First time outside North America
A couple of years ago, my wife and I started thinking about what to do for our 25th Anniversary. We had a few ideas, drive down to Disney World, drive across Canada and spend some time on the East coast, or, the most outlandish for us, visit Paris, as our travelling to date has been road tripping around North America.
We purposefully only planned a few things, and, we knew that we needed to do it on a budget. We found some decent flights, and found ourselves there for 8 nights, arriving on the 26th and leaving on May 4.
First of all, contrary to a lot of people's opinions, I had no issues with CDG. After we had our bags, it took about 20 minutes to be in a taxi.
We purposefully stayed outside of the city center. We found a hotel in Villejuif, the Appart'City. Steps from the metro, and a third of the price. The hotel was fabulous for what we wanted. A comfortable bed, a kitchnette as we knew that we would need to cook some of our own meals to keep on budget, and close to a supermarket and bakery.
The first day and a half were just exploring. Walked up to Place d'Italie, had some wonderful food, shared some wine with some locals, and started to learn the metro, and explored the gardens beside the Louvre.
The second full day probably should have been done differently. It was our anniversary. We started the day cooking in our room and heading down to the Arc de Triomphe. Neither of us are in great shape, and that was a lot of stairs. Absolutely worth it though. After that, we meandered our way to the Eiffel Tower. We wandered around the parks for a bit before heading up the tower and enjoying some champagne. We both have fear a fear of heights, but, we both really enjoyed both the Arc and the Tower. From there, we went to Les Cocottes for dinner. It was good, but, not as good as I was kind of hoping. I also felt a little cramped, and the wind was starting to get chilly (my bad for not bringing a jacket).
We had originally wanted to leave the 29th free, but, we also wanted to see Versailles, and thought that the long weekend would be a bad idea. So, we went anyways. The chateau itself was magnificent, but, too cramped for my liking. I had booked our tickets for 10, and tour of the king's residence for 1:30, but, I didn't realize that I couldn't leave in between. We opted to not do the tour, and that was alright. Instead, we had some ice cream and explored the gardens, with lunch in between. It was magnificent. No matter the French people revolted.
On the 30th, we left pretty much the entire day for the Louvre. We still saw so little. I guess it's another reason to go back.
On the first, we started the day at the Notre Dame Cathedral and then just kind of wandered for the morning. I spent the afternoon exploring Villejuif, Kremlin Bicentre, and Ivry-Sur-Seine. The smells of the various eateries was great, but, observing people and families on a holiday was really beautiful.
For the second and third, we did a lot of just exploring and wandering. Walk through some random neighbourhoods, try some new food, chat with some people over wine when we could. We did have a wonderful afternoon of just meandering down the banks of the Seine. We did have an amazing lunch at the Bear Cafe in Ivry-Sur-Seine on the 3rd. Probably the best meal we had the entire time we were out, and honestly, we never had a bad meal.
On the 4th, it was time to sadly say goodbye to the city. After a taxi back to CDG, we got our walking in as WestJet seemed to be the last ticketing area as well as the last gates.
Overall, I found the city beautiful. It got a little messy at night and into early morning, but, it was all cleaned up pretty quickly. The air was fresh, and there was so much greenery. Nearly everyone was wonderful. There was one woman at Versailles who was rather upset when I asked if she understood English (in French of course) because I couldn't figure out how to ask what I needed to ask in French. I haven't actually used French since grade 8, which was over 30 years ago, but, I still managed to get through most interactions without any English by the 3rd day. I laughed out loud when one woman tried telling me that my French was fine. I do have to say though, that I have no desire to drive in the city, although it does seem like there's barely a need to with how vast the transit system seems to be.
The time that we spent was no where near long enough. We're already trying to figure out when we will be back. Hopefully 2028, and maybe for a month next time. If we enjoy it as much as the first visit, we may take a better look at long term visitor visas and see if we could work out of an apartment for a year while using the city as a home base to explore more of the continent.