You CAN see Paris in a day!!

Bonjour Paris!!!

Ohhhhh! 4 am and a rude awakening by the alarm o’clock, but in a flash it’s “Vamos a Paris yippee” and all systems are go! After a quick shower and putting the clothes on left out before bedtime, we leave the house at 4.30am.  We are raring to go, but tired and in need of caffeine.  Picking up two more just around the corner and meeting another two at a nearby roundabout, away we go. The tired little red "Ferrari" zooms through the quiet streets of Girona to the airport and we arrive in plenty of time to go through security and have a McDonalds before boarding the plane and taking off at 6.25am.

A relatively short flight but with lots of  prospective sales opportunities for a captive audience: Hot food, bar, smokeless cigarettes, newspapers, scratch cards, duty free………. Nobody is really interested in buying as people sleep, chat and prepare their onward journey.

Landing at 8.10am and with no luggage to pick up we all got on the 8.20am bus from Beauvais (a shed of an airport really but that’s what makes the flight cheap).  A mere 15€ one way! and a near 2 hr journey later we arrive at Porte Maillot bus station.  Here we buy our ticket back and check the bus times. We need to be back by 7pm which gives us 9 hours to discover the Parisian delights.

A grey day in Paris but off we go, cameras at the ready, to get a Metro day pass (9.85€) and catch M1 (Metro Line 1) to Charles de Gaulle Étoile for the Arc de Triomphe. Oops wrong train!!  We get off at Les Sablons and re-start our correct journey.  Coming out into the open the famous arch stands right there, rammed with people and traffic, so it's a quick stop here for photos and off we go down the Champs-Elysées.  By now the men are getting hungry and we stop at 10.45am in a café for baguettes and drinks.

Fuelled up and raring to go we stroll down the “Avenue” to the next Metro, which by the way is not the stairs the 6 of us amble down to find a car park J The actual Metro we get is M1 again from Franklin D Roosevelt.  Relatively a short distance to Concorde but we’re getting our money’s worth out of the day pass AND time is of the essence.

Submerging from the station we find …… a road!! Oops Where is the “Place”?  A kind French lady points us in the right direction and off we go.  Then around a corner  La Place de la Concorde appears and also the far away Eiffel Tower. 

Picture time and a stop on the bridge, looking left at Notre Dame and right at the Eiffel Tower, we decide to stroll down the right bank of the river, cross the bridge with the Hôtel des Invalides straight ahead and look for the train station.

By the Air France building the station seems closed off but after a couple of seconds we realise it’s just the escalators that are shut, so down the steps into the depths of Paris we go. We take the RER C from Invalides to Champs de Mars for the Eiffel Tower.  Leaving the train we take a right and pass a loud American chatting to some disinterested people.  Not finding the exit after a good 5 minutes we head back, passing the same American still talking at the same disinterested people.  And so, finally submerging from under the ground we find ….. oops!! no Eiffel Tower !!!!

However, following the crowds we finally see it!  Up close and personal!  Group photos here and some contortionist positions to try to get the whole tower in a photo (TIP: Just lie on the floor!).  We rest our feet a little as the sun is trying to come out then we head back to the RER C (the American is not here now) and head off to St.-Michel Notre-Dame.  We were a captive audience once again and some very bad accordion / clarinette buskers downstairs made the journey interesting.  (If the passengers hadn’t encouraged them they wouldn’t have kept playing ….. Just a thought!)

1 pm and we walk around Notre-Dame.  Photo opportunities abound on this island within the city and many people soak up the sights: the cathedral, statues, bridges, monuments …... The sky is getting greyer now and there’s a grrrr from the men as stomachs begin grumbling again.  So we decide to head up the hill for Montmartre.

Leaving the island we head over to Hôtel de Ville where city people seem to be on the tennis court as the Roland Garros tournament is being broadcast on a huge screen with loungers and tables on an orange terrace.

We catch the M1 here to Concorde and change for M12 up to Montmartre.  Undecided with which station to stop at (Lamarck or Abbesses) we get guidance from a nice resident Spanish lady who gives us some tips and we leave the metro at Lamarck, a more residential, less touristy, area with cafés / restaurants.

2.15pm and we stop for lunch. Just a  “menu du jour” 18€ but nobody is really overjoyed with their meal,  but at the end of the day it’s a stop and it’s food …. stringy rollmops, fried strong goats cheese, tough beef, tasteless fish, funny tasting tap water and beers later we head uphill for Montmarte.  Onward and upward and in just a short walk we are transported into a colourful artistes haven where pictures and words rub shoulders with delicious pastries, biscuits and ice-creams. People amble, soak up the atmosphere on terraces, have their portraits done and take endless photos.

We get a sneak peek from Place du Tertre of the Sacred Heart and are enticed to seek out the cathedral, so off we go.

Sacré Coeur has always moved me in a way I can’t describe but just being there gives me a sense of peace.  We contemplate the views of Paris and as the heavens open we rush inside to contemplate the beauty that hides within the somewhat grimacing façade of the cathedral.

Once outside again the rain has stopped and we go back to THAT view and sit on the stairs.  People are walking up and down and vendors sell ice-cold beers.  We buy some bottles and relax a bit, resting our feet and soaking up all that we have experienced earlier down there below.

We wander down the hill through the artistes area comparing the likeness of the portrait being created and guessing which feature the caricaturist will pick out for the smiling foreigner.  Some souvenir shopping here is a must and we stop in a lovely macaroon/biscuit shop to buy tins of colourful delicacies for the parents.

Wandering down Montmartre to the Moulin Rouge we encounter chic boutiques and bistros, and the place is alive with chatter and laid back ambience.  Arriving at the Moulin Rouge, however, the mood changes a little with the strangely interesting sex shops and video parlours.  An area overwhelmed with people taking pictures of the famous red windmill and trying not to get run over in the process.

Looking at the time we decide we have just that much left to see the Louvre and wander off to find a metro station.  Not finding one easily, we ask a nice Gendarme who points us in the right direction.

Taking the M2 Place de Clichy to Charles de Gaulle and changing for M1 to Palais Royale we look for the Louvre.  Oops!  We’re in a shopping mall?  It's just before 6pm and we're wandering around, then we see the inverted pyramid so look for an exit.  Submerging from the ground we finally see the famous pyramid.  Time for a quick photo stop and off we go back into the ground to catch M1 to Porte Maillot.

On leaving the metro we think we've got Paris sussed, WE know where we're going!  Hmm, well no!  We end up in the train station (no American this time though) and walk the platform, but on turning around we head back and see the exit sign.  Up the escalators we go (TIP: escalators are a great opportunity for a group shot looking down at everyone) and out into the air we go.  Stopping on the way to visit Palais des Congrès, basically for the toilets, we get lost in a maze of designer shops in a near empty shopping mall.

We finally get to the bus station at 6.45pm and get on the bus, all hungry and tired but with a fulfilling experience of having seen (nearly) everything of Paris. The rain comes down, but we don’t care, and the bus leaves at 7.10pm. There’s a little bit of traffic but we get to see one last sight, from the comfort of the bus, La Défense.

Arriving at Beauvais about 8.40pm we get some tea.  The supermarket has drinks and baguettes, sandwiches and snacks, and then the bar has some hot sandwiches and pizzas.  We eat al fresco on the steps then go through security to wait.  After dealing with a very rude checkout out girl, when we shopped in the duty free shop, we board the plane and take off on time at 10.25pm.

Exhausted and remembering all the fabulous sights we’ve seen, we arrive back in Girona at 12.15am, pick up the rested little red "Ferrari"  and we arrive home, not quite 24hours but not far off, at 12.45am. 

Oo la la !!  A very long, interesting, exciting and thoroughly enjoyable day!



We'll always have Paris x

We travelled on June 6^th 2012 with Ryanair.

Departing 06.25h Girona, Spain

Departing 22.55h Beauvais, France