quality warm cloths else be prepared to shiver.

There is a restaurant at level 2 and on summit you can enjoy a glass of Champagne at an additional cost. There are restaurants on level 1 which has separate entry and you can not go to second level from there.

You can just visit restaurant, have food or enjoy a drink with a view and back on ground floor. There is one restaurant at second level as well.

After dark, diamond lights increases the beauty of Eiffel tower. These lights have that sparkling/glittering effect and it’s amazing to watch it.

We have waited 1 hour to see it as while coming down it happened, and it has an interval of 1 hours. It is there for 5 min or so.

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There are these road side vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs, most of them live together. There are Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi, African. Even African were speaking Hindi (few words ?). We bought few things – wooden alphabet train, electronic toy dog which my daughter lost before it could see India ☹, few fridge magnets relatively cheap compared to a shop.

This ends our day on a beautiful note with lots of memories.

** Do select the tour operator very carefully, as when we went to collect our tickets for Eiffel tower there were people standing who has booked the tickets with different operator and their shop was closed and no one was answering their calls.

Stay tuned for more details about our coming days in Paris.

Note - All the pictures are from our trip taken by us.