Paris Unveiled

I arrived in Paris late afternoon and met up with my cousin at Gare Du Norde, as you can take the metro straight there from the airport (its about an hour). We stayed at a hostel across the street from the train station called St Christopher's - it rocked! They had a ton of ameneties and even a bar/arcade/billiards room downstairs. We mostly made friends at the hostel and then headed out for the night! We went out to one of the many clubs in Paris to have a night on the town. If you like techno music, any Paris club is the spot to be for you.

Paris is HUGE, but we tried to dedicate day 2 to see all the good touristy sites you want to see. We used the metro to get around, but I'd also recommend the classic hop on hop off tours if you don't have a lot of time in the city. First of course, we headed to the Eiffel tower. You can pay a few euros to either walk up or take an elevator up to the top and grab a drink looking over all of Paris. Its situated in a really nice stretch of greenery and park where you can have a great picnic under the tower. I recommend sunset or even an evening visit to see it sparkle!

After the tower, we headed to the Lourve. Buy your tickets in advance as they sell out pretty frequently. The Lourve is huge and you could spend an entire day there alone, but we opted for a couple hours. Of course, we had to see the Mona Lisa - but usually there is a HUGE crowd and it can be hard to see it, so be patient.

After the Lourve, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. You can also go to the top of the Arc (for free, I believe) through a tunnel that runs right under it. Careful of the crazy drivers! After this, on the main street that runs into the Arc, there is a ton of shopping and great restaurants. We ate at one right on the strip for dinner and it was delicious! Paris actually has really good pizza, if you can believe it. If you're there during November or December, they usually have a small Christmas market at the end of the main strip.

This day, we took a slow morning by the Seine river for breakfast and coffee. Most of the cafes in Paris have outdoor patio seating when the weather is nice. After breakfast, we headed to the Palace of Versailles. You can get a guided tour or just see the outside of it, but if you want a tour get your tickets in advance. They have guided and self guided available. This took a couple hours and then we used the rest of the afternoon to shop and explore more local parts of Paris. We were also able to see the Notre Dame, but since the fire I'm not sure if they let tourists inside anymore, but you can absolutely admire it from the outside. That evening we went out to club Badaboum for live rock music and then once it gets later in the night, they play disco music.

Other things to see or do in Paris include a cruise on the Seine River, the Musee D'Orsay, a day trip to Normandy / D-Day Beaches, and so much more. Paris is really hard to do in one trip unless you have an extended amount of time, so just see what is most fun or important for you!