So our second side quest during the London part of our trip, was a day trip to Paris! It involved getting up very, very early and heading to St Pancras Station in London to get on the Eurostar Train.

We booked an Uber to get us to the train station, and the poor driver didn’t really know what to do with us. We chose to embrace a French stereotype and all wore navy and white striped shirts and red berets. I think we looked fabulous (and we definitely got a whole lot of thumbs up, and smiles from people we encountered). D even had an Aussie flag and acted as our tour guide for the day – unfortunately, he has never been to Paris before, and had no clue, but we managed to navigate around quite successfully!

The Train trip across the border was pretty straight forward, although the electronic passport control was fiddly and quite slow. The seats were as comfy as could be expected, and I managed a bit of a nap as we went. 2 1/2 hours and we arrived at Gare Du Nord in Paris! We made our way out of the station and headed off on our adventure.

We had booked Hop-on Hop-off bus tickets, so navigated our way to the first bus stop. It was a bit of a walk, but interesting to see how different Paris is to London. All of the buildings have beautiful facades, it was a feast for the eyes! We were all quite amazed at how quiet it all was compared to the chaos of London. It was much easier to walk around without the massive crowds, and the traffic was a whole lot less too!

The loop that we did on the bus took about two hours, and took us past all of the major attractions that I wanted to see. The commentary was a bit Naff, but it did the job we needed it to do! We didn’t have time to go into any of the landmarks really – which we knew when we planned the trip- but it has given us the start of a list for next time we come this way!

The weather was amazing – down right hot, so when lunch time came around, we were all happy to stop! We found a very nice Italian restaurant, right near the Eiffel Tower, and indulged our appetites. I had one of my very favourite things – Pizza el Tonno (tuna pizza) and it was delicious. We finished with a shared Tiramisu and a shot of Limoncello for D’s birthday which is next week.

Included in our bus ticket, was an hour long cruise on the Seine. We took off from a pier right under the Eiffel Tower, and the walk from our lunch spot to the boat was beautiful – but very hot! The Eiffel Tower is impressive. We talked about climbing it, but between the heat and our limited time, it was a unanimous no!

We cruised up and down, and under a whole lot of bridges. We saw all of the seating that had been set up for the Olympics (which had finished 3 days before we got there), and we saw the Notre Dame from a different vantage point. It burned down in 2019, and is in the process of being rebuilt. Initially the estimate was for 1-2 years, but now they are saying it is more likely to take 5-10 to have it completely done. It is definitely on my list of places to visit next time I come!

Following the cruise, it was time to make our way back toward the train station. Initially we had through to take a metro train, but in the end the desire for some French patisserie meant that we walked. – the pastries were absolutely worth the incredibly sore feet and exhaustion tho!

By the time we made it back to Gare Du Nord, having walked from one side of Paris to the other, we were all tired, hot and sweaty messes, grateful for cold water and seats. Passport control was just as fiddly on the return trip, but we made it through and collected some stamps as well (not everywhere will stamp your passport anymore, which I was a bit sad about!). D and I managed a bit of a snooze on the train, and pretty much fell into bed when we got home.

Paris was a 16 hour, 17000 step phenomenal day! I can’t believe that it is something that we did. I know that it was not nearly long enough, I know that we barely scratched the surface… but how amazing is it that I got to go there!? I feel just so incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity! This whole trip is just unreal!