My First Trip to Pari Island

My kickoff trip to Paris was non simply memorable, only reminded me that all travel advice should be taken with a grain of table salt. For years, I had heard that Parisians were snobby, a little rude, and hard to get along with. I acknowledge, Paris didn’t hitting the top of my travel listing for these reasons. I mistook personal opinions for advice, and that dear traveller is a grave mistake. First and foremost, your attitude where ever you travel is what is going to brand or break a trip.  Then, I’1000 going to digress here a chip before I become to my best tips for your offset trip to Paris.

One of my
favourite stories near travel, and part of the reason this site is called Life in Pleasantville, is below:

A traveler came upon an former farmer hoeing in his field beside the road. Eager to rest his feet, the wanderer hailed the countryman, who seemed happy enough to straighten his dorsum and talk for a moment.

“What sort of people alive in the next boondocks?” asked the stranger.

“What were the people like where yous’ve come from?” replied the farmer, answering the question with another question.

“They were a bad lot. Troublemakers all, and lazy too. The most selfish people in the world, and not a one of them to exist trusted. I’m happy to be leaving the scoundrels.”

“Is that so?” replied the former farmer. “Well, I’m afraid that you’ll find the same sort in the next town.

Disappointed, the traveler trudged on his fashion, and the farmer returned to his work.

Some time later some other stranger, coming from the same direction, hailed the farmer, and they stopped to talk. “What sort of people alive in the next town?” he asked.

“What were the people similar where you’ve come up from?” replied the farmer once more.

“They were the all-time people in the world. Difficult working, honest, and friendly. I’thou sorry to be leaving them.”

“Fear not,” said the farmer. “Yous’ll find the same sort in the side by side town.”

This story has e’er been my attitude towards travel, and unfortunately when information technology came to Paris, I forgot that. Mea culpa. All of this is to say, if y’all have reservations about your outset trip to Paris, set them aside, volume your ticket, and just go.

First Trip to Paris Tips

Getting There

I’m a big fan of saving my travel budget for on the basis experiences, and so low-cost air carriers win the day for me. By all means, book yourself bigger seats and more than luggage allowance if you need to, but personally, I’d rather salve my money for a great meal in Paris. Wait for deals out of Canada on
Cheapoair.

Getting Around

Unless you’re an incredibly confident commuter, or have driven in Europe earlier, I’d highly recommend skipping the machine rental for Paris. From the airport we grabbed an Uber into the city, and in one case there we establish the Metro incredibly easy to navigate. If you’re spending a few days in Paris, be certain to take hold of a iii mean solar day pass for €39. Finally, be sure to pack a great pair of walking shoes, because Paris is a wonderful city to wander frantically in.

Where to Stay
in Paris

I didn’t know a lot about what I wanted from our showtime trip to Paris, just I did have a very specific visual in my head well-nigh where nosotros would stay, and information technology was
not
a modern loftier ascension. I wanted something that looked very Parisian with a boutique feel, and I plant it with Hotel Panache.

[pjc_slideshow slide_type=”hotel-panache”]

Hotel Panache

is located in the 9th district of Paris, and is an ideal jumping off indicate for anyone’s first trip to Paris. Conveniently located near the Metro, and surrounded past restaurants, boulangeries, shops, and fifty-fifty a confectionary, it’south Parisian heaven. Worth noting, the staff at Hotel Panache are infrequent and are happy to share their best tips for getting around and enjoying the all-time of Paris. Be sure to have the time to talk to them, they are a wealth of knowledge.

Best Tours
in Paris

Practice not, I repeat, Practise Not waste product a minute of your time trying to decipher some of the more historic and iconic sites in Paris. For your outset trip to Paris, it is worth your time and money to book a tour. I’k a big fan of organized tours for two reasons. Get-go, bout companies are the true experts and can load you lot upwardly with a ton of valuable information that you likely wouldn’t be able to glean yourself  by just walking effectually. Second, they salvage a ton of time with skip the line access, and hitting the highlights.

Case in signal, the Eiffel Tower. A major rookie fault for me was not booking our Eiffel Belfry Tour ahead of time. We lost hours waiting in line, and while it was nevertheless worth it, I couldn’t aid but agonize over all the other peachy attractions we were missing.

Thankfully, I booked the rest of our tours with takewalks.com. Here are iii tours, I highly recommend for your commencement trip to Paris.

Skip the Line Notre Matriarch Bout with Tower Climb

You know what’s busier than the Eiffel Tower? Yous guessed information technology, Notre Dame Cathedral welcomes an astonishing thirteen million guests per year, that works out to roughly 30,000 people a day. Needless to say you definitely want to take advantage of the
Skip the Line Tour with Belfry Climb
with TakeWalks.com

There is no elevator or easy way to go to the peak of Notre Dame, so be sure to clothing comfortable shoes and bring a bottle of h2o. It’s worth every i of the 400 steps it takes to get to the superlative, to come across the magnificent views of Paris, and of grade, get up close to those famous gargoyles.

Louvre Highlights Bout

There are 35,000 pieces in the Louvre museum, and if you only took 60 seconds to view each piece, it would have you 25 days with NO bathroom breaks to see it all. This helps requite some perspective on what to expect when visiting the Louvre—simply put, you’re never going to see it all. That’southward why relying on the experts is really your simply pick hither.

Personally, I could have spent an entire mean solar day just wandering through the Louvre and taking it all in, only I was
travelling with teens
and then speed and hitting the highlights were a priority. We were looking for quick IG shots and and insta-education hither people. Our Louvre quick highlights tour did not disappoint. We were expertly guided through the Louvre to see the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and Winged Victory AKA the Goddess of Victory, Nike. Considering Nike’southward (the company) electric current victory lap after signing Kaepernick, information technology’southward especially dainty that we saw it so close in fourth dimension. Also, maturity, is not a prerequisite for taking this bout.

Closing Fourth dimension At Versailles

I did non expect our visit to Versailles to illicit some deep thinking on my behalf, but in that location it is, even on vacation you tin can’t escape thinking.  Deep thinking cap officially on, I couldn’t help but continuously describe parallels betwixt Louis XIV and our current circular of dictators and despots around the globe. The more than things alter, the more they stay the same sadly.

Versailles is considered the ultimate vanity project, as well known as the Propaganda Palace, where every single item of this opulent building was all for the celebrity of Louis Xiv. King Louis knew the value of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, and then he built the 700 room Versailles palace to keep his courtiers virtually him. He kept them busy watching his every move—from sun upwardly to sunday rise, Louis lived his life on display. This “decorated work” meant that there was no time to plot against him.

It’s a fascinating trip in time, and you tin’t help only marvel at the gold leaf gates, marble statues, and expansive gardens and fountains. Even so, information technology is wise to remember thatthis palace was built on the backs of commoners who eventually revolted and brought nigh the age of reason with The French Revolution.
The expert guides with TakeWalks.com
assist give perspective to this fascinating fourth dimension in history, then that you leave with not only an appreciation for the beauty of Versailles, simply a deeper understanding of history and humanity.

Paris deserves more than one visit in your lifetime, but for your beginning trip, exist sure to hitting the tours above to brand the nigh of it.

Disclosure: I collaborated with Take Walks and Booking.com for this trip. All opinions expressed are mine.