Reminiscing this cold Monday morning of my girls’ trip to Paris…take me back!!

From the moment we stepped off the Metro and on to the beautiful streets of Paris I was in love – from the stunning architecture to the elegantly dressed Parisian women.

As this was our first time in Paris, of course we had to do all the touristy sites and so we planned our days according to the weather, very organised of us I thought.

. Our base for the three nights, Hotel Le Petit Paris, was very cute and in the perfect location for ease of getting around.

Day one – we set out on foot to explore the local surroundings with map in hand. We were only a ten minute walk from the Notre Dame, one down! We got the Batobus here each day to take us nearer to our destination and then walked the rest of time.

Day two – the sun was shining so we headed out on our adventure to find the Eiffel Tower. From a distance it didn’t look as big as I thought it would but once we got up close I realised how wrong I was. We queued for about 40 minutes to climb the stairs which I thought was ok considering it was early afternoon. I was mesmerized by how the ugly wrought iron girders somehow create a delicate structure on the whole, an amazing work of engineering.

Dinner that night was at Kong. A trendy little rooftop restaurant located on rue du Pont neuf, with views overlooking the Seine and the Louis Vuitton HQ – you may recognise it from featuring in Sex and The City. The food was beautiful, slightly pricey as you might imagine but worth the experience in my opinion.

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Day three – it absolutely chucked it down all day but luckily we had the Louvre still on our list of ‘must sees’. My Nike Juvenate had been my best friend until now (note to self…take leather trainers for the wet weather!)

We found a quirky little café on our way out that morning and in true European style we drank coffee for two hours! After that we headed for the Louvre, which we decided was much worse than a tube station at peak hour, so we left asap, which was unbelievably difficult and headed to the Champs Elysees for a browse.

There we stumbled across Laduree and that was our afternoon sorted. We sampled the beautifully sugary treats on the menu and relaxed in the plush surroundings, the perfect shelter from the rain.

We got a taxi back to the hotel that afternoon and realised that our hotel was only a few streets away from St. Germain boulevard so we headed there for dinner that night and found the Armani Caffé. Stunning food and friendly atmosphere, I would definitely recommend.

Day four – we were flying home at 6pm so we got up extra early to make the most of our last day and we didn’t regret it. We left the hotel at 8.30am, grabbed a coffee and breakfast from a local patisserie and enjoyed the greenery of the Jardin du Luxembourg. After three metro lines we finally found our destination – the Sacre Coeur. The views from the tower were breath-taking and the harpist was so peaceful.

A trip full of fun, laughter and culture…oh and a few too many macarons!

Jane x

 http://www.hotelpetitparis.com/

http://www.batobus.com/en.html

http://www.kong.fr/_en

http://armanirestaurants.com/