World Tour Stop 22 - Paris, France

Paris. City of Love.

We hopped a twelve hour direct flight from Bangkok to Paris to hit our third continent of travel (fourth if you include the one we started on). I upgraded myself and used 80K Delta Skymiles to fly first class, fortunately having enough points to be able to splurge. As usual, Delta is amazing and the flight was perfect. The plane we were on was actually operated by Air France and I was able to enjoy a lay flat seat and yummy champagne and delicious french meals. Totally spoiling but one hundred percent worth it.

Upon arrival into Paris we took the train into town and got to our airbnb, showered and changed to go catch the Eiffel Tower before going to bed. The best thing about Paris in June is that the sun doesn't set until 11PM so it was really cool to catch the Eiffel Tower with the sun still up so late in the evening. Also, of course the lawn was still packed with tourists even late into the evening.

The next morning I tried to visit some of the lesser known Paris sites, and more importantly, sites that I had not visited in previous trips over.

First, I trained out to Sacre Couer which is a bit north of the city, but worth the trip. The cathedral is beautiful and sits on top of a hill that overlooks the rest of Paris. You can also climb to the top of the dome for 5 Euro, and of course I think it's worth doing as I love views from above.

From this area I headed a little down the hill to visit Le Maison Rose, which I had never heard of but our Airbnb host highly recommended snapping a picture in front of. She said the house reminded her of Tuscany and I definitely agree. So beautiful and very out of place in the bustling city.

Just a little further away I visited the wall of love, or le mur d'amour. Again, this wasn't something that I was familiar with prior to this day, but it is a wall with the words "I love you" written in over two hundred different languages. It is beautiful and unique and just reminds you how so many cultures can be so vastly different but we all seek and want love.

Across the top is a woman in the fifties style bombshell and a bubble that says, "Love is disorder, so let's love." I loved this mural and everything it stands for and truly wish that the world could say I love you more than I hate or mistrust or don't agree with you.

From here I tried to go to the Catacombs but the line was over two hours long. I also looked into buying skip the line tickets for later in the week but they were sold out. The catacombs only hold 200 guests at a time and there isn't a time restriction for how long you can visit, so essentially the line can be hundreds of people long and never really move (especially because people with skip the lie tickets continue to get priority at the front). If this is something you're interested in seeing, definitely buy skip the line tickets prior to your visit.

Next up was visiting Notre Dame. Notre Dame suffered major damage from a fire in March while it was undergoing renovation so we knew that we wouldn't be able to enter, but were hoping to still be able to get close enough for decent photos, but were sad to learn that they closed the entire block that the cathedral occupies. It was a sad site to see as well with the entire spire burnt down and missing.

We also quickly walked by the Hotel De Ville (where the winners of the Tour de France are given a free week's stay which can be up to $40K). I wasn't overly impressed with the hotel as all of the buildings in Paris just seem magnificent, but of course had to take a few quick pictures.

From here we headed to the Louvre. I had visited the Louvre in 2012 and would definitely recommend that everyone spend some time in here. The biggest issue is that to see every piece of art housed in the Louvre would literally take days, so if you want to go you need to make a list of everything you're intending to see and then map your course because otherwise you can get bogged down. Obviously the Mona Lisa is always the biggest crowd, so if you're going in just for that, you may be disappointed. We didn't go inside this time but had planned to go later in the week after another friend joined us in town.

From the Louvre we walked through the gardens and then to Luxembourg Palace.

And finally we walked by the Pantheon but actually happened upon a really cool concert going on in front that we still haven't confirmed what it was for.

So, to be perfectly honest, Paris was our launching pad to other cities, so we didn't spend consecutive days here but this post will be all about Paris rather than breaking it out.

Our second day in Paris we actually picked my dad up from the airport and then caught a train out to Reims for a couple of days before returning. With that said, the actual second day we spent in Paris we traveled out to Versailles. It was possibly the hottest day of the trip at nearly 100 degrees and was super miserable to be in a city that doesn't have any air conditioning.

With that said, Versailles is gorgeous and I had booked a tour for us to see the Palace of Versailles including the King's Apartments, the Chapel and the Gardens. I don't know how to do it justice other than saying a picture is worth a thousand words, and I took a lot of pictures!

From the king and queen apartments and the chapel and the hall of mirrors, this palace was as ostentatious as the Louis's that occupied it.

The gardens were also beautiful but we didn't spend nearly as much time out here because it was just unbearably hot.

Versailles was a full day event along with some food close to the arc de triomphe and then the next morning we scheduled a bike tour through all of districts 1, 5 and 7.

The bike tour was run by Fat Tire tours and was so fun. The group was about twenty people, so a little bit on the too large side, but our guide was great and it was fun to bike around the city and get to learn a little of the history including the military school (where Napoleon was a student) and the victory square and grand and petite palaces.

The bike tour was really fun and I highly recommend booking with Fat Tire Tours. I used them in Berlin as well and I think they do a really good job of hitting major sites while also keeping pace and teaching little nuances that we would not have picked up on our own.

The next day we visited the arc de triomphe and hiked to the top for some beautiful views.

That night we got to witness history and watch the USWNT take on the French women's team in Paris. We followed the American Outlaws and went to the pregame tailgate and then marched through the streets of Paris with thousands of US fans to the Parc de Princes stadium. Then we got to watch as we took out the number one ranked team in a 2-1 victory that was intense from start to finish. This was such an incredible experience and I truly believe that I will attend as many world cups as I can in the future to repeat this feeling.

Again, a bit of a time hop here as we left for Belgium the next morning and then returned a couple days later to have a final evening in Paris before flying out of CDG, but our last evening in Paris we finally did what all the tourists do and we climbed the Eiffel Tower. Two things about this, one, don't buy advance tickets unless you want to do a tour or you want to take the elevator. The line to walk up to the top isn't that long and the flexibility of timing that you can have by not having advance tickets is worth the avoided stress. Second, walk to the top. The climb to the first and second level are so worth it and much better than a stuffy elevator with gorgeous 360 views all the way up.

Au Revoir Paris, I love you just as much the second time!