Experiencing Paris in Four Days

Day 1

We landed in Paris on a rainy July day and then took our booked bus to the city centre, which took us about an hour and a half. We grabbed our suitcases and ran off to the underground where we felt the city hustle and bustle and the smell of the Paris metro. We stayed in an interesting quarter for the next four days, full of beauty salons and wig shops. Even though we arrived in the afternoon, we spent the rest of the day exploring the city, since we were so excited we wanted to experience as much as possible the very first day. The city’s location helped with that, since it lies quite to the north, therefore the sun doesn’t set until 9 p.m., and it only gets dark at around midnight.

We had enough time for an evening walk, so we frst headed to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which is still being renovated due to the fire, so the view of the cathedral is limited. We continued past Sorbonne University to the Panthéon – a majestic building that hides the remains of prominent Parisians, such as Marie Curie, Voltaire, Emile Zola and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and it is reminiscent of the Roman Pantheon. We also took a stroll through the Jardin du Luxembourg or Luxembourg Gardens which are home to the famous Statue of Liberty that was made in Paris and then transported to the USA in 350 pieces by ship.

The world-famous statue’s interior was built by another prominent Parisian, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The engineer put up a 324-metre-tall iron tower for a world exhibition in 1889. The tower is now the main symbol of Paris and is the most visited monument with an entrance fee in the world. More than 250 million people have visited it since it was erected. We spotted it while marvelling at the exterior of the Les Invalides military museum which houses Napoleon’s remains. There were lots of brown rabbits jumping around on the grass between the trees outside the museum and they didn’t seem to mind the passers-by. We eagerly continued along the Champs de Mars, so we could get closer to the Eiffel Tower in the distance as soon as possible. The mighty construction was lit by the last sunrays, which conjured up a spectacular view for us. Despite the crowds of tourists, who all wanted to take the perfect photo, there wasn’t anything that could spoil our experience. When it got dark, we left another memory behind and took the metro to get near our accommodation, had dinner and enjoyed the macarons we bought along the way.

Day 2

We started the day by visiting Père Lachaise Cemetery, which is one of the most visited necropolises in the world – and for a reason. Graves of Frederic Chopin, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Rossini, Molière and many other famous people are hidden among the numerous majestic tombstones and chapels. Since the cemetery is very large, we had to pay special attention to the writings on the tombstones, so we could find the graves of the above-mentioned deceased. Then we decided to visit the Avenue des Champs-Élysées where we had to push our way through a crowd of tourists. Our attention was drawn to the impressive triumphal arch in the distance – the Arc de Triomphe. We pushed through the ring of tourists that surrounded the arch and crossed the underpass to get to the arch’s other side where we grabbed some coffee and paid a price for it that was appropriate for the view we had.

We were already sitting on the metro not long after, which took us to Paris’ La Défense business district. The escalator took us outside the station, among enormous skyscrapers, businessmen and curious visitors. In the district, which employs 180,000 people, we marvelled at glass offices and cooled at the shopping centre where businessmen like to spend their lunch break.

The Louvre was that day’s main attraction, and everyone travelling to Paris should visit it, despite the tremendous number of visitors. We bought our tickets online because we had to book the hour of our visit in advance, though there’s no admission fee for EU citizens up to the age of 26. The building used to be a residence for kings, until Louis XIV decided to make his home at the Palace of Versailles. The building therefore opened its doors as a museum for the first time in 1793, and it now houses over 35,000 works of art and 380,000 objects. We had an hour and a half at the museum, so we studied the locations of exhibits that interested us the most and which we wanted to see in advance to really make the most of our time there. One can very quickly get lost in the many hallways, staircases and chambers, so we took a map at the information desk and went on an art hunt. Of course, we couldn’t skip Mona Lisa. People were queueing in front of it to take a closer look. Though, we were more impressed by The Wedding Feast at Cana that’s exhibited across Da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine. The painting’s the largest at the Louvre. It’s six metres tall and ten metres wide. We were most interested in works of art we’d only seen in history textbooks and other books, the ancient statue exhibition and the buildings foundations that are located on the lowest floor.

We concluded the day on a bench under the Eiffel Tower where we observed tourists who had a picnic on the grass and street vendors who sold them wine and other drinks in buckets of ice. The great organisational skills of the vendors really made us smile. They stored ice in garbage bins and hidden bottles in lamp casings, low bushes that dotted the lawn, and in the thicket of the nearby park. The crowd around us and everyone, including us, were waiting for the flickering lights on the Eiffel Tower to turn on for five minutes on the hour after sunset and illuminate the night sky.

Day 3

In the morning, we visited the Musée d'Orsay and we had free admission. The museum was founded at the location of the former train station, so, in addition to the artwork of famous painters, such as Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Cezanne etc., you can also admire the buildings majestic architecture. We were soon in a hurry to get to one of the main train stations where we barely caught the train to the Palace of Versailles. The train ride took about 20 minutes, and then we spent another half an hour to get to the palace. We also booked our time of arrival online and got ourselves quick access, so we could explore the impressive building’s interior. We got a map and went exploring the endless halls the Sun King called his home. The Hall of Mirrors was the main attraction. It’s where world leaders signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which officially brought an end to World War I. The huge estate is also known for its large gardens and fountains, though we couldn’t visit those, since there was a music event held that day and we’d have to pay extra for it. On days when there are no special events, visiting the gardens is included in the ticket price. Plus, we were hurrying back to the train that would take us to the city centre, and it also started to rain, so we caught the train the last moment all soaked.

After the adventure, we quickly changed our wet clothes and put on dry ones, and then took the metro to the Wall of Love. We had to walk long steep and spiralling flights of steps that seemed to have no beginning or end to get from the station to the surface. The phrase “I love you” is written on the Wall of Love in 250 languages, so we had to keep a sharp eye on the writings to find the one in Slovenian. When we finally found it and managed to take a photo of it, we got caught in the rain again and we were soon hiding underneath the trees in a small park. Luckily, it was just a summer shower, so we soon continued towards and across the famous Montmartre to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. We quickly snapped a few photos and then ran back downhill to escape groups of tourists and street vendors. We finally stopped at the famous Paris entertainment venue that’s known for the bright red windmill – the Moulin Rouge. Rainy clouds drove us to the metro station again, where we took the train to the Hotel de Ville city hall, took photos during a heavy downpour and ran off to have dinner and a well-deserved rest.

Day 4

We spent the last morning, which was cloudy, visiting the bridges under which the Seine flows. We also stopped at the beginning of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and watched the preparations for the last segment of Tour de France that took place there the following day. On our way to the bus which took us to the airport, we also saw the exterior of the Parc des Princes football stadium. Soon after, we were sitting on the plane and looking at the French capital through the window. This trip was a memorable experience. We proved to ourselves that a large city, such as Paris, can be fully explored in just four days, even though we left a few attractions for our next visit because we’ll definitely be going back.