Europe: Our experience in Paris
Why we planned Europe Trip ?
We didn’t have a plan to go to Europe in 2024. It all started with a phone call and I asked my Dad where he wanted to travel next. And he said Europe. And I said -
Sure. Let me plan it for you.
I only realised after putting down the phone, the mammoth task I have undertaken to plan a Europe trip for my parents and also to ensure that they are safe and can manage the trip throughout Europe. During all this planning, a voice in my head said -
Why don’t I go to Europe too? Why only them?
Very soon, I applied for a visa for Suneela and me. And we managed to get a visa for one year. Yes! That’s why we went to Europe in 2024. FOMO!
Our plan
When we started planning our Europe trip, we didn’t have a clear plan of where to go. We only knew that we wanted to go to Switzerland and stay longer and explore less touristy places. We started looking at flights and narrowed down on a flight to Paris,France. This was the cheapest flight among all, and we had to visit France as French embassy issued our Schengen visa. As we were planning to stay longer in Switzerland, we decided to only spend a week in France (it’s not enough!). After France and Switzerland, we decided to explore Portugal and Spain, as we were fascinated by the history and architecture of these countries.
Paris
Suneela and I landed in Paris in the night. We took public transport and had to walk a little bit to reach our hotel room. While we walked in Paris, around 11pm in the night, we were quite surprised to see many young women happily roaming without any fear. Even for us, we felt quite safe to walk around the city in the night.
Eiffel Tower
The next day, we went to Eiffel Tower, and we were a little disappointed and wondered why it is so famous. Eiffel Tower didn’t stand as a giant among the parisian houses but it just stood just a little taller than the other houses. Once we reached closer to the Eiffel Tower, we understood the engineering effort to build something like this using technologies that existed in the nineteenth century. It certainly did not blow us apart, but we understood how it could have marvelled the people of those times.
Book your tickets to Eiffel Tower here ↗Public Transport
Over the next couple of days, we explored the public transport in Paris. We normally love public transport in Europe, but in Paris, we were a little disappointed as the public transport was costly. In fact, a few locals told us that the government hiked the transport prices due to Olympics.
Surprising to us, Paris was not crowded at all (outside of the touristic areas) and many residential areas of Paris felt empty. When we asked a local, we were told that Parisians love to travel outside of Paris during summer, so much so that they didn’t really care about staying back for Olympics.
Walking Tour in Montmarte
Walking tours are some of our favourite activities to do in a foreign country, especially Europe. On our second day in Paris, we took a walking tour in Montmarte, a famous area of Paris. Our walking tour guide, Raj from India, an upcoming artist who has been living in Montmarte for the last 10 years, was super enthusiastic and told us the history, the stories and the legends behind this famous area of Paris.
The main attraction of Montmarte is Moulin Rouge ↗ , a famous cabaret in Montmarte, established in 1889. It was famous for the breathtaking French Cancan dance. Back in the day, Moulin Rouge was a place where a lot of famous artists (including Toulouse Lautrec ↗ ) used to frequent. One of the famous paintings of Toulouse Lautrec, shows a dancer, La Goulue, a dancer of Moulin Rouge. The story goes that she would tease the male audience by swirling her raised dress to reveal the heart embroidered on her knickers and would do a high kick while flipping off a man’s hat with her toe.
During the walking tour, we also learnt about Vincent Van Gogh, world famous impressionist painter and a resident of Montmarte. The stories behind the artists and the legends of Montmarte were fascinating. We also explored the more touristy areas of Montmarte, recent fame due to the show, Emily in Paris. The walking tour was tiring, and took us a little more than 3 hours, but it gave us a good glimpse of the life, the history and the stories surrounding Montmarte.
Paris summary
The trip to Paris was a little underwhelming, as we expected more from the city. The walking tour in Montmarte was definitely our highlight. Next time we go to Paris, we would love to go to Versailles Palace and Musee d’orsay and spend a lot more time exploring Montmarte.
On the last day of our stay in Paris, we took a train to go all the way to the south of France. Marseille, an ancient historical town that felt abandoned to us on the first day and completely swept us apart on the third day. More on that in a future blog.
Our favourite tip
🥗 You can look for Picadeli ↗ to find salad bars in Paris (and in France). They are generally present in supermarkets and are usually cheap, good, highly customizable with a lot of vegetarian options.
Let us know what you think of our journey in Paris in the comments below.
Yeswanth
Yeswanth
Technologist. Driven by the need to travel to every interesting nook and corner of the world! Loves adventure activities including paragliding, snorkelling, scuba diving and more.