After thinking about a spring trip for a while and looking at options, I remembered that my mum had mentioned something about Paris. I had only been to Paris once and I was twelve, so I don't remember too much. Paris is also a city I thought I might not want to travel to alone. So we ended up planning a mother-daughter trip to the «City of Lights». (Some also say it's the "City of Love"but I don't agree with that.)
We set out before sunrise on a Thursday in April 2023 and arrived at our hotel in the afternoon. The journey was pretty normal on the Norwegian side, arriving in Paris things took a turn though. We ended up managing, but finding our way to the train was challending, the signs at the airport stopped at a point and we were unsure where to go, then after finally arriving in Paris by train, we struggled to find the metro and how to buy tickets for it. When we finally found the ticket machines our bank cards wouldn't work on them. We were told to go through the gates and up to the metro station, once there we struggled again, the sinage around Gare du Nord isn't very good. Someone passing by tried to help explain where to go though and we eventually got to buy tickets and got a guard to open the gate for us, as getting the suitcases through the normall way didn't seem possible. Other than the instances with our suitcases, especially around this central station, the metro was fine. But with luggage and there being stairs everywhere it's not the most traveller friendly place. Our hotell was fine though, wooden floors, nice bathroom, not the best but also not the worst location. We got tourist passes, meaning we could take public transport anywhere within the city with the ticket and we were only a metro or two away from most things we wanted to see. We started the adventure by finding food. We were hungry and needed food before we could find the energy to go exploring. So we found a place a few minutes walk from the hotel and tried a croque monsieur (cheese sandwich). The sandwich wasn't that great, but it was food and we got fries with it. And we quicly noticed that a glass of wine tends to cost less than a pop (soda) in Paris.
After the food we headed towards Montmartre and did a little geocaching on the way. We walked passed Moulin Rouge with the goal of going to Sacré-Coeur, which is a church. It's a beautiful building on a hilltop overlooking the city. We walked the stairs up to the church and took photos along the way, both of the church and the view. Normally I wouldn't have bothered to go inside the church but my mum wanted a type of geocache that was inside (a virtuel kind) so we did. And the artwork inside was pretty cool. After the church we took the metro to Place de la Concord and walked through the beautiful garden towards the Louvre. With the flowering trees against the old buildings this might actually be my favourite thing in the city. The light from the low sun hit the Louvre for a few minutes and that was beautiful too. Although it would have been cool to go inside, and see the «Mona Lisa», we didn't. From what I've heard it's basically one long queue and that's not really how I like to spend my holidays.
It was getting sort of late anyways so we geocached a little more and then headed back towards the hotel. We had a cocktail opposite our hotel before bed. We had thought of trying somewhere else, and had thoughts of a dessert, but most places were honestly really packed. So we eventually ended up by the hotel where we got a couple of stools by a window tabletop. The drinks weren't anything special and the dessert menu didn't really speak to us. So we just got the one drink. We were planning on an early morning.
We left the hotel before 8 am Friday morning and headed towards a park for some geocaching. Monceau park has some beautiful features, including a nice bridge, and it's clearly very popular by morning runners. After taking some photos both for myself and for a virtual geocache we found one normal geocache outside the park and hopped on a metro. I wanted to walk by Lac Inférieur so we took the metro close to the park area and found a couple of geocaches before heading away from the city traffic for a little bit. After waking through a foresty area and arriving at the lake we walked along it. We saw wild birds; ducks, swans, geese and even a heron. I took photos of the birds and of the trees reflected in the water. We looked for a geocache with no luck, but there was a beautiful little waterfall. Then we decided to head towards the city centre again so we started walking and geocached on our way. We found a bakery, and since none of us had eaten a propper breakfast we sat down to try some pastries.
After our sugary meal we took the metro towards the Louvre because there was a geocaching event there and my mum wanted to attend. At first we really didn't understand where it was, we were at the right coordinates but couldn't see any geocachers and the description didn't make sense. Not until we realised there were shops and a food court underneath where we were standing. You really won't see it if you don't know it, the entrance is a sort of hidden. But we found it and then found a table of French geocachers. Most of them didn't seem too eager to talk to the tourists, but we managed to get a conversation going with a couple of them. Apparently this group meet for lunch as an event every month or so. After spending a little time at their table we took our leave and continued our sightseeing.
We walked towards Notre dame while geocaching. The sun came out and it was really lovely so when I found a couple of bars with seats in the sun right by a geocache I suggested a drink in the sun. We sat down on a couple of swings and after studying the menu on our phones my mum went inside to order for us. Unfortunately our drinks weren't that good, and I think mine was really strong too. I don't usually feel anything after a drink or two, but I felt surprisingly tipsy after that one drink. It was nice to soak up some sunlight, but a slightly better tasting and less alcoholic drink would have been preferable. After the drink we headed towards Notre dame for a geocache, it was a virtual one, but we still didn't get as close as we should have for the cache, we managed though. The Notre dame was damaged in a fire in 2019 and it has taken years to even start the restoration of the building, so there were still barriers and scaffolding around the building. After the geocache we walked towards a shop my mum wanted to check out and along the way we also found some cookies for me as I felt I needed something to soak up the single drink I'd had. After the shop we headed back to the hotel to relax a little and get ready for the evening.
We headed for the Arc de Triomphe and arrived a little after sunset, the colours were still pretty good though so we got some good photos from the ground and then headed in for tickets. Luckily the line to get tickets wasn't that bad, so within like 15 minutes we'd climbed the 284 steps to the top. The view was beautiful and the colours from the sunset were still pretty good as the lights of the city came on. We marvelled at the view and tried to get our photos, there were a lot of people up there though. When we got back down we took some photos for a virtual geocache and then we started walking towards the Eiffel tower. We were getting hungry and didn't see too many restaurants on our way so we just ended up taking a chance on one of the few we walked passed. I sort of regretted it. Our waiter was really nice and we actually chatted with him a bit, but the food wasn't too good. After the meal we walked to a lookout point by the Eiffel tower to see it in the dark before heading back to the hotel for the night.
We started our Saturday a little later, we'd had a couple of long days and it was raining in the morning. When we eventually got out of the hotel we headed for a park I wanted to see and found some geocaches on our way. We also found some pastries before entering the park.
There were some beautiful flowers in the park and they all had water droplets on them, which I love to get photos of. We spent a couple of hours geocaching our way through the park, I took a lot of photos too. Then we headed to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. As always I need my souvenir from Hard Rock and I can't get that until I've eaten or had a drink at the cafe. At least you sort of know what you get at Hard Rock, so no big surprise disappointments. After Hard Rock we headed towards the city centre and the Eiffel tower. And after some geocaches we unfortunately wasted a lot of time. We had decided to head up in the tower, we did that when I was twelve too but I wouldn't say I remember it that well. So we got in line to get into the area, and the line wasn't that bad, but it still took some time. When we got in though we found out they'd stopped the ticket sale for a while because there were too many people up there. So we'd have to stand in line until they opened the ticket sale again if we wanted to go up, and that would be nearly an hour. I was not about to stand in line for an hour for the tickets after being on my feet for a couple of days. So we left the fenced in area. We stayed close though, and continued our geocaching. I got some pretty cool photos of the tower too. After nightfall we went for a late dinner. This time at a fancier place. It's not really my thing, but my meal was fine and my mum got to enjoy some proper French soup and flambéed crepes. Since it was Saturday we stopped one more place for a drink before bed.
Sunday was our shopping day, so we got a metro and a bus to get to a shopping centre. First stop was Primark, when we got there the shop had just opened, and there was a line to get in. It moved fast though.
I believe we spent about 3 hours in Primark, and when we were done there, we were hungry. Lucily there was a cafe right outside the shop so we sat down, had a simple meal and organised our shopping. We bring hand luggage suitcases for shopping days like this and managed to get most of what we'd gotten at Primark in them, so our hands were free when we went into other shops. Because we were not done. We spent a few more hours at the shopping centre before we were ready to get back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. I think that is half the fun of travelling when you're not travelling alone; putting on a nice outfit and some make-up and go out for a meal and a drink.
When we finally headed out for dinner in the evening we got stuck on the metro, I'm honestly not sure how long the metro stood still for but I think it was like 30 minutes. It was a relief when we could finally leave the metro to cross the river with the view of the Eiffel tower. We'd just found a geocache when the sky just opened up. It started pouring down. So everyone on the bridge ran to cover. Luckily the bridge was a two story bridge so we could go under the metro part of it. We stood there for a little while, waiting for it to stop but it didn't seem to be letting up and we were hungry. So we walked under the metro as far as we could and then dashed to the nearest restaurant that seemd alright online, it was one of the restaurants I'd considered anyways. It ended up being a good choice. It was an Italian restaurant that seemed to know what they were doing, my mum was happy when her carbonara came with an egg and my lasagna was really good. After our meal we headed towards the Eiffel tower again, geocaching our way there of course, and I got some pretty cool photos, the rain had made some bigger puddles I could take advantage of. After getting photos and seeing the tower sparkle we found our way towards a rooftop bar. There was a line to get in, but being in Paris I thought a drink with a view of the tower was in order. And the line did move fairly quickly. We got a table with a view of the lower part of the tower and ordered some strange drinks. They were quite expencive and unfortunately not that tasty. I guess you pay for the view. When it was closer to the next sparkle we went out on the balcony to watch it. On our way back we crossed the bridge again and I started taking photos, but then the light was cut on the tower. I didn't realise they cut the lights just before midnight, I feel like they really shouldn't cut the lights to what many consider to be the symbol of the city that early, but I guess they don't consider it to be early. And with that our mother-daugther weekend had come to an end and we went back to our hotel to finish packing for our flight the next day.
Conclusion: Paris is okay, but still not my favourite city (not even close). It was nice to see Paris again as an adult, and to get a trip with my mum. Now, next time I want to go to France and I fly to Paris I won't feel like I need to spend any time in the city. There are definitely some things that make a visit worth it if you've never been though. I do think one should see the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacré-Coeur and the gardens by the Louvre at least once, if you can. And I'm sure others would list other things as well. I also really do like to travel with a travel pass that works all around a city or area, not all places have this, but they should, it makes it so much easier for tourists to get around. Oh, and I know I mention geocahing a lot, I like doing a little geocaching, my mum is more eager than me which means a lot of the time we were actually just going around looking for hidden containers and I don't go into detail about that.
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