Travel Series: Paris (I)

Paris - the city of love, the capital of fashion and haute couture, home of the best food and wine and the place where sightseeing could also just mean sitting down at a cafe and watch the stylish people pass by - they're like monuments of chic Parisian attitude. This lively city caught between modernity and centuries worth of history and culture was an incredible experience during our road trip - it helped test our endurance levels. Just to give you a few stats: an average of 13.5 h walking every day, about 1.5 h for resting your feet and eating (sometimes even less, because "Hey! The clock is ticking and we have to see everything!") and hundreds of little streets and monuments seen in just about 3 days and a half! If you want a piece of advice: don't try to visit Paris in less than a week, or you'll be crying over your sore feet every night (like some of us here did - no names, Bogdan knows I'm talking about him haha!).

How about I give you a few tips on how you could plan your visit? What to see, what is the best circuit around town, you name it! Don't hesitate to ask me anything, I'd be glad to answer! This is how you could approach a first day in Paris - not too many monuments, just start easily getting used to the overwhelming city:

As you already know, I studied for a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, so it was my role to be the tourist guide and show Bogdan (and you of course!) all my favorite places in the city. We started first by going to a quiet relaxing spot - the Jardin de Luxembourg, home of the Palace of the Senate and located right next to the Sorbonne. The park is the typical display of a French garden, with rows of perfectly trimmed trees, dusty alleys and a pond in the middle. 

After some chilling time in the park, we headed towards some of the most renowned universities in the world - the Sorbonne and the Ecole Polytechnique and further towards the Pantheon, a temple and mausoleum dedicated to some of France's most distinguished and renowned citizens, such as Victor Hugo or Antoine de St. Exupery.

The next stop was for food in the famous Quartier Latin, too bad we were so hungry that we didn't take any pics, but trust me it was a feast: foie gras and tomatoes and mozarella for starters, then beef steak and fried duck breast for seconds and a perfect finish with profiterol and creme brulee. Mmmm I'm already getting hungry again! After charging our batteries, we walked on the banks of the Seine until we reached the Notre Dame cathedral, the Hotel de Ville where people were watching the Olympics on giant screens and finally the Louvre and the Tuileries gardens.

A really cool thing you can do if you visit Paris in July or August is go on the banks of the Seine, to the so-called Paris Plages it's like an actual beach next to the Seine- sand, deck chairs and beach bars included!

The view on Place de la Concorde from the pond of the Tuileries Gardens at sunset is priceless, I always love to go there and seize the moment on camera.

We then walked to the Pont Alexandre III to catch the best view of the lights on the Eiffel Tower and called it a night on the Champs Elysees.

I hope I didn't bore you too much with the photos, I was just trying to create a travel itinerary for you guys!

What I was wearing:

Top: ZARA

Skirt: ZARA

Bag: H&M

Shoes: ZARA

Bogdan's look:

Shirt: H&M

Trousers: H&M

Shoes: ZARA