Introducing Georgia

On Monday 16th January, me and my friend Hannah boarded a plane to Paris where we spent five days there. We flew from Glasgow airport in the morning and arrived in Paris in the early afternoon. We decided to get the train to the centre of Paris to get to where we were staying rather than a taxi as it was significantly cheaper. Getting the train or any other form of public transport in a foreign country can be quite daunting, making sure you purchase the right ticket and actually board the correct train. However, we managed it with some ease and we were soon in the centre of Paris. We stayed in an apartment in an area called Ternes, which was lent to us by a family friend who kindly let us stay there for free, which helped us greatly with being able to afford to go on this trip. It also meant we had a sense of freedom and independence, not confined to some of the restrictions you get with staying in a hotel. By the time we arrived at the apartment it was later on in the afternoon, and we were both pretty hungry, as usual! It is more traditional in France for dinner to be served from 7pm onwards, and so we waited until then to go out for a meal. In the meantime we found a little market shop and bought some food for the flat, like Nutella and a French baguette – all essentials of course…

Tuesday was Disneyland day, which was the place I was most excited to visit because 1. I’m a big kid at heart and 2. I love rollercoasters and theme park rides. We got a bus transfer from Châtelet, which was immensely difficult to find, but we eventually got to the bus having thought we had missed it, and successfully made our way to Disneyland. We arrived at around half nine, and the park rides didn’t open until ten so we had plenty of time to get to a ride for it opening. We started in Walt Disney Studios following the recommendation from our bus guide, and headed straight for Rockin’ Rollercoaster. We hit a few rides in that park before going over to the Disneyland park for the rest of the day. My favourite rides in both theme parks are Rockin’ Rollercoaster, the Tower of Terror, Crushes Coaster, Peter Pan’s Flight and Phantom Manor! It was bitterly cold when we were there and the warmth of being on the inside rides was very much welcomed.

On Wednesday we had a few things planned. We started off with the Eiffel Tower, which we were booked to go to the second floor, however, Hannah somehow booked for the wrong day so we weren’t able to do that…

We didn’t let this hold us back from cracking on with the rest of the day and we got back on the metro and went to the Musee d’Orsay. We spent a couple of hours looking around the gallery at the vast collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures.

Following this we walked along the River Seine to Notre Dame.

The beautiful gothic architecture of the cathedral was breathtaking both inside and out and I loved the intricate detail of the stain glass windows. It was a popular place for tourists due to the long history of the cathedral.

I wanted to visit the Père Lachaise Cemetery whilst we were in Paris, and so after our visit to Notre Dame we got back on the metro and made our way to Père Lachaise. I find cemeteries so peaceful and beautiful and looking around all the grand tombstones was interesting yet tragic. It is the burial place of many large names such as Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Eugène Delacroix.

Thursday was the day we visited the Chateau de Versailles. Being under 25 and a member of the EU we were allowed free entry to the palace and the grounds which is always a bonus! We explored the gardens of the palace first, but in hindsight I would recommend doing the interior to begin with and spending the rest of the day looking around the grounds as there is so much to explore outside. I would definitely suggest spending a whole day at the palace as there is just so much to explore and it is spread across a large area meaning it takes a while to walk from one place to the other. The palace grounds are extraordinary; you could look in any direction and the view would be beautiful.

The interior of the palace was no less beautiful and the intricate detail of each room was astonishing. Just thinking about the amount of work and craftsmanship that must have went into the design and building of the palace blows my mind.

That evening we went to the Arc de Triomphe which was only about a ten minute walk from our apartment. We got tickets to the viewing platform, which was a daunting 284 steps to the top. It worked up our appetite for our tea that was for sure! Surprisingly for us, the Eiffel Tower light show started whilst we were at the top and we had a perfect view for watching it. You could see over Paris for miles from the viewing platform and I would definitely recommend braving the walk up the steps to see the views!

After taking in the views we decided to go for a meal, I feel like we earned it after the trek up those stairs! That night we just headed back to the flat for a relaxing night in to prepare for the long day of travelling ahead of us…

Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever been to Paris and if so what was favourite thing to do or place to visit and if not, is there anything you would love to do if you got the chance to go?