Last weekend in Paris……..

There is something about Paris that gets me every time! It’s one of the countries I’ve visited most frequently in the last ten years and though it’s often declared as the city of love I have travelled, more times than with, without my significant other.

With one of my best friend’s residing in Paris for a few years a girl’s trip has always been my go-to whenever I’m missing the city and regardless of the season I’ve always had the most amazing time when skipping across the border. As with a number of well-known capitols, Paris is an ‘in-the-know’ city so to get the best out of the location as a re-visiting adult it helps having friends on the inside but now that my bestie is filming a show in Mexico we were left to our own devices more recently. Just last week my trip to Paris was spent solely as a tourist. Seeing the city again through fresh doting eyes was really quite amazing and though it wasn’t planned for me to do so, I wanted to share the best bits of my 48 hours in Paris.

It is possible to fly easily from London but I have always favoured the Eurostar when travelling to France, it’s such an easy start-finish way to travel and flying as much as I do it’s always a treat to have another option of getting abroad. Once sped through the tunnel with our glasses of ‘girl’s trip’ champs in hand, we utilised our roaming (free of charge now in Europe thank-you O2!) and called an uber from the station to our hotel, Le Bellechasse Saint Germain. Whilst I didn’t get any snaps of the hotel for you (I wasn’t planning to blog this one) I can vouch that it was a great option for a two night stay, it offered spacious rooms for the inner city, a big breakfast spread, an awesome concierge who helped us out with dinner bookings and getting about and an amazing location just walking distance to the Eiffel Tower and this rather beautiful river view which lent a hand to our obligatory photo shoot on our sunset arrival.

As party girls by nature our pretty night posing by the river lights turned into a giddy galavant quite sharpish but when in Paris there’s something about the romance of the city that truly takes you away with it! We went for dinner on the Champs Elysee and then continued our night dancing at L’arc which has always been one of my favourite nightclubs in Paris, it’s half open air, plays awesome music and I’ve always loved the atmosphere there.

Travelling with my gorgeous friend Aimee, who, like me, is a massive disney fan, a trip to Walt Disney’s world was an absolute must. For me part of the magic of Paris is being able to escape here, to the whimsical Walt world, where even as an adult you can spend a care-free childlike day. I wrote a post last year about why all adults needs to travel to disney (you can read it here) and spending a day in the parks recently championed every point I made in that blogpost! There really is nothing quite like the switch-off that Disneyland offers and being able to reach that other-world by getting a two hour train journey  to Paris has always blown my mind. I’m so grateful to have a park so close to home!

This trip was particularly special as we stayed until the park closed to watch the famous light show. It was the first time I’d seen it and I’d be lying if I said I was left watching the display dry-eyed! Disney’s most popular sound tracks are blasted out through the park and the iconic castle is lit up in motion whilst fireworks explode into the sky to accent the magic. It was honestly and truly one of the best things I’ve ever seen and cuddled up to Aimee watching the extravaganza was one of my all time favourite evenings.

After spending the day in the parks we ‘spotify karaoke’d’ our way through every single disney song on the way back into town and opted for sleep over substance for dinner 😉 The next morning with just a few hours left of our short trip we wandered to the Eiffel Tower. Though I’ve been to Paris over 10 times I rarely walk to the more built up tourist areas so this was a nice treat and the sunny day lent a hand to show off just how gorgeous the central city is. There’s a little construction going on around the tower at the moment which makes it more difficult to navigate around but what I did love was a small food and trinket market at the base of the monument that I’d not had the pleasure of visiting before, it was like the Paris edition of Greenwich market and it was a really cool place to wander round grabbing a bite to each and soaking up the multi-cultural atmosphere. [one_half][/one_half][one_half][/one_half]After our savoury we headed for our sweet at the only place I have to visit every time I’m in Paris, La Duree. There’s no way I’m travelling across the border to France and not eating my weight in Macrons and the best place to get my fix is, by far, La Duree. There’s a few in town (and here in London for that matter but that helps me justify my scoffing sesh less ;)) but my favourite is the one on the Champs Elysee, quite simply because the decor is a Parisian dream! The location is pretty sweet for a tourist too, it’s one of those streets you could easily wander up and down all day, in and out of the shops and looking up at the iconic L’arc du Triomphe as you stride. [one_half][/one_half][one_half][/one_half]

Concluding my short and sweet photo diary of last weekend, Paris is always a good idea!