I am very fortunate to have visited Paris multiple times now, and it can be safely said that I will never be desensitized to its magic. Even with national train strikes that meant the metro would be closed and us averaging 45,000 steps a day. It is what it is, and my sister and I still made the most of our 3 days in the City of Lights.
Once our train arrived to Gare du Nord, we headed to our hotel for un petit somme / a quick nap. After, we ventured out to the Montmartre area to catch the sunset at Sacre Cœur. In my opinion, this area of Paris is one of the most beautiful and is probably my favorite. The one thing I will say though is that Paris the week before Christmas was eerily quiet. And it's not like there weren't a lot of tourists, it's just the city streets felt so quiet. We noticed that a lot of shops and restaurants outside the touristy areas were closed. I couldn't figure out if it was due to the strikes or because it's the wintertime.
The next day was a full day that we walked the whole of Paris, or at least it seriously felt like we did. "Have feet, will travel" I always say. It's the best way to discover a city. On our walking tour, we saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower (from both sides of the Seine), Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, Notre Dame and Jardin de Luxembourg. Honestly, I still can't believe we did all of that without calling an Uber.
This was my first time traveling again since I moved to London, and your girl forgot how exhausting traveling could be. Also add on the fact that I'm in grad school now and the past couple of months I've been back on that study grind. Takes a lot out of you. But I view travel as a cultural experience and I do genuinely enjoy it.
I hope to be back again to Paris when it's warmer so I can finally have that picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower I've always dreamed about.
Á bientôt, Paris!
