Visiting Paris in France

Paris has and always will be my favourite place to visit. The last time I went was in December 2010 with my partner. It was her first time in Paris but I had been many times before. I picked a lovely hotel for the both of us to stay in on Raymond Poincarre Rd, a beautiful quiet tree lined street only 1200 yards around the corner from the Eiffel Tower, the hotel was called Hotel Palais De Chaillot, it was not an over amazing hotel, nothing to write home about but it was quiet clean and modern. The only reason I picked this hotel was because of its location, like I said, it was only around the corner from The Eiffel Tower, but it was also in walking distance to other famous landmarks in Paris like Musee Du Louvre, Arc De Triomphe and Les Invalides to name a few. We planned 3 nights in Paris to visit these places but actually walked around to all of them in a matter of hours rather than days, leaving the rest of our time to simply eat and relax. Whilst tourists spent the majority of their time queuing up for hours on end to climb the Eiffel Tower or visit the museums inside, we only walked around the outside of the famous icons and instead explored the Parisian culture. Fine we didn’t see the inside of the Louvre Museum but just to walk around it and eat in the restaurants around the fountains was more than enough for the both of us to feel the essence of the place. We didn’t feel that we missed out by not climbing the Eiffel Tower as the best way to see the Eiffel Tower was to stand in front of it, walk around it or standing underneath it to capture its sheer size, standing on top of it would have given us views of Paris, yes, but we didn’t want views of Paris, we wanted to feel it and be part of it on the ground.

When visiting Paris we visited Avenue des Champs Elysees, the famous French street and equivalent to Britain’s Oxford Street. The sweets and candy that can be bought along the sidewalks of the street are a real treasure and walking down the famous street reminds me of being in an amusement park rather than a high street, but the real gems will be found when walking around the back streets. There is nothing better than walking around the not so famous places, just the normal back streets of Paris. Some of the best restaurants are to be found down these streets and they will not be filled with tourists but instead local French citizens giving you the real Parisian essence of the capital. These are also where you will find the best places to capture photographs of the Eiffel Tower, instead of the same boring upfront photographs that are usually taken.

Paris is romantic, elegant and hypnotising and when you are there you feel like you are in a magic ball. It’s not too expensive and the paintings that can be bought around the attractions can be purchased for a real bargain. We bought 3 amazing paintings of Paris for around 10 euros along with many other unique gifts. The French are very friendly and very welcoming to everybody who visit, and I cannot wait to go back.