Paris is the most romantic city in the world. I grew up listening to Bollywood songs and there is a famous song – “An Evening in Paris”. This is the city where you want to go along with your love of life. This is the city I was dreaming of since my childhood. I am fortunate enough that I was able to spend a couple of months in Paris with my family. When I was thinking about what to write in my first post, the first city that came into my mind is Paris and the Hindi song, “An Evening in Paris”. And in my first post, I would like to share how can you spend one evening in Paris.
When we think of Paris, the first thing came into our mind is the Eiffel tower. In this post, I would mainly like to cover the surrounding places near Eiffel Tower you can cover on the same day. It is not possible to cover Paris in a single post. I will come back later with Paris and its surrounding places. So, lets focus on what you can do in the evening in Paris near Eiffel Tower.
I think the best way to roam around is the botobus. By the way, it’s not a ‘bus’, it is a boat on the Seine River. I found it the best option to hop on and hop off. You can buy a one day pass (don’t forget to show your train pass, if you have one while purchasing the ticket to get an additional discount) and ride as many times you want. It runs over the scenic Seine river and there are 9 stops to hop down, take some photos and then again get into another boat.
What to do in Paris other than visiting Eiffel Tower
You can also make a round trip on the river (takes around 2 hours) covering important places like Louvre, Notre Dame and Place de la Concorde. I recommend you must spend some time at Place De la Concorde to take some beautiful pictures and grab some food. Wherever you are, you will get the next boat within 30 to 40 minutes.
Let’s start to tell about our evening in Paris surrounding Eiffel Tower. Of course, it’s a summer evening so you will have till 10.30 pm 🙂 After taking our lunch, we headed towards Eiffel Tower by train and get down at the Trocadero station. I think this is the best place to take some photos of the Eiffel tower, there are some very impressive viewpoints. We spend some time in the garden, taking some photos and after a small walk ready to hop into a botobus.
Our next destination is Notre Dame. I love this place. I visit this place more than 10 times till now and am still mesmerised by it. You can spend some good 1-1.5 hours taking photos, walking beside the river and of course eating some Crepe. They make some good banana crepes beside the Seine river. It is better to follow the botobus website to track your next boat. After that, you can hop down to any place next and get the next boat spending some time there. It’s a very convenient way of experiencing Paris. But don’t forget to go back to Eiffel Tower to be witnessed the night view of it.
The other side of Paris:
Please remember that Paris is beautiful but sometimes unpleasant. You need to be careful while roaming around the city. There are a significant amount of crimes like pickpockets, and harassment. You need to be careful while travelling on the train or bus. Always be careful with your bags and gadgets, and try to dress like locals. I have a bad experience on a train and would like to share it with all of you. We were going to Montmartre by the local train. The train was not so crowded at that time. When we got down at our station, I was shocked to see that the zip of my parse is opened and my mobile and money bag were gone. Unfortunately, we did not visit the famous Montmartre on that day. The rest of the day were gone to find out the nearest police station to complain.
You should always lodge a complaint to the police in case of any loss while travelling as that is an important document for your travel insurance. Also, providing the police complaints, I got a duplicate SIM from the mobile service provider the next day itself. Although we have got the money we have lost from our insurance, it was a very bad and unpleasant experience for me as I have lost the content of my mobile phone.
As I told you earlier, one day is not enough for Paris. I will be there with more posts about Paris and of course, our next destination of Brussels, Belgium.