Wanderlust: Paris

It was exactly after 4 years since my first trip to Paris. On my first trip I had done the usual - Eiffel Tower, Seine Cruise, Museums of Louvre and Orsay and Versailles. And a day trip to Bordeaux. To be honest, this time around things stayed pretty much the same - Bordeaux was replaced by Reims (Champagne) and Seine cruise was ditched but we didn't add anything to our itinerary. Why? Well...first time around, I had not planned well for my vacation and as a result, wasn't able to do complete justice to most of the attractions.

Between then and now, I have been to many places in Europe and have kind of become good at planning vacations. So, this time around I knew what to expect and I was clear where I wanted to spend my time.

We had an early flight from Stockholm to Paris which meant that we left our hotel at 3:30 am. Since taxis are very expensive in Sweden, we had decided to take Flygbussarna airport coach instead. The bus stop was about 400 m from hotel (plus a long flight of stairs from hotel to main road). We were a bit worried about the safety at such an early hour but thanks to Scandinavian summer, the sun was rising as we stepped out of the hotel and made our way up those 100 odd steps and walked to the bus/ coach stop.

The bus arrived dot on time and we reached our terminal as expected. The airport wasn't crowded at all and we were done with check-in and security check within a matter of minutes. Flygbussarna is the cheapest transport to/fro Arlanda airport in Stockholm and I highly recommend it.

View from the Summit

We landed in Paris around 9:00 am but we reached hotel only around noon - thanks to the rains and the crazy Paris traffic. Wish I had taken RER as per my original plan but the long queues for the ticket really dissuaded me. My suggestion...even if the ticket queue is long, opt for RER - it will always be cheaper (10.3 Euros per head) and faster.

The hotel we had chosen was on Champs-Elysees (thanks to the points earned by dear hubby over his many many official trips). After a quick lunch and a power nap, we decided to walk to Eiffel Tower - we had a 3 pm booking for the Summit. Last time, I couldn't go to the summit as online tickets were sold out and skip the line ticket took us only till 2nd Level. This time, I booked well in advance but the weather was very disappointing - it was still cloudy though the rain had stopped. As luck would have it, by the time we reached the tower, and spent over 40 minutes across 3 queues (security, elevator to Level 2 and elevator to Summit), the sun was out and we could get a decent view of the city.

View of Trocadero from Level 2

The summit gets quite crowded especially because there just isn't enough space. And when a group of Gujjus intent on having Gujarati snacks at the summit get added to it, one has to descend sooner than planned.

So after about 10 minutes we took the elevator down to Level 2 where we spent another 20 minutes soaking in the sun bathed views of the beautiful city.

We then made our way over to the Trocadero Gardens - I believe that's the best place to admire Eiffel from - up close it isn't really beautiful. However, after about 30 min, it started raining and we were forced to head back to our hotel where we enjoyed some great wine and food over dinner.

Next day was reserved for Louvre. Yes...a day isn't enough but then we can't spend a month in Paris...not yet at least! This time around I had done some research on where I wanted to spend time in this massive museum and we spent most of our time in and around the Grand Gallery. Ofcourse we avoided the key attractions, like Mona Lisa, having been disappointed already during the previous visit. The audio guide wasn't that good as it has information about very limited paintings...my suggestion is not to spend money on that but instead get data on your phone and use Google Lens to identify the painting and get information about it.

Outside view from a window in Grand Gallery

The day at Louvre was great except for the hoards of Chinese tourists some of whom had the audacity to physically push other patrons, who were busy admiring the painting, in order to get a picture with the painting. Some of them were rude enough to stand directly in front of painting for a selfie while someone else was studying it intently. And then some others were being irritating by making others take their pictures.

In spite of them, we had a good time at Louvre that included a coffee and cake break in the cafeteria. First time around when we needed a break, we found the queues too long as it was lunch time but about an hour after that there was a kind of lull and we could enjoy our coffee in peace.

We wrapped up the day with spending some time in the Egyptian Antiquities section and went back to Champs-Elysees for a well deserved long meal with wine.

Interior of the catherdral

Day Three we woke up late as today we were taking a short train ride on an afternoon TGV to Reims (Champagne region). On the previous trip, I had booked a 6:00 am TGV to Bordeaux and had cursed myself for it when I had to get up at 4:00 am in order to catch it. So this time around I decided to start late and enjoy a relaxed morning instead.

The agenda was to visit the cellars of GH Mumm, see some local sights and have a dinner before heading back to Paris. The vineyards are in Epernay and that is another 30 minutes by train from Reims plus vineyards are spread around and require tour bookings. Most tours start in the morning and we weren't too willing to do so :)

Rose window

So we reached Reims at 1:45 pm and started walking towards the Reims Cathedral. We had no idea what to expect and we found ourselves beyond surprised by this cathedral - it is about 800 years old, 450+ ft in length and almost hundred feet wide with a height of 125 ft at the centre. Built in high gothic style, it looms large above you and has some impressive stained glass work ranging from the 13th to the 20th century. The rose window over the main portal and the gallery beneath are of rare magnificence.

We spent more than an hour here before we realised that we were getting late for our cellars tour. So we made haste and walked for about 20-25 minutes to reach the GH Mumm visitors center. The tour started sharp on time with a short video in champagne making process. We then walked down to cellars where we were shown a few grape varieties and some out of commission equipment. Our guide was very informative and she had us hooked for the whole hour.

GH Mumm Cellars

The cellars are really huge and worth a visit - these are more like limestone caves/tunnels. The temperatures are kept low (approx 5-10 degree C) and humidity constant and so it does get a bit cold. Bathed in yellow light, these limestone tunnels look ethereal and the millions of champagne bottles make it look a like big underground treasure.

While I loved the cellars tour, the tasting was actually a let down because we had taken the basic tour, the guide just poured the wine and moved to do the proper tasting with the others guests who had 2-3 wines to taste on their ticket.

After the tour we walked back to the station through a lovely park and enjoyed a nice dinner before boarding our train back to Paris.

Day Four

Cafeteria at Orsay

Having arrived late into Paris from Reims, today was another planned late start. Today's agenda was to spend time on our favourite impressionist collection at Orsay. With more than 100 impressionist masterpieces, Orsay is one of the richest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world. As we had planned we spent most of our time on the 5th floor (next to cafeteria) that houses this collection. The audio-guide was good but again contained information on very limited number of paintings...next time around I will rely on Google Lens alone.

After a few hours when our legs couldn't carry us any more, we imbibed some rose wine in their beautiful cafeteria before heading off to the post-impressionist collection (Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond).

Performers outside the museum

When we left Orsay it was late afternoon and quite sunny but not too hot. We enjoyed some street music performance just outside the museum and then sat on the steps by the Seine.

During our last long visit to Paris we had spent an hour on a bridge somewhere between Orsay and Notre-Dame. So this time around, I wanted to visit it again. It took us more than an hour of walking alongside Siene to reach the cathedral but we couldn't locate that bridge. A bit sad, we decided to to call off the hunt and started walking towards the closest metro stop and there it was - Pont d'Arcole.

Last time we had taken a metro to reach Notre-Dame from Orsay and that's how we had encountered the bridge before reaching cathedral. This time around since we had walked, we reached cathedral first and then found the bridge on way to metro station. Anyway...I was delighted that we were able to locate it and spent some time clicking pictures.

Last day was reserved for Versailles...a palace whose beauty is surpassed only by its gardens. I won't get into text details here as words can't do justice to its beauty. The only thing I would add is that after visiting Schönbrunn in Vienna and Royal Palace of Madrid, Hall of Mirrors at Versailles doesn't hold the same charm for me as it did the first time around. The gardens, however, remain my favourite...even more so now because this time around we chose to visit the day when Gardens would have music and working fountains. It was really beautiful!!!

If one wants to visit only gardens, the entry is free except for the days when water & music is on. That day gardens also require a ticket. However, the gardens are huge and music/water is not on through out the day (to conserve energy). Please make note of the timetable of the musical gardens here. You will also be handed over a paper guide with same at the venue. The fountains work for an hour in morning & 90 min in afternoon and because of vastness of the gardens, it's better to plan a route map for two windows.

To get an idea of the beauty of the musical fountains, I would suggest you watch this video of Mirror Pool that I uploaded on youtube. Below are some stills from the musical gardens but they don't do justice to it!