My sister and I recently went on vacation to celebrate her college graduation. Where did she want to go? London. Why? To see the Warner Brother’s Harry Potter Studio. Yes. Fly thousands of miles to another country to see where Harry Potter was filmed. Anyways, before flying to London, we started off in… Paris! So let’s begin!
We left SFO on June 4th and had a direct fly to CDG. We arrived around 10am and it took a while for our shuttle to come. CDG airport is hella crazy. Crazy as in, where passenger pick up is located, it was serious bumper to bumper traffic. LOL. When we finally got into central Paris and our driver was driving around, it finally hit me that I was here. Ever since I was young, I had a mild obsession over Paris. I taught myself basic French, fantasized over the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and sitting at a cafe and people watch. I couldn’t believe I was finally in Paris. After checking into our hotel (which was in the Latin Quarter) we set off on foot towards the Arc de Triomphe.
Musee du Louvre
Our first stop was Musée du Louvre. Due to the recent floods and high level of the Seine, the Louvre was closed so there was a lot of people taking photos with the pyramid. I couldn’t get over how big the Louvre was!
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
Amorino Ice Cream near Roue de Paris
Claude Monet’s Water Lilies at Musée de l’Orangerie
While in Paris, we decided to purchase the “Paris Museum Pass” which I feel was worth every penny. The Museum Pass granted us access to most of the museums/landmarks that we wanted to see, and Musée de l’Orangerie was one of the museums. Plus, we bypassed this super long line and went right in!
We headed down Avenue des Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe and found ourselves at Laduree. Of course we bought some macarons!
Arc de Triomphe
Getting to the Arc de Triomphe felt like a journey! We couldn’t find the underground tunnel to bypass the 8-lane-round-about. Finally, we realized we passed it when we were in awe of the structure. I knew we had to climb some steps, but damn! Those steps killed my legs. 284 steps to the stop. As soon as we got to the top, I had to just admire the view… and rest my legs!
View of Avenue des Champes-Elysees from Arc de Triomphe
After finally making it down the steps and making our way back down Avenue des Champes-Elysees, we found a place to have dinner. I don’t recall where we ate, but we both hand sandwiches, which helped with the hunger. After, we made our way to the metro and tried to figure out how to buy a carnet (a book of 10 metro tickets) for us to share for our time in Paris. Finally, we figured it out and had our first metro ride, which was surprisingly easy. We were so pooped, we went to our hotel and called it a day… after taking pictures of our macarons outside our balcony.
Laduree Macarons
