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For those who think that I am going to give a whole list of restaurants and all kinds of food tips in this travel report, you will be a bit disappointed. I went to Paris for three days with my daughter and she is not really a fan of haute cuisine yet. Nevertheless, I do have a lot of fun and useful tips if you want to go on a trip to Paris! We tried to get the most out of our trip “traveling to Paris” and had a great time.
The means of transport
If you go to Paris from the Netherlands, you can do that in several ways. You can fly, take the train or drive yourself by car. I chose the latter because at the time of our trip a train ticket would cost 144 euros pp for a single ticket. And then we would also have to drive all the way to Amsterdam from our village in the Netherlands to get on a train there. The additional parking costs alone are ridiculous. So the car is good, what do you need to know about it? Where do you park, how do you drive in Paris, how much does it cost?
Driving a car in Paris
You need an environmental sticker for Paris. You can request this online, I did that with this one website. If you do not have that sticker, you risk a fine of 65 euros. If you have ordered the sticker, you will receive a temporary proof in your email. The French RDW will send you your official sticker by post. This can take a while, so order in time. By the way, you can drive with your temporary license.
Once you've passed the French border, it doesn't take too long before you pass the first toll station. Until Paris you only have to pay toll once. The costs are around 1 on the way there, and then again on the way back. If you come to France more often, you would be smart about it a toll badge to be arranged at the ANWB. At the toll station you choose the most left or right toll gates where a T of télepeage hangs above. You will then receive your bill afterwards. This means you will never be stuck in traffic again and you can drive through the gates at 30 km/h.
Parking in Paris
Paris is a busy city, always from early in the morning to late at night. The French don't pay much attention to more or less dents, so keep an eye out! You can park your car on the street, but I strongly advise against that. Start looking for a parking garage! I already did this at home, via Parclick I reserved a spot in advance. You can search for a garage near your hotel or place of residence via their website or app. They show exactly on the map where there is a garage, and also what it costs when you enter your stay. I lost 3 euros for 68 days.
Hilton Paris Opera
Jools and I stayed at the Hilton Paris Opera in the heart of Paris. Our parking garage was a 12-minute walk from here. But the hotel is located right next to Saint Lazare station, so it is also very easy to reach by train. This beautiful hotel is very centrally located and has a wonderful classic appearance. Our room was on the corner so we had a beautiful view on both sides. An ideal base to discover the city. Galeries Lafayette and the Opera within walking distance.
Things to Do in Paris
Well, there really is a lot to do in Paris! So much that we couldn't do it all in one trip. So it is wise to make some planning in advance. Which hotspots do you want to see, and what are you going to reserve in advance? You can buy many tickets and reserve times online. So I booked a visit to Montparnasse for our first day. The highest viewpoint over all of Paris. On top of a mega skyscraper where you have a 360 degree view of the entire city!
Top 10 hot spots:
- The Louvre, book online in advance!
- The Eiffel Tower, also here is definitely a reservation.
- Montparnasse for the most beautiful views.
- La Notre Dame, unfortunately not open now, but Quartier Latin is next door, so take a nice picture and then have a drink in one of the many restaurants in the area.
- Arc de Triomph and the Champs Elysees, beautiful to walk along both during the day and in the evening.
- Galeries Lafayette for the notorious shopaddicts among us!
- Place de la Concorde
- Eat pies! At Aux Merveilleux de Fred, or of course LaDuree for macarons.
- Book a beautiful boat trip on the Seine. Can be done in the evening as well as during the day.
- There are plenty of museums that you can visit, but I can definitely recommend just strolling through the city, grabbing some terraces and enjoying a glass of wine.
From A to B in Paris
You can travel around the city in many ways, by taxi or Uber, by bus, metro or electric scooters, and also by bicycle. Jools really wanted to tear around on such a scooter. So I arranged that. They are everywhere and nowhere in the city. You just have to look around you and you'll probably see them. You see them everywhere, especially in the tourist areas. You download the app of the relevant brand. Then you link your credit card, your apple pay or debit card to the app, scan the QR code and drive away!
You can only start one scooter per mobile, so everyone has to start their own scooter. Mind you, those things can go 25km per hour, and Paris is quite hysterical when it comes to traffic. The costs vary a lot per provider, so that is something to look at. We drove with DOTT, they charge 1 euro starting rate. After that 0,23ct per minute.
The Paris Metro
The rest of the time we traveled by metro. Paris has an extremely large network and all major hotspots have a station nearby. Download the metro app on your phone and you can plan your trip super easily. You enter where you want to go and the app gives you exactly the times, which direction you need to go, and which type of line you need. A Metro ticket costs 7,50 pp per day. This allows you to travel unlimitedly within Paris all day long. Always look carefully at the signs and keep an eye on the end station, the app will tell you the exact number of stops.
What have we visited?
Well, we left Monday morning and were in Paris a little after 13:00. After we found the Hilton and checked in we took the metro to Montparnasse. So I had already booked those tickets in the Netherlands. In 38 seconds you are at the top and you have a breathtaking 360 view over the whole of Paris. All the major attractions can be seen from that point. Then we went shopping at the Montparnasse metro station. Nespresso for Dad at home, Rituals for Mom, and a little window shopping. In the evening we took the metro to the Champs Elysees. The trees there were beautifully lit, and the Arc de Triomph was beautifully lit. Traveling with a XNUMX-year-old means you can't walk endlessly or stay up late, so that was the last stop before the first day.
Day 2 on a trip to Paris
The second day we had a full day in Paris which we started with breakfast in the hotel. Then we walked to the Galeries Lafayette. This department store is really huge! It is actually more of a very long shopping street with beautiful shop windows. You can spend hours and hours here, all the expensive brands can be found there. Some clothes were bought, and also made a short stop at the Apple store. Then it was lunch time and the metro to the Eiffel Tower. Jools wanted to see her (La tour Eiffel is female) up close. She didn't have to climb it and that was fine with me!
Then it was time to eat pastries at “Aux Merveilleux de Fred”. You can find these in several locations in Paris and I can definitely recommend visiting one and buying a box with all the flavors of the mini Merveilleux. (You can also make your own I hear here the recipe for you). We went to a cozy terrace and drank a glass of wine (me of course). Back at the hotel we enjoyed some tasty snacks in the executive lounge, after which we freshened up to have a bite to eat together. The legs were tired from the day, and around 22:00 we were in bed.
Last day in Paris
We decided to sleep in a bit and let ourselves be pampered with breakfast in bed! Around 11:00 we left for the Notre Dame, unfortunately it cannot be visited due to the large fire that raged there. So we could only see the outside. Nearby we lit a candle in a smaller church and had a drink in the Latin Quarter. The last stop we made was at the flower market, at the metro stop Cité. Then it was time to pick up the suitcases and go back to the parking garage. The rush hour in Paris starts around half past four and we wanted to get ahead of it. Around three o'clock we drove very quietly out of Paris and back home.
That was him! A trip to Paris, a mother-daughter trip
If you have a child, I can wholeheartedly recommend that you travel alone with your child. You will be told of the conversations we have had, and the attention you have for each other. Especially with an adolescent who can't get out of their room at home, and the mobile has grown together by hand. I used to have a day out with my father once a year and I will never forget that. I am now continuing that tradition with my daughter, and we are secretly already thinking about where to go next year….
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Beautiful city!