Passport to Paris: Highlight Reel

Samedi, 12 octobre.

Okay, so you've sat through my posts about Versailles, Paris at night, and Paris "off the beaten path" -- and now it's time for the best part. Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen: here come two days full of all of the absolute best/most famous parts of Paris!

You've already seen Versailles and the beautiful places we visited on Friday and Saturday night, so I'll stick with our Saturday and Sunday daytime wanderings! First stop, les berges de la Seine. The banks of the Seine, where they surround Île de la Cité (the island on which Notre Dame stands), are the absolute heart of Paris and definitely my favorite part of the city. It's along this part of the banks of the river that you find the Palais du Louvre as well as dozens of other famous buildings (including the Assemblée Nationale and the Musée d'Orsay.) Everything is imposing and beautiful and just ... wow. C'est parfait.

Hello, Louvre! It's been a while.

 

La vie parisienne est dure, n'est-ce pas? (The Parisian life is hard, isn't it?)

Passport to Paris: Une Nuit à Paris (... or maybe two?)

Mercredi, 9 octobre.

Paris is amazing at any time of day, but "La Ville-Lumière" is truly magnificent at night. There seem to be fewer tourists and those that remain tend to blend into the background much easier. We spent our first night in Paris exploring -- what else -- the l'Avenue des Champs-Elysees.

We took the metro from the apartment we were staying in (located in the 14th Arrondissement) to a stop on the far end of the Champs-Elysees and just started walking. We passed so many fancy stores and beautiful window displays! It was amazing. 

Of course, no visit to Paris' most favorite street is complete without a visit to one of its most famous monuments -- l'Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile. The 19th century masterpiece (the largest triumphal arch in the world at the time it was created, although the title now belongs to North Korea) was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. I don't want to bore you with facts and figures, but you can brush up on your history of the monument here!