What to write about Paris? There is so much to say but it’s so hard to describe what we truly feel in this city! Basically, the ideal is to visit, enjoy and above all absorb everything one of the best cities in the world has to offer!
But while that doesn’t happen, or to those who wish to revive it, here goes a little “taste” of Paris!
Culture, art, history marks, luxury, romance, gastronomy and Life… All mixed in a frantic and crazy way in the City of Light.
It is impossible to stay unresponsive to the elegance and glamour of the French capital. Bathed by the Seine River, Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world!
Walking around the city makes everything much more interesting, however, for great distances we can always use the subway or the RER (train), that takes us anywhere in the city in a relatively short amount of time, the public transportation system works very well, moreover, Paris is not one, but two cities, the one we know, and the underground one, where a world of people and transports circulate.
The Seine will always be a beautiful scenario
Forget about visiting Paris a single time! I already went several times and I always find something more, another museum, another boulangerie, another pâtisserie, a new exhibition, another street, restaurant, more history, more culture, and more endless beauty.
However there are mandatory places in a first visit.
So, I decided to make a Seven Day Guide of Paris, to help you in this wonderful trip.
Well, let’s go meet the city!
Day 1
Start the day early so you can enjoy everything!
Starting with what springs to mind when thinking about Paris, La Tour Eiffel!
This supremacy symbol of the city is not even by chance my favorite! Would you believe If I told you I never climbed it???
But believe that’s true! But, my personal taste aside, this monument was built by Gustave Eiffel to the 1889 World’s Fair, during the Industrial Revolution period, and projected to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution and it was supposed to be disassembled later, but the success was so big it was kept till today.
The endless lines to climb this building, one of the highest in the world, also remain nowadays! Constituted by 320 meters of iron, with two floors, and you can take a lift or take the stairs, and they for sure present a breathtaking view over the city.
Right in front of the Eiffel tower, across the Seine, you can enjoy the Jardin du Trocadéro, the Parisian gardens are wonderful! And the French use and abuse them, in a good way of course, whether it’s raining or a sunny day, the gardens are always full of people, and they’re one of the things I like most in this city! To those who wish to enjoy the city to its fullest, I advise you to stop at a pâtisserie, buy something to eat and sit in the garden having some lunch and resting a bit.
Still at the famouse Trocadéro square (famous for pictures with the Eiffel Tower as background) we can find two museums, the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine and the Musée national de la Marine, and two steps away the amazing Palais de Tokyo, with excellent seasonal exhibitions.
Continuing the discovery of the city, we arrive to the Arc de Triomphe, another history mark, built by the order of Napoleon to celebrate his victories.
It has 50m of hight and the view is divine, I advise you to go up! From it extend twelve avenues in the form of a star, projected by Georges-Eugène Haussmann (the father of the Parisian architecture).
View from the Arc de Triomphe over the Camps-Elysées avenue
The main and most famous avenue is the Champs-Elysées Avenue, perfect for a walk and to observe the different stores, the luxury ones or the more accessible, and observe the multitude of different cultures that daily walk through this avenue. (But don’t be mistaken, this is not the fashion and luxury avenue in Paris, for that try the Av. Montaigne, a perpendicular of the Champs-Elysées).
Walking down the Champs-Elysées we find two palaces transformed into Museums, the Grand and the Petit Palais, dating from 1900.
The first one has an imposing classic facade and a monumental glass ceiling; being a space for exhibitions it is open for the public only during the same. On its turn, the Petit Palais is always open as the Paris Museum of Fine Arts, with permanent collections that include works from Delacroix, among others. During my first visit to Paris I didn’t enter any of them, I just observed their imposing looks from the outside, but on my second visit to Paris I went to see an exhibition at the Grand Palais.
The famous Alexandre III with the Grand Palais as background
After these Museums we can glimpse one of the most idyllic images of Paris, the Alexandre III Bridge. Built in 1900, it was a gift from the Russian Tsar Alexandre III, to the French.
Everything here impresses, the columns decorated with horse sculptures covered with gold, the decoration with smiley angels, the view we have – the Grand and the Petit Palais on the right bank of the Seine, and on the left one another special place, the Hôtel des Invalides.
Its construction was ordered by Louis XIV to host the injured soldiers (invalids) from the end of the XVII century.
It is also in this grandiose place that lies the greatest French soldier of all times, Napoleon Bonaparte, under the amazing golden dome of the church that finishes the splendorous space of the Hôtel dês Invalides.
In this very same place we can visit the Musée de L’Armée that contains one of the biggest military objects collections in the world.
I remember well the first time I was in the Alexandre III Bridge, I remember it was raining (I hate rain but nothing could disturb me in that moment, I remember making a 360 degree turn and absorbing everything around me, I remember taking a deep breath and thinking… Another unforgettable moment in my life!
After visiting the Musée de L’Armée you are ready to finish your first day, and quite a productive one! Let yourselves be carried away by the nice coffee places in the city or one of its amazing restaurants.
The Dome of the Hôtel dês Invalides seen from the Rodin Museum
This article is the 1st of a series of 7. (Day 2) (Day 3) (Day 4) (Day 5) (Day 6) (Day 7) (Paris Tips)
Where to sleep – Places near these attractions from the first day of the guide
Shangri-la Hotel Paris, Hotel Plaza Athenee Paris, The Peninsula Paris, Le Madison Hotel
Where to eat – Places near these attractions from the first day of the guide
Le Chiberta (*Michelin), L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (**Michelin) , Ledoyen (***Michelin), to know the best of what is made (and of course most expensive) in the city. You can also choose to search for a good artisanal bakery and enjoy a quicker meal, tasty and cheaper.
Text: Cíntia Oliveira | Photos: Flavors & Senses