Travels With Clo

Paris, the city of love, has been on my travel list for years, so we found cheap flights in February it was hard to say no- what better way to spend Valentine’s Day than in Paris?

There is so much to see and do in this bustling city, and we tried to squeeze in as many sights as possible.

Day One

Arrival day is always exhausting, and as we had an early morning flight from Manchester, Paris was no exception.

For the first days of my trips, I never like to book any activities, just incase I’m too tired from the journey, or there is a delay of some kind. The first day of my trips are always dedicated to sightseeing.

We made our way to the district of Montmartre, where we were staying, and spent the hours before hotel check-in taking in the sights.

Top Sights in Montmartre:

• The Love Wall- the wall features the words “I love you” in 311 languages.
• Sacre Coeur- a beautiful domed, white church with panoramic views of Paris.
• Le Passé Murallie- The statue of The Man who Could Walk through Walls, based on the short story published by Marcel Aymé.
• Moulin Rouge- A show house, most famous as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance.

We also stopped for lunch at one of the best rated bakeries, Grenier la Pain for fresh ham and cheese baguettes.

After all the sightseeing it was time to check in to our hotel. I was nervous about this becuase I’d seen lots of reviews that mentioned how small the rooms were, however I thought the room was very decent for the price. We stayed at the Prince Albert Montmartre.

After some brief relaxation, we ventured out for dinner. I had made reservations at the sought-after Pink Mama, but after waiting outside for almost an hour, they announced that they had overbooked and could not accommodate us that evening.

Feeling rather disgruntled and ready for some chicken nuggets, we stumbled across a local restaurant near the Moulin Rouge that had an empty table.

I had a three cheese pizza and my boyfriend had truffle pasta, followed by delicious chocolate cake served on a platter.

Overall a very hectic, but successful first day in Paris.

Day 2

For our second day in Paris, we got up early and made our way to the Instagram famous Carette for breakfast. We each got their Petit Dejuner package, which consisted of a drink, pastry and toast with butter and jam for €12 per person.

I had heard amazing things about the hot chocolate here, and it lived up to my expectations. It is made out of melted chocolate bars and tasted like thick cake batter. it was absolutely delicious.

Stomach’s full, we took the Metro to the Louvre, where we spent our morning completing three different trails; the Louvre’s masterpieces, The Journey Along the Nile and the Secrets of the Richelieu Wing.

15,000 steps later, we had some time to kill before our next reservation, so we sat by the fountains in the Jardin des Tulleries with our lunch

Our afternoon activity was a big bucket list item of mine. After writing an extended project about it in Sixth Form, I have always felt an affinity towards the Catacombs.

The walk through the Catacombs took around an hour to complete, and was an incredible experience. It’s not for the faint hearted however- the passages are very narrow and they contain the remains of over one million people.

I won’t post the photos from there, as they may be upsetting for some people, but if that’s something you enjoy then I highly recommend a visit.

Unsurprisingly, we were wiped out after such a long day, and ended up ordering pizza to our hotel, followed by an early night.

Day 3

Day 3 of our trip was actually Valentine’s Day, so we organised a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Before our accent, we went Rue L’Universite, a very famous street for its amazing view of the tower.

I’m not the biggest fan of heights, so I did feel very uneasy at the very top of the tower, however the views were unmatched. It was a very clear day and you could see all of Paris.

I was very eager to take the lift back down to the ground to continue my sightseeing of the morning. We also visited the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and the Pantheon, before our well deserved Mc Donalds trip.

We then spent the afternoon leisurely exploring the Jardin de Plantes museums and exhibitions, before our dinner reservations back in Montmartre.

We had a table booked at Sacre Fleur, a popular steakhouse near the Sacre Coeur. It was very quaint and cosy, and the waiters went the extra mile to make it special.

For starters I decided to try snails! They were surpassingly delicious and cooked in a garlic, creamy sauce. Callum decided to have the classic French onion soup.

The main course was the star of the show though- a steak sharing platter for two, complete with chips and peppercorn, blue cheese and caramelised onion sauces.

Day 4

For our final day in Paris, we were up at the crack of dawn to head to the happiest place on earth- Disneyland.

We took the Metro to Gare du Lyon, and then caught the RER train directly into Chessy. it took approximately 70 minutes in total.

I’ve been to Disneyland a few times, but it was my boyfriend’s first time. He was a little skeptical throughout the journey, thinking as an adult it wouldn’t be enjoyable, but his feelings melted away soon after arrival. The magic of Disney had hit him before the park had even opened.

Throughout the day, we completed a staggering amount of rides, getting onto Space Mountain within 10 minutes of being in the park.

We also managed to squeeze in meeting King Louis, Raffiki and Winnie the Pooh before the parade.

The hour before the parade was spent on what felt like a useless mission to find “Micky cake” that he had apparently seen on TikTok. As it was off season, many of the vendors were closed. We eventually found a restaurant that was selling packs of 2, but they were not the correct Micky cake (we had to try them anyway).

Finally, just as we were picking our place to watch the parade, we spotted people eating the Micky cake beside the Sweet Emporium, so we went inside to investigate.

Micky cake secured, we were ready to watch the parade.

Afterwards, we made a b-line for our final ride of the day, Peter Pan. We thought if we ran straight there we would avoid the constant 45 minute queue, but alas we were wrong.

As a child, it was my favourite ride so was worth it for the nostalgia.

We then took some final photos by the castle before heading home, ready for our early flight back to reality.

The perfect way to end a break in Paris.