We arrived in Paris Orly Airport by EasyJet from Rome pretty late at night (around 11 PM). The Orly Airport is much closer to the city than Charles De Gaulle airport. Even though a cab is a perfectly economical mode of transportation for 4 passengers, we wanted to use the public transportation. The OrlyVal train was already closed by the time we got out of the terminal. We took the OrlyBus shuttle from the airport to Denfert Rochereau and took the RER B from there to Charles De Gaulle Etoille station (after transferring in between to Paris Metro).
The exit of the Etoile station is right by the historic Arc De Triomphe near which our hotel Radisson Blu Champs Elyssees was located. Unfortunately I was not carrying any physical maps and my phone was completely dead by the time we got out of the metro and so I did not have any directions to our hotel (except knowing that it was in the vicinity of Arc De Triomphe). Most of the restaurants in the neighborhood were already closed (it was past midnight by the time we arrived) and the only place open was a McDonalds. Yeah !! Unfortunately, the language barrier seemed to be quite an issue and nobody knew where the Radisson hotel was. After asking a cabbie, we finally found the hotel. A future note to myself to always carry a backup copy (hard copy) of general directions and not to be completely reliant on my smartphone :).
Day 1:
The only item on the itinerary was the iconic Palace of Versailles.The easiest way to get there from Paris is to get to a station with RER Line C and take it all the way to Versailles. We decided to take a metro from Charles De Gaulle Etoile stop station to Invalides stop and then RER Line C from there to Versailles Rive Gauche stop. As luck would have it, there were some lines under construction that month and we had to improvise on our route and we had to walk from Alma-Marceau metro stop to Pont de l’Alma station by the Flame of Liberty, the symbol of USA-France friendship but now famously known as being the unofficial Princess Diana memorial (who was killed in the tunnel beneath Pont de l’alma).
By the time we reached the palace, it was already 10 AM. One thing I must stress is that if you want to avoid some serious standing in line, you need arrive at least half an hour before the palace opens. By the time we arrived, the line was very long. The line was snaking around in the courtyard and after talking to an official there, we found out that everyone on this line already had tickets. In other words, the so called “skip-the-line” tickets (basically pre-purchased online tickets) were useless in getting us inside the door any sooner. This happened to be the only place in our Europe trip where pre-purchasing the tickets online did not save us any substantial time in the line. After waiting in line for about 2.5 hours (that’s right !!) we finally got past security and got in. By the way, we had purchased tickets to only the palace but you can purchase combo tickets for the palace, the Grand Trianon and Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet also. The Versailles gardens are free. I think that just seeing the palace and the gardens takes a whole day so I would avoid the combo package.
Rick Steves has a fantastic free audio guide for the Versailles tour and we enjoyed it very much.
The first stop was the Royal Chapel.
The highlight of the Versailles palace is the Hall of Mirrors. One interesting trivia is that the Versailles treaty that ended the World War 1 (and according to some sowed the seeds of World War 2) was signed in this room.
There is so much intricate work in the walls and ceilings that to appreciate it all, you need a full day at a minimum.
Another highlight of the palace is Queen Marie Antoinette’s chambers.
After seeing the palace we walked outside towards the Versailles Gardens.
We spent about an hour and a half (not enough time!!) to wander around the gardens. However, it was very hot and humid and before long we decided to head back to the hotel.
Day 2:
Our first item on the itinerary was Eiffel Tower. Since online tickets to Eiffel Tower sell out months in advance, we wanted to get there early in the morning before it opened. We got there right at 9:30 AM and the line was already 1 and half hours long. However, it was well worth the wait when we took the elevators to the top of the tower and got some great views on a sunny day.
After returning to the hotel, we decided to take the metro to the Les Quatre Temps shopping mall, located close to the La Defense metro stop. My brother has been to Paris twice and when my mom inquired about where to shop at reasonable prices, he recommended this mall.
While my parents were shopping, we decided to have our lunch and came upon this interesting Japanese restaurant K10. Basically food preparations move along a conveyor belt and you can pick up items as you like. The pricing of the items is based on the color of the container its in.
Now the yelp and Tripadvisor ratings are kind of on the lower end of the range but honestly, I loved my salmon noodles.
In the evening, we took the metro to Vedettes du Pont Neuf near Pont Neuf metro station where our Seine cruise sailed. The 1-hr cruise lasted almost 1.5 hours and we got to see some parts of Paris that we hadn’t yet.
Day 3:
We took the metro to Cite metro stop and walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. One thing to note is that the Saint Chapelle (one of the best stained glass works in Paris) is also very close to this metro stop.
While at the Notre Dame Cathedral, there was a crepe shop La Creperie du Cloitre. All of us had some wonderful crepes there. Karen and me had the Hazelnut cream crepe and Mom and Dad had the Strawberry crepes.
Next my mom wanted to do some more shopping so we went back to the Les Quatre Temps shopping mall where we had lunch again at the K10 restaurant.
Later we decided to visit the Sacre Ceour at the Montmarte area. We took the #2 Metro line and got off at the Anvers metro stop. There were a lot of shops on both sides of the roads leading to the base of the Sacre Coeur. Also there were a lot of sketchy characters on the streets. You need to watch out and avoid the friendship scam artists in this neighborhood. Its a bit of an uphill walk from the metro stop but it’s well worth it for the view you get when you arrive at the base of the Sacre Coeur.
After spending some time walking to the top of the steps at the Sacre Coeur, we decided to return as it was getting dark and there were reports of some protest unrest (we saw some cops on the way up) due to Gaza clashes. We soon found out that the metro line at Anvers was now closed due to some accident and we ended up walking to the next metro and take alternate route to our hotel. It always helps to have the Paris Metro map in your wallet at all times so you can plan alternate routes to your destination.
After reaching the hotel we decided to walk back to the Eiffel Tower as my parents had not seen it up close yet. We walked from our Radisson Trocadero hotel to Eiffel tower in about a 20 minute walk.
The Eiffel Tower lights up at dark and flashes for 5 minutes every hour on the hour.
Day 4:
The only item on today’s itinerary was the Louvre Museum. You cannot visit Paris for the first time and not see the Louvre. We took the metro to Louvre Rivoli metro station and walked towards the Carousel du Louvre entrance. I had read in multiple websites that the easiest way to skip the long line to the Louvre museum is the use of this entrance where you can buy the tickets at the gift shop underground, or even better, from the ticketing kiosks after entering Louvre. We only had about 4 hours so we wanted to visit the famous attractions inside the Louvre first and then cover the rest.
The biggest crowd obviously was in the room hosting the Mona Lisa. You have to wait a while to get past all the other visitors and get close to the picture displayed inside a glass case.
After about 4 hours inside the Louvre we got out and went back to the hotel. After a quick lunch, we packed our bags and took the RER B train to Charles De Gaulle airport. After dropping off my parents at the Holiday Inn close to the airport, we went back to the airport and flew onward to Dublin for our flight back home.