Six days in Paris

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that the idea of Paris has an undeniable allure. From the quaint cobble-stoned streets to the iconic Eiffel Tower, the aesthetic of the city alone demands your attention. Paired with the seemingly slow-paced, beautifully romantic, traditional and leisurely lifestyle, to many, Paris is a city that glimmers like an oasis in a desert. A beautiful beacon of opportunity and hope that always rests on the horizon; always out of reach. Or at least that is what Paris has been for me.

So to say that my first day in the city left me feeling dejected and disappointed was definitely unexpected.

Now before you take this as me slamming Paris as an empty tourist trap, this really came down to a stressful morning where my boyfriend and I almost missed our train from London (I do not recommend rocking up to St Pancras station 40 minutes before your international train leaves). Combined with a long and sweaty trek from the train station to our Airbnb with our suitcases in tow, I was not exactly primed for a positive introduction to Paris.

However, after overcoming the initial discomfort of navigating your way through a foreign city as well as getting used to sharing an apartment with a bunch of total strangers, Paris quickly began to show its true colours.

Despite being a little gritty in places, the city is as pretty as the pictures make it out to be. Around every corner is a boulangerie selling delightful smelling pastries and baguettes, beautiful little parks lined with flowers and trees that provide shade to those reading and small but bustling bistros and bars where friends meet and chat and smoke under awnings.

Although we weren’t able to visit every arrondissement, the 15th arrondissement where our Airbnb was located proved to be a great neighbourhood for both exploring at a slow pace -or in other words, my pace- and understanding how the locals live. So like any other tourist, we ate our fair share of chocolate crepes, spoke terrible, broken french and raided our nearest CarreFour for chocolate croissants every morning for breakfast; something I highly recommend to the traveller on a budget.

As for the main attractions, we did our best to tick everything off our list, including the Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe and the avenue des Champs-Élysées . All attracted tourists like bees to a hive, but all were exciting and beautiful and worth the visit.

However, one experience definitely worth paying a small fee for is an evening river cruise along the river Seine. The glittering view of the city from the water is simply breathtaking, and if you’re strapped for time in the city of love, it’s the perfect way to at least see all of the major sights in the city of love.

So if you haven’t yet fulfilled your teenage dream of visiting Paris, I encourage you to go ahead and book it. You won’t regret it.

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To read more on my Euro trip, click here: http://outwithgrace.com/lessons-learnt-from-my-first-euro-trip/