Hey Guys!
From my previous post, you'll know that I recently took a trip to Paris and found the cutest bookshop, but that wasn't the only part of the trip. I've put a photo diary together to show you what tourist attractions we explored while we were there.
From my previous post, you'll know that I recently took a trip to Paris and found the cutest bookshop, but that wasn't the only part of the trip. I've put a photo diary together to show you what tourist attractions we explored while we were there.
Day One: Travelling to Paris
We travelled to Paris on Sunday 24th June and landed at Charles de Gaulle in the afternoon. We didn't really have a lot planned for Sunday other than checking into our hotel and exploring the area around us, so there weren't many photos taken on the first day as we explored a few bars in our neighbourhood and places to eat. For the duration of our trip we stayed at the Ibis Brancion Parc des Expositions in the 15th Arrondissement, so we were more south of the city but by taking the metro and tram it didn't take long to get into central Paris. I was glad we didn't have anything planned as the early morning flight and travelling was exhausting and by the time we had checked in I was ready for a nap. In the late afternoon, we found a quiet little bar for a drink and they just happened to be playing the England vs Panama game which was convenient for my parents haha! After dinner in a local restaurant, we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
We travelled to Paris on Sunday 24th June and landed at Charles de Gaulle in the afternoon. We didn't really have a lot planned for Sunday other than checking into our hotel and exploring the area around us, so there weren't many photos taken on the first day as we explored a few bars in our neighbourhood and places to eat. For the duration of our trip we stayed at the Ibis Brancion Parc des Expositions in the 15th Arrondissement, so we were more south of the city but by taking the metro and tram it didn't take long to get into central Paris. I was glad we didn't have anything planned as the early morning flight and travelling was exhausting and by the time we had checked in I was ready for a nap. In the late afternoon, we found a quiet little bar for a drink and they just happened to be playing the England vs Panama game which was convenient for my parents haha! After dinner in a local restaurant, we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Day Two: The Rose Line Walk
If any of you have watched or read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown you will know what the Rose Line is, so my dad being a huge fan of Dan Brown downloaded the Rose Line Walk. The Rose Line Walk is a walk exploring Paris and the sites discussed in the Da Vinci Code novel. Therefore, on our first day, we did a lot of walking and saw some of the big attractions. We didn't get any tickets for anything for our first official day in Paris hence it was just exploring around the city and seeing what was around. It is actually surprising how close everything is together and how after five minutes of walking you are seeing another tourist attraction!
We didn't take photos of every part of the walk as we were taking in all of our surroundings but we did take pictures of the main attractions we saw:
The Jardin du Luxembourg was beautiful! Children we playing with boats in the water, the flowers are so colourful and vibrant and there are chairs dotted around everywhere so you can sit and read or people watch. I can't believe how a public garden is so well kept and is that beautiful ♡ we have beautiful gardens here in the UK too but the flowers and statues in the garden were something else!
The Hôtel de Ville was decorated in the Pride colours ready to celebrate Pride the following Saturday in a big parade. This is actually the town hall, the city's administration building so to see the exterior decorated with the pride flag was nice to witness!
We also went into a beautiful church called the St Sulpice Church (where the Rose Line, also known as the Paris Meridian is located) and it was so beautiful inside. Inside there were separate chapels within the church so you could pray to individual saints and in each chapel, there was a confession box. The paintings in some of the chapels were incredible, especially that of the angels. We also tried traditional French baguettes and beers while sat outside making the most of the incredible weather we had.
While walking around Paris we also came across plenty of other churches, the Notre Dame and some beautiful architecture. For our first official day in Paris, it was wonderful ♡
If any of you have watched or read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown you will know what the Rose Line is, so my dad being a huge fan of Dan Brown downloaded the Rose Line Walk. The Rose Line Walk is a walk exploring Paris and the sites discussed in the Da Vinci Code novel. Therefore, on our first day, we did a lot of walking and saw some of the big attractions. We didn't get any tickets for anything for our first official day in Paris hence it was just exploring around the city and seeing what was around. It is actually surprising how close everything is together and how after five minutes of walking you are seeing another tourist attraction!
We didn't take photos of every part of the walk as we were taking in all of our surroundings but we did take pictures of the main attractions we saw:
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| The Louvre The queues for The Louvre were quite long and we didn't buy any tickets for our walking tour so we didn't go in. But it is definitely on my list to visit when I take a trip to Paris again! |
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| The Jardin du Luxembourg |
This was just a building I took a photo of on our walk to another part of Paris and these flowers were too beautiful to not take a photo of. Imagine living here and seeing such charming flowers every day ♡
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| Hôtel de Ville |
We also went into a beautiful church called the St Sulpice Church (where the Rose Line, also known as the Paris Meridian is located) and it was so beautiful inside. Inside there were separate chapels within the church so you could pray to individual saints and in each chapel, there was a confession box. The paintings in some of the chapels were incredible, especially that of the angels. We also tried traditional French baguettes and beers while sat outside making the most of the incredible weather we had.
While walking around Paris we also came across plenty of other churches, the Notre Dame and some beautiful architecture. For our first official day in Paris, it was wonderful ♡
Day Three: Versailles
Versailles was about 45 minutes from our hotel so we did research prior to our trip to decide which method was the best way to get there, resulting in us deciding to get the tram to an RER train stop and getting the train (which was a double-decker train, something I've never seen before) to Versailles.
We didn't pre-book tickets to Versailles because I get free admission as I'm a student who goes to a university in Europe, but mum and dad needed to get their tickets. So we got there early (it was still so busy) and ended up buying tickets from a self-service machine which was more convenient than the huge queue leading to the ticket desk. We did have to queue for an hour and a quarter to get in (the queue by 10:30am was longer than the courtyard so we had people queueing in lines next to us) but luckily I was prepared with a rucksack full of water, suncream, hats and portable phone chargers! Even though it seems like a long wait the queue was actually moving quite fast and we got inside at a good time, so don't let the long queues put you off.
I've been dying to go to Versailles for so so long (especially since watching the BBC show Versailles) and I'm a huge fan of going to palaces, castles and estate houses so my expectations were pretty high! The palace was beautiful and each room was incredible with portraits and the furnishings, but unfortunately because of the number of visitors, the flow of traffic in the palace and how rude the other tourists were it kind of ruined the experience for me! Other visitors were pushing into me and cutting me up trying to get in front and each room of the palace was so full of people it was uncomfortable! But one of the members of the staff we spoke to when buying my garden ticket did say that this was the busiest he had seen it for a while, so I think we just chose a day when everyone else decided to go too. So that was a bit disappointing, however, the gardens made up for it completely. The gardens were like a dream and I'm going to do a separate post talking about the gardens and how beautiful they are ♡
I didn't manage to get a lot of photos of the inside of the Palace due to how busy and crammed the rooms were full of people and getting pushed around so I got better photos of the garden.
I'll discuss the fountains and the Music Fountain Show in the separate blog post about Versailles Gardens.
The Petit and Grand Trianon is the small château offered by Louis XVI to Marie Antionette and was her residence away from the Palace. The Petit Trianon house and gardens were so beautiful ♡
Versailles was incredible, especially the gardens! However, I would say some tourists are so rude and inconsiderate of the people around them and every room was crammed full of people that you couldn't move with people constantly pushing into you. I much preferred the gardens as you got your own space but also because they were literally something from a dream! ♡
After spending the entire day at Versailles and walking what seemed like miles around the gardens we took the train back to the RER station and got on the tram back to the neighbourhood our Ibis hotel was in, relaxing for the rest of the evening.
As there are a lot of photos from our trip I split this photo diary into two parts so it didn't get too long. Part two will be coming Wednesday 8th August at 7:30pm so look out for that to see day four (The Notre Dame), five (The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysées) and six (The Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge) of our Paris trip ♡
See you on Wednesday!
Amy xx
Versailles was about 45 minutes from our hotel so we did research prior to our trip to decide which method was the best way to get there, resulting in us deciding to get the tram to an RER train stop and getting the train (which was a double-decker train, something I've never seen before) to Versailles.
We didn't pre-book tickets to Versailles because I get free admission as I'm a student who goes to a university in Europe, but mum and dad needed to get their tickets. So we got there early (it was still so busy) and ended up buying tickets from a self-service machine which was more convenient than the huge queue leading to the ticket desk. We did have to queue for an hour and a quarter to get in (the queue by 10:30am was longer than the courtyard so we had people queueing in lines next to us) but luckily I was prepared with a rucksack full of water, suncream, hats and portable phone chargers! Even though it seems like a long wait the queue was actually moving quite fast and we got inside at a good time, so don't let the long queues put you off.
I've been dying to go to Versailles for so so long (especially since watching the BBC show Versailles) and I'm a huge fan of going to palaces, castles and estate houses so my expectations were pretty high! The palace was beautiful and each room was incredible with portraits and the furnishings, but unfortunately because of the number of visitors, the flow of traffic in the palace and how rude the other tourists were it kind of ruined the experience for me! Other visitors were pushing into me and cutting me up trying to get in front and each room of the palace was so full of people it was uncomfortable! But one of the members of the staff we spoke to when buying my garden ticket did say that this was the busiest he had seen it for a while, so I think we just chose a day when everyone else decided to go too. So that was a bit disappointing, however, the gardens made up for it completely. The gardens were like a dream and I'm going to do a separate post talking about the gardens and how beautiful they are ♡ 
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| The Hall of Mirrors |
I'll discuss the fountains and the Music Fountain Show in the separate blog post about Versailles Gardens.
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| Latona's Fountain |
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| Apollo's Fountain |
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| Petit Trianon |
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| Statues placed around the Versailles' Gardens |
Versailles was incredible, especially the gardens! However, I would say some tourists are so rude and inconsiderate of the people around them and every room was crammed full of people that you couldn't move with people constantly pushing into you. I much preferred the gardens as you got your own space but also because they were literally something from a dream! ♡
After spending the entire day at Versailles and walking what seemed like miles around the gardens we took the train back to the RER station and got on the tram back to the neighbourhood our Ibis hotel was in, relaxing for the rest of the evening.
As there are a lot of photos from our trip I split this photo diary into two parts so it didn't get too long. Part two will be coming Wednesday 8th August at 7:30pm so look out for that to see day four (The Notre Dame), five (The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysées) and six (The Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge) of our Paris trip ♡
See you on Wednesday!
Amy xx
