Paris Day 2 - Versailles

We woke up around 7 am today and the weather was partly cloudy so we decided to go to Versailles (opens at 9 am except Mondays)! From our hotel, we took the Metro 1 from Concorde to Invalides, then RER C to Gare de Versailles Rive Gauche. We purchased the Mobilis zone 4 ticket for unlimited train for 10.55 euros each (it was convenient to have a day pass who knows where we heading to next right!) We got to Versailles train station in around 50 minutes. To get out of the train station, you'll need to insert your ticket again (this is to prevent people buying a normal zone 1-2 ticket to sneak in). Of course we saw people who had no clue that they purchased the wrong ticket so they had a tough time getting out!

Once we were out of the train station, we turned right and followed the crowd (they all must be heading to the Versailles!). The walk was around 5 minutes and the first thing we saw was the gate and a huge line of people already lined up.  My first impression of Versailles was once again, I couldn't believe I am right in front of the most famous palace in the world! We joined the line (yes the line was long and all have the Paris Museum Pass) and slowly moving, took us around half an hour to get in Versailles! 

Versailles was packed and it was early in the morning too so I can't believe what place will be like during peak summer months! We were almost pushing shoulder to shoulder and slowly moved our way from rooms to rooms. Even though the each room was packed with tourists, there were so much to see that we didn't really pay attention to the crowds! However, hold on to your valuable belongings as there were signs throughout the palace to warn about pickpockets! We were taking photos non-stop, every corner we turned, there was something that caught our eyes. Versailles is the most famous palace in the world, no doubt about it!  The extravagant and overwhelming decors and architecture completely blew our minds off! 

One of the hallways in Versailles:

A chapel right inside the Versailles:

One of the many fully decorated room, everywhere we looked were full of details:

Before we noticed where we were heading to, we ended up in the famous Hall of Mirrors! It was believable to see it in person! The crystal chandeliers were astonishing, how can people built this palace hundreds of years ago? We couldn't help but keep saying "wow, look at this!"

Hall of Mirrors was my favorite "room" in Versailles! 

We went through the rooms (lost count of how many) in Versailles and got out to the garden area.

After browsing through the huge garden, we went back to the front to take more photos of the exterior of the palace. The palace was quite colorful:

We called this the true "golden gate":

We left Versailles around 12:30 pm and on our way out, we saw the entrance line to the palace was at least 3X longer when we got there! So go early or late!

Walking back to Versaille train station saw this cute building.  I love the architecture in France!

We walked back to Versailles train station, took the RER C train directly back to St. Michel Notre Dame to have our late lunch. We walked up from the metro station and went in a street filled with restaurants!

Those restaurants have lunch special menu for 10 euros, 15 euros, etc. for 3 course meal! We randomly picked one restaurant and had our lunch. I had onion soup, beef pot, and chocolate mousse. The food quality was good compared to the price we paid 10 euros each but "acceptable" by the standards of food in Paris.

After lunch, it was around 2:30 pm, we walked to Notre Dame since it was so close.

The line was long too to get in Notre Dame but well worth it! While we waited in line, we took pictures of the exterior of the most famous Gothic style church in the world! The details of the architecture was incredible!

We got in after half an hour wait and explored the church. Note that no flash allowed inside the church so our pictures came out to be in the darker side:

The stained-glass windows were so beautiful!

We only spent an hour or so inside Notre Dame, other church-lovers would spend a whole day here. On our way out, we saw some souvenir coins vending machine and my husband started his habit of collecting those coins in Paris! We were planning to climb up the towers but the sky was getting dark so we afraid it'll rain! The line to climb up the tower was long and moving very slow! We'll wait until another blue sky clear day to climb up!

Since we are around the BNP Paribas ATM location, we walked and found the ATM. The ATM was very easy to use but I think there is a limit of 500 euros per day which wasn't a problem for us!  

Next, we walked pass by Sainte-Chapelle and since we weren't tired so we decided to visit that as well.  With the Paris Museum Pass, we walked right through without much wait! Sainte-Chapelle was under restoration so some part were covered. But still, the famous stained-glass was gorgeous!

Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to take a break before heading back out for dinner.  Our reservation at Le Reminet is at 7:00 pm; we head out at 6:00 pm and it was raining so we didn't bring our DSLR camera.  Le Reminet is near Notre Dame and even with a map, it took us some time to find the place. We entered the restaurant and told the waiter our name and we made a reservation through The Fork. We were guided down to the "basement" of the restaurant. It was quite unique and romantic (this time I wish I had my camera however I still have my point and shoot). 

The food quality was excellent!

Appetizers: some fish dish and oysters

Main courses: steak with foie gras and fish

The foie gras was very very smooth, more creamy texture than the one I had last night at Le P'tit Troquet. Both foie gras was different and excellent so I can't decide which one I like more!

Desserts: chocolate cage and creme brulee

Once again, our dinner was beyond our expectation! When we got the check, 40% off was taken off the bill (the deal from The Fork) and money was well spent! Love the food in Paris!

Paris Day 1 - Louvre and Eiffel Tower

We flew from Boston nonstop to Paris, total flight time was around 6.5 hours. Our airline was Air France, the ride was smooth and we arrived in Paris CDG Terminal E at 8:15 am in the morning! It was very fast and easy going through immigration...stamp and all set! We picked up our luggage and once we got out of the luggage area, on our right hand side was the information desk.  We purchased our Air France Shuttle ticket (one day from airport to Arc de Triomphe for 17 euros each) and also the 4-day Museum Pass (54 euros each) right at the information desk! We walked toward Terminal 2F and found exit 3 to wait for the Air France Shuttle station. The wait was around 15 minutes and it was pretty chilly; we took the "Line 2" to get to Arc de Triomphe, travel time was 50 minutes. 

The bus dropped us off right at Arc de Triomphe, when I first stepped out of the bus, I had the feeling "I am in Paris, this is Arc de Triomphe!" Arc de Triomphe was a lot bigger than I thought when I saw photos online! Anyways, we headed to the metro station to take the train to get to our hotel. We took Metro line 1 from Charles De Gauille Etoile (Arc de Triomphe) to Tuilleries. I looked up the metro stations on this website prior to my trip so I know exactly how I get to the hotel:  http://www.vianavigo.com/en/routes-district-maps/

The Westin Paris Vendome hotel was around 5 minutes walk from the Metro station so it was convenient. After checked in the hotel, we had our lunch at La First which is a restaurant in the hotel. The food was good but a bit pricey for lunch. The Westin was very beautiful, great location, but our room was small, I guess it's because Paris is expensive!

After lunch, we headed straight to the Louvre which is located only a few blocks from our hotel! We could even see Louvre from our hotel! 

As we approached Louvre, it was way bigger than I thought! The architecture was absolutely amazing (well it was used to be a palace), you really have to be there to know how it feels to be stand right in front of the Louvre! 

We went in through the Pyramid entrance (I know people said that is the worst entrance since it's most crowded) but I saw the line for Museum Pass was almost empty! We went right in and through security in less than few minutes, I was surprised! We walked down the stairs from the Pyramid and got us to a central area where the entrances to each "wing" of the museum. Louvre looks big from the outside but it's even bigger in the inside!  

I never imagined a museum will be like that! I had the feeling I was in the middle of a huge shopping mall, don't know which store to go into! 

Looking from a window inside the Louvre:

Without further thinking, we saw the sign "Mona Lisa" and we headed right to that direction! We followed the "Mona Lisa" sign and passed through many rooms filled with paintings. We are not huge fans of arts so we didn't spend a lot of time looking at every single painting, we stopped for few seconds on paintings we thought was nice. At last, we were in a room filled with people, this must be the Mona Lisa room!!! We waited patiently "pushing" in with the crowds to get a chance to glimpse and take some photos of Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa is much smaller than I thought!

We finally had our chance to snap some photos of the most famous painting in the world! To give you some idea how crowded the room was...here's a picture (on the right side, it has a sign to warn people beware of pickpockets):

 After Mona Lisa, we really don't have a plan to see the next piece of art so we just walk around Louvre and the walk around took 3 hours! At first, I thought I could go in to look at Mona Lisa and leave but the museum was so beautiful that we couldn't resist to take pictures of here and there.  Somehow, we stopped by two other famous pieces of art Winged Victory of Samothrace and Venus de Milo:

Another interesting spot was Napoleon's Apartment, the interior decor was stunning! How many people could this dining table fits???

Crystal chandeliers everywhere inside Napoleon's Apartment! 

Even the ceilings inside the Louvre are pieces of art themselves:

 After Louvre, it was already 5:30 pm, we took the Metro 8 to get to École Militaire and found the restaurant, Le P'tit Troquet. Our reservation was at 6:30 which the restaurant opens so we walked around the area to take some photos of Paris. 

My favorite Fanta I have been waiting for 2 years to drink again (I swear that the Fanta from Europe tasted so much better!)

We got in the restaurant, it was very small inside but nice and clean. It was decorated with various things that looked very cute together. We told the waitress that we made a reservation with The Fork and seems like she was awared :)

Our waitress was very nice, her English is sufficient and presented to us the menu of the day. She also gave us the printed menu which was in English so we had no problem ordering food :) I saw foie gras on the menu but it was 5 euros extra to the fixed 3 course meal price and my husband said since we are in Paris, we had to try it! I ordered  foie gras as appetizer, beef pot, and creme brulee and my husband ordered shrimp, steak, and creme brulee.

My foie gras came and I took the first bite, wow the favor was so rich! It was very smooth like cream cheese and very delicious! My first time having foie gras and absolutely love it! The piece was large, enough for two of us!

Then we waited and our main course came. My beef pot was yummy! My husband's steak was the 2nd best steak we ever had! (1st was bistecca alla fiorentina in Florence, Italy).

We really enjoyed the food, no wonder why Paris is famous for food! Then, we waited for our dessert and the restaurant quickly filled so it was very busy! I told the waitress if she could expedite our dessert because we have reservation to go up the Eiffel Tower at 8:00 pm. She was so nice to bring us the dessert as fast as she could. We both ordered creme brulee and it was absolutely the best we had! It was so smooth and creamy! The food was beyond our expectation, this restaurant definitely deserved to be in the Michelin Guide! 

After our dessert, I asked the waitress for the check, and she already applied the deal we got from The Fork,  26.40€ for 3 course meal each plus my 5€ extra for the foie gras! Regularly, the 3 course meal price was around 32€ so we saved 20% off! 

We quickly walked to Eiffel Tower which was about 10 minutes walk.  From far away, I can see Eiffel Tower and as we get there, I was so excited that I finally get to see Paris' famous landmark - Eiffel Tower!!! Without wandering around, we passed by a huge line of people and tried to find the "advanced ticket" line. The advanced ticket line was on the left and the ticket line was on the right. We showed our ticket and got in the advanced ticket line, which no one is in the line waiting!  As we walked our way to the entrance of the lift, we passed by hundreds of people waiting in the ticket line. It felt so cool to walk right in and those people in line waiting next to our line were looking at us like we are VIP haha! My husband was so glad that we made advanced reservation or else we'll have to wait in line like those people! We got right to the entrance of the lift and that's where the two lines met. The personnel scanned our ticket and let us in right on at 8:00 pm. We were right in the line for the next lift whoa! I heard people saying that they have been waited in line for 3 hours!

The wait for the lift was less than 10 minutes and we got into the lift, it was very crowded! Off we go, we were on our way up, wow, couldn't believe it we were in the Eiffel Tower! The way up was scary for me since I am acrophobic! We stopped on the 2nd level and we walked around to take some pictures. Here is a picture we took from the 2nd floor:

We went right to the line for the lift to go up to the 3rd floor! The line was long but it moved quick since they have 4 operating lifts. The lift was so much smaller and people pushed in so we waited for the next one! The ride up to the 3rd floor took much longer! We got to the 3rd floor and the view of Paris was incredible up here although I tried not to look down! Here's the picture of Arc de Triomphe from the top of Eiffel Tower:

We spent at least 1.5 hours in Eiffel Tower! It was a cloudy day so we didn't have a great sunset view of Paris but that was okay since we have 5 more days to go! We went back down and to the grass area where everyone was sitting waiting to see the Eiffel Tower twinkles at night!  I read the Eiffel Tower twinkles on the hour for 5 minutes after sunset. We joined the crowd and found a spot and wait.  There were people who were "handing out roses", don't take unless you are willing to pay the high price! 

We patiently waited for the sun to set and setting our camera up to take night photos of Eiffel Tower! We waited until 10 pm and saw the twinkling effect! WOW...it felt so magically to see the twinkling effect. It was very hard to capture as still image:

It was well worth our wait, I highly recommended it, it was like once-in-a-lifetime! It started exactly at each hour after sunset! We stayed there until 10:15 pm (way beyond our bedtime at home) and then walked back to catch the Metro. As we walked away, we couldn't resist but to take more pictures of Eiffel Tower at night:

We got back to our hotel, took shower, and sleep! 

I know it might sound a lot for our first day in Paris, and luckily we didn't have jet lag, but I wasn't planned to stay 3 hours in the Louvre! I was planning to take it easy on our first day, see Mona Lisa and go back to our hotel to rest if we were tired and then go back out for Eiffel Tower at night! As others strongly recommended not to schedule so much on the first day! We really enjoyed our first day in Paris, it was a very romantic city!

Tomorrow, we are debating to rather to go Versailles first or Fontainebleau but it all depends on weather. I checked that both days Saturday and Sunday would have chance of rain so we wanted to save the best weather day for Versailles!

Pre-Paris Prep

Pre-Paris Prep

First.....let's begin with the preparation I did prior to our amazing 2 weeks trip!

Our first vacation in Europe was back in 2010 when we got married in Santorini, Greece and then went to Italy for our honeymoon.  Ever since then, we felt in love with Europe - one continent with so many countries and cultures and they are so close to each other that in one trip, it is possible to visit a few countries! I was thinking to go to Paris last year but due to my work schedule I delayed until now!

Flights

I first begin looking at prices back in January, almost checking it everyday. I used www.hotwire.com: its "Flexible Date Search" function to display the flight prices in a 30-days period instead of searching day-by-day. I searched the months of May and June because that's when my husband and I are "free" and before the peak tourist season for cost savings. By the middle of January, I saw a great price, $811 non-stop from Boston to Paris, May 17th - June 2nd! I talked with my husband and we decided to book the next day.  Tickets booked!

Hotels

My husband had enough points to get 3 free nights in Hilton La Defense Paris, not the most preferred location but it's free and plus it was right next to the metro station so wouldn't be a problem at all! I started to plan for our 3 days in Paris but as I did more research and added in my list of must-sees, 3 days won't fit all! We then decided to extend our Paris trip to 6 days! We booked 3 nights at the Westin Paris Vendome with a great deal :)

Tickets

The top must-sees of Paris in my list were Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, and Versailles and I am sure they are the must-sees for most of tourists! So that means.....long waiting lines! With only 6 days in Paris, we couldn't afford to lose any valuable time so I tried to book as much in advanced as possible! 

Eiffel Tower Tickets

First, Eiffel Tower, I did my research and found out that online tickets are available for sale 2 months in advanced, website is http://www.eiffel-tower.com/. The benefit of online tickets is that once you reserved a time, you will be able to skip the ticket line and go straight to the lift line which saves hours of waiting in line. However, the risk is you can't predict the weather 2 months in advanced. We took the risk and booked as soon as the tickets are available on sale online - I booked on March 19 for May 18 ticket at 8:00 pm. (I also did my homework that sunset in Paris on that day is around 9:30 pm so going up at 8:00 pm enabled us to see the sunset). When I checked back again 3 days later, the tickets for May 18th are "sold out" (limited advanced reservation available online for certain time slot). Online tickets were "sold out" so fast because one lift was under maintenance so only 1 operating lift going from ground to 2nd floor will be running....that means longer waiting time!

Louvre and Versailles Tickets

For visiting the Louvre and Versailles, I chose the Paris Museum Pass (http://en.parismuseumpass.com/), the pass enabled us to skip the regular ticket line and go straight to the security line. I decided to purchase the Museum Pass at the airport to avoid the shipping fee.

Train Tickets to Tours

I booked from TGV-Europe: http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/

When selecting "ticket collection country" do not put USA or else it will redirect you to Rail Europe which will cost you more. Select a euro country like Germany, prices will display in Euros and I have a zero percent foreign transaction fee credit card so it will not cost me more paying in euros (if you don't then the fee will be 3% from your credit card company). Once you booked, you'll be able to print out the ticket or send to your email so no need to worry about the ticket collection country.

Discounted tickets are on sale 3 months prior to departure date. Those sell out fast so I suggest you to check everyday and as soon as you see your travel date ticket shows up, book right away! If your credit card got rejected, call your credit card company let them know you are making a purchase on this French website, and retry. I have heard people were not able to book even though they called the credit card company.......I was able to on my first try. Do you have a credit card with a smart chip? That'll increase your chance I guess. If you don't, you may want to consider one like a Bank of America travel reward card, no annual free, no foreign exchange, and with smart chip. You'll need a credit card with smart chip to purchase tickets on machine in Europe. 

Restaurants

I heard Paris is expensive, especially the food! I found this very helpful website:  http://www.thefork.com/  which was highly recommended by others. The Fork is more than a restaurant reservation website; most of the restaurants listed in the website offer special deals for The Fork customers only. It is absolutely free to sign-up, you don't need to pay anything to make a reservation but please do cancel ahead if you changed your mind because the restaurant will keep a table for you (and potentially lose another customer if you don't show up) and in order to negotiate great deal with restaurants, the website has to maintain its reputation. Deals like fixed price for a 3 course meal or 50% off food! The website also nicely designed that it provides information about the restaurant such as reviews, sample menu, photos, map of the restaurant. It really helped me to make my restaurant reservations. 

I booked the following restaurants:

1. Le P'tit Troquet which was recommended by Michelin Guide 2012 and the deal was 26.40€ for 3 course meal. The restaurant also located near the Eiffel Tower so we could have dinner and go up the Eiffel Tower at 8:00 pm.
2. Le Reminet near Notre Dame, this restaurant was highly recommended by Trip Advisor members, 40% off food
3. Le First which is in the Westin Hotel we are staying in, the deal was 50% off food
4. Goumard near Concorde Place, I liked the interior and it is a seafood restaurant which my husband likes seafood, the deal was 50% off food
5. La Vache au Comptoir near Gare Montparnasse because we are taking a day trip to Loire Valley and return to Paris at 8:30 pm and this restaurant is near the train station. The deal was 20% off food
6. 16 Haussmann  near the Paris Opera House area and the deal was 50% off food

Sightseeing

Paris is one of those cities with so much things to see so I begin with making a list of must-sees.  Then, I grouped places that are close together by "sector". Also, I found this website to be very helpful: http://www.aviewoncities.com/maps/paris.htm

It has a map with all the attractions so you'll know the approximate location of each to group them. I made something like a schedule just for me to list the sights (their opening and closing time) that are close together and have an idea of how much I want to see per day. I do not have to fully follow the schedule and it all depends on weather!

Time	Friday 5/18	Saturday 5/19	Sunday 5/20	Monday 5/21	Tuesday 5/22	Wednesday 5/23
7-8 am	Land CDG TERMINAL 2E at 8:15 am Buy Museum Pass Gallery level, Exit 3 to take Air France Bus	Breakfast Buy Mobilis zone 5 ticket for unlimited train	Breakfast Buy Mobilis zone 4 ticket for unlimited train	Breakfast	Metro to Montparnasse Bienvenue 7:34 Train to Tours 8:49 arrives Tours
9 am	Take Air France Shuttle Line 2-> Charles de Gauile Arc de Triomphe	Train from GARE DE LYON to Fontainebleau  opens 9:30am-6pm	Château de Versailles Opens at 9		9:30 Loire Valley
10 am	Check in hotel	Fontainebleau	Château de Versailles	Cathédrale Notre-Dame  10am-6:30 pm	Loire Valley	Opéra de Paris Garnier  (9) Opens 10am-5pm
11 am	Lunch	Lunch	Château de Versailles	Cathédrale Notre-Dame	Loire Valley	Opéra de Paris Garnier
12 pm	Louvre Museum Opens 9am-9:45pm Friday	Fontainebleau	Château de Versailles	Lunch	Loire Valley	Lunch
1 pm	Louvre Museum Mona Lisa 1st FL Painting Room 6	Fontainebleau	Lunch	Conciergerie Opens  9:30am-6pm	Loire Valley	Galeries Lafayette near Opera
2 pm	Louvre Museum	Train back to Paris GARE DE LYON	Château de Versailles	Conciergerie Opens  9:30am-6pm	Loire Valley
3 pm	Louvre Museum	‎	Train back to Paris Center Rer C to Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame	Panthéon Opens 10am-6:30pm	Loire Valley
4 pm		Seine River cruise Vedettes du Pont Neuf	Sainte-Chapelle Opens  9:30am-6pm	Panthéon	Loire Valley	Jardin du Luxembourg
5 pm			Sainte-Chapelle		Loire Valley
6 pm	Dinner @ Le P'tit Troquet near Eiffel Tower 18:30		Dinner Le First, restaurant boudoir Paris @ 19:00 near Tuilerie	Dinner at Goumard @ 18:00 near Concorde	Loire Valley tour ends 6:45 pm	Dinner 16 Haussmann @ 18:30 near Richelieu Drouot (M9) Radisson Blu Hotel
7 pm	Eiffel Tower @ 8:00 pm Opens 9:30 am – 11:00 pm	Dinner Le Reminet @ 19:00 near Notre Dame	Arc de Triomphe Opens 10am-11pm		7:11 train back to Paris 8:24 arrives Gare Montparnasse Dinner La Vache au Comptoir 21:00

Money

Lastly and the most important....euros! People said that the currency exchange rate was much better in Europe than the US. Most recommended is using ATM, it only charges 1% foreign exchange fee and the exchange rate is whatever the market rate is! I checked that Bank of America has "alliance" with BNP Paribas (bank in Paris) so it won't charge any other fees using BNP's ATM. I checked the ATM location and there is one close to the Westin Hotel and also one close to Notre Dame. I still exchanged 200 euros with Bank of America so I have some euros to start with.

Everything is all set to go and packed!!!