Paris

Travelling Without Kids

Paris: August 2017

In August 2017, Adam and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by running away to Paris for 4 days. Although we absolutely love travelling with our kids, it was lovely to have a few days to relax by ourselves.

We left from Cardiff Airport early on the Friday morning and spent most of that first day wandering around central Paris. Our hotel was pretty close to the Eiffel Tower (so close that you could see the top of the Tower from our balcony), so we pretty much stuck to the 7th Arrondissement. This turned out to be a great idea, as it started raining mid-afternoon. We hightailed it back to hotel, bought a bottle of wine and watched the rain gently fall outside the balcony window. I personally love a rainy day and for me, Paris is every bit as beautiful in the rain as it is in the sun.

In the evening, we headed across the Seine to board a dinner cruise run by Bateaux Mouches, We had reserved a table on board in advance and had a wonderful time. The food was delicious, the staff very welcoming and the sights were just beautiful. There was live music, which didn’t feel intrusive, and the whole atmosphere had just the right amount of romance.

After disembarking, we strolled back to the hotel along the bank of the Seine, pausing to watch the Eiffel Tower shimmer and glitter on the hour. And for me to practise my nighttime photography skills!

On the Saturday, we headed to the Louvre. We had purchased tickets online, so we’re able to bypass the queues on the way inside. The architecture of the building is just incredible. We managed to cover most of the Ground and First floors, but left levels 2 and -1. As always, the Mona Lisa had crowds 7-8 people deep – but there are so many other paintings and sculptures that are worth your time as well. (I must admit, it was very nice to be able to wander round a museum at our own pace without worrying whether the kids were starting to lose interest!)

At about midday, we left the Louvre and walked towards Notre Dame Cathedral. I really wanted to do the walking tour up to the belfries. I love a bit of gothic architecture and was looking forward to taking some atmospheric photos of the grotesques.

Now: you cannot book tickets in advance for the Notre Dame tour. You have to download an app called JeFile. If you open the app near Notre Dame, you will be given the option to ‘join the queue’. This assigns you a virtual place in line and gives you a waiting time. This way, you can go and have a coffee whilst you wait for your turn to arrive! The app will send you an alert when its time to join the physical queue and you pay for the tour once you get inside the building. If you can’t download the app, there are physical ticket points near to the queue entrance which will issue you a paper ticket with a time to return on it. We had never used this system before, so chatted to one of the guide who were stationed by the entrance to double check that we had done everything correctly. In our experience, the app worked well. It was far more relaxing to be sipping a chocolat chaud until our turn came, rather than standing in a long queue on a pavement.

The tour was just what I’d hoped for: gorgeous views across the city, and gargoyles and grotesques clambering over every edge.

After walking back down the 422 steps to ground level, we joined the queue to look inside the main part of the cathedral. There is no fee to go inside the cathedral, but the queues can escalate. Next time, I think the crypts would be on our list to explore.

Not content with the gothic atmosphere encountered so far, we headed across to the 3rd Arrondissement to have supper in Auberge Nicolas Flamel. Anyone with a passing knowledge of alchemy – or (of course!) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – will have heard of Flamel. He reputedly created a Philosopher’s Stone which could grant the owner immortality, as well as turn base metals into gold. Flamel was alive during the 13th century, but his link to alchemy skyrocketed during the 17th century. There is very little evidence that Flamel was involved in alchemy at all, but several manuscripts that emerged in the 17th century claimed that Flamel and his wide and both gained immortality through the famed stone. There is even a rumour that their tombs were opened and no bodies were found inside – furthering the legend that their Philosopher’s Stone was real.

Nowadays, Flamel’s house has been turned into a restaurant. Being Harry Potter fans, we couldn’t resist! The restaurant is very highly recommended! Again, the staff were superb and the food was stunning. I had La Langoustine as a starter and I could have quite happily eaten another for a main course and yet another as a dessert. The decor has nods to Flamel, without it being too much, and the fact that it is tucked away surreptitiously enhances the link to the mysterious Flamel.

On our third, land last full day, in Paris we had a leisurely lie in. Then we walked towards the Arc de Triomphe to marvel at the designer shops and the expensive cars. We stopped in Laduree (Champs Elysses) to try some delicious macarons. It is such a pretty building! Inside, you can queue to buy a box of pastries or macarons to take away with you, or sit down in the restaurant. There is also a bar there, which isn’t open until later on in the evening. The bar, in particular, is beautiful: all twisted art nouveau metal work and interwoven green branches. None of the photos I took did it justice.

We took a box of pastries AND some macarons back to hotel to enjoy with a glass of wine…or two.

For our evening meal, we had reserved a table in Restaurant 58 which is on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. I think perhaps I ‘d been spoiled by Auberge Nicolas Flamel the previous night – but in all honesty, the food was underwhelming. However, the location, view and ambiance did make up for it. With any reservation for Restaurant 58, you have a ticket to the first floor of the Tower included. You can then walk up to the second floor for free, but have to buy an additional ticket to go up any further. There were signs saying that we could buy these extra tickets on the second level, but we walked around and around and couldn’t find anywhere selling them. A helpful lady in the gift shop informed us that the ticket office on that floor was closed. We didn’t mind not going right up to the top of the Eiffel Tower – but mainly because we have been up there before. If it’s your first time in Paris, I would definitely recommend buying all tickets before you step in the lift, rather than risk being disappointed.

And with that, our Paris getaway was over. As always, there is far more to see and do than we managed to squeeze in. So a return to Paris is certainly on the cards.