I wanted to name this post "Gloomy and Rainy Days in Paris" lmao but it sounded too sad for this romantic city. But really, it rained every single day when we were there. CR flew over to the UK for our anniversary + countdown trip. I did not research deeply prior to this trip because I was caught up with uni work so everything was pretty spontaneous. I will include some tips that I found out throughout the journey so that whoever's reading this won't repeat the mistakes I did :x

Costs for 2

A rough breakdown of what we spent, could be lesser actually because we spent a lot on food (coughs laduree coughs).

Transport (To Paris) - £45

Accommodation - £110

Disneyland - £72

Transport - €65

Bagbnb - €20

Food - €258

Can't include the transport cost back to UK because we went to Strasbourg after that but overall it's less than £300 per person.

Getting There

The cheapest option for us was by bus. It was a long 10 hours journey from London Victoria Coach Station to Paris Bercy Station. Ouibus was the cheapest option so we opted for it. The wifi was usable despite having a quota, and we were lucky to be allocated seats at the front row (nice view plus slightly larger leg space) but unfortunately the racks above couldn't fit in any bags.

Getting Around

The transportation in Paris is pretty convenient, be it by bus, tram or metro. A single T+ ticket costs €1.90 but you can get a carnet of 10 for €14.50. I was worried that the carnet of 10 could only be used by one person on the day of purchase so we didn't get it initially... We only found out that it could be split among each other on the our second last day so yea we could've save up some euros for more macarons mhmm. You will have to validate (punch) your ticket in a machine in the bus and tram or when you go in the metro station. The ticket is generally usable for an hour, which means that you can travel to wherever for as many times as you like. It worked sometimes when I switch from the bus to tram but sometimes it doesn't. I still find the system pretty complicated so you can try your luck to punch the ticket to see if it's still usable. (BTW buying the ticket from the bus driver will cost you €2)

Do note that the ticket machine only accepts cards and coins so make sure you're prepared.

Safety

For YEARS I have heard about how dangerous this place is, about snatch thefts and pickpockets etc. When I told my mum I was planning a trip there she was worried and tried to talk me out of it, and my friends told me to be careful with my belongings. Of course we were extra careful but we've never once felt that someone's trying to steal our stuff nor felt that it was unsafe. It really isn't as bad as we've heard all this while. Most of the touristy entrances have strict bag scanning procedures as well.

Language

French duh isn't it obvious. Anyways my point is it isn't really tourist-friendly, most of the restaurants we went to only have menus in French so good luck!!! 

Additional Tips

If you study in the UK, make full use of your BRP! You can visit the museums and climb up Arc De Triomphe for free! CR showed his passport and immigration stamp allowed discounts on certain admission tickets as well. If you don't have any of these privileges, check out the Paris Museum Pass to see if the places you want to enter is on the list because I think it's pretty worth it.

***

19 December 2017 (Tues)

We were supposed to Couchsurf but our host can only let us "check in" at night and we were so exhausted after the bus ride hence we only booked an airbnb when we arrived LOL we stored our luggage at a Bagbnb for only €5 per luggage! If your hotel/ airbnb doesn't allow you to leave your luggage before check in/ after check out I would definitely recommend this facility!

We had a few hours to spend after leaving our luggage, so we just walked around Gare de Lyon.

First meal in Paris @ La Parisienne-

The pastries look amazing and we had the Flan de Chocolate, it's more like a tart than a cake. Ordering coffee in Paris is risky (unless Espresso or Americano is your go-to), we've tried like 5 cups and all of them disappoint.

Le Viaduc des Arts and La Promenade Plantée

It used to be a train line but has been converted to an artsy centre. If you have extra time to kill, find the stairway up to the promenade garden and take a stroll there!

We headed straight to our airbnb and slept for like 3 hours immediately after check in HAHAHA The house is more like a hostel and the floor is made of wood so it can get quite noisy when people are walking around. The showers and toilets are shared with other guests and the room is quite small. Best part of it: the tram is just 3 minutes' walk away so it's pretty convenient for us.

[Use my link and receive £25 travel credit when you sign up at Airbnb!]

We took the tram and metro (Line 1, 4 or 11) to City Hall station (Hôtel de Ville), walked along the river and arrived at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

The cathedral was closed by the time we arrived hence we only took pictures outside. Admission is free and I believe that the interior architecture will definitely be worth a visit.

After that, we went in one of the restaurants nearby for dinner and went back to our stay.

The cheese on my pizza was horrible lol I cannot accept it

20 December 2017 (Wed)

On this day, we went to DISNEYLANDDDDDDDDDD. It is located in Zone 5 and it took us around an hour to reach there. The ticket costed €7.60 from Porte de Montreuil (M9) > switch at Nation to RER A > Gare de Marne la Vallée Chessy.

Double-decker train! 

Disneyland

Tip: Don't waste time queuing at the ticketing counter! Get your tickets online prior to your visit because it's definitely cheaper. It ranges from £32 - £61 (for adults) depending on when you visit.

MUM I DID NOT SPEND €13 ON THE MINNIE EARS HEADBAND ARE YOU PROUD OF ME

First ride because this was the first thing we saw HAHA

It was cold and rainy so we grabbed a quick lunch when we passed by this hut.

We went to 3 out of the 4 Big Thrills rides HAHAHA huge applause to CR for coping with me bc he was so done after the first one. I would say the queue on that day was acceptable, nothing longer than 40 minutes.

La Cabane des Robinson (a tree house) - 

Went on the cruise at Frontierland. 

Main Street USA

So tempted to get this for wqeats but so expensive!!! 

My latte was basically a cup of hot milk..........

The parade at night-

Tarzan's hair flip on point HAHAHA

The castle at night- 

The opening hours of the park varies, the website wrote 6pm the night before when I checked but it turned out that it closes at 8pm on the day we went. So we waited stupidly (not only us though) in front of the castle for the fireworks for like 20minutes LOL. After checking the showtimes leaflet we went for dinner, can't leave Disneyland without watching the fireworks because it was superb! The cold and rain and squeeze were all worthwhile.  

Sorry the pics I took weren't nice (smh I'm judging myself now) but CR recorded the whole thing! (and I forgot to copy it into my laptop smh) 

21 December 2017 (Thurs)

We moved out from our airbnb to another airbnb because it has a strict cancellation policy and we booked this before the trip after confirming couchsurfing. We took the uber here because of our luggage and it was a Mercedes V-class, we were so shocked because the driver and his car made it like a professional chauffeur service (you'll know what I'm talking about if you saw my snap!) 

The hosts could only speak French and very simple English but there's not much problem with the help of Google Translate :) The house is located at Belleville where Chinatown is. Our hosts recommended us to this pizza place called Tripletta and it was really good!

Well, the Tripletta version of cappuccino. 

After lunch, we headed to the Louvre museum (Musée du Louvre). We got there by taking the metro Line 1 to Palais Royal Musée du Louvre station. 

There was supposed to be a water fountain :<

We were pretty lucky because there was no queue at all to enter the museum! Our photos didn't get terribly photo-bombed as well :''') Admission to the museum is €15, if you're not a fan of museums, at least visit and take a photo outside la HAHAHA It is really huge and we spent more than 2 hours inside.

DO I LOOK LIKE I'M A 175 HEHEHEBYE

In front of this Mona Lisa issa huge crowd of tourists c:

This is actually the foundation of the old Louvre castle built in the 1200s!

The arc outside Louvre- 

After that, we headed to the Orsay museum (Musée d'Orsay) which is just opposite the river, approx 10 minutes' walk. Admission is €12 but the ticketing counter guy let CR in because he has the UK immigration stamp with 6 months validity.

Van Gogh's art

OK so I went to Orsay after seeing these pictures and wanted to capture it myself HAHA

We headed to Laduree after that. LOOK! AT! THE! MACARONS! €2.10 per piece and Rose is definitely my favourite flavour. 

Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel)

We went there by bus and we ended up at the "back" of the tower. Quite hard to take photos there because there was a fence. The ticket to the top is €25 and €16 to the 2nd floor. Click here for more details and purchases. Get them online because the queue was really long when we passed by.

The Christmas market below Eiffel Tower.

22 December 2017 (Fri)

We had Japanese for brunch because I was so sick with western food already hahahahaha.

After leaving our bags at the Bagbnb, we headed to Arc de Triomphe via the RER from Paris Gare de Lyon to Charles de Gaulle – Étoile station. It can be reached via RER line A, Metro lines 1, 2 and 6.

Arc de Triomphe

It stands at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle (Place de l'Étoile) and is located at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.

Of course I wasn't satisfied with this shot at this angle. Gotta go to the middle of the road for the grams y'know.

We were wondering how people manage to go under the arc and on top of it because there's no way crossing the crazy roundabout without risking your life. And then we found this! It's a short underground tunnel which brings you over safely.

The admission to the top is €12 (FOC if you have a BRP!). The only way up is by climbing the stairs. Leg day ok hella tiring but worth it all when you reach the top.

And all the way down.

We saw Pierre Herme while strolling on the Avenue Champ Elysse so we went for a try. People were getting huge boxes of em' and I was like "uhm can I just get 2 pieces" HAHAHA. It ranges from €2.50 - €3.50 depending on the flavour. 

The silver €3.50 Caviar Petrossian is no joke ok very nice. I picked the other one because it is dual colour but it was weird hahahahaha. 

And after that we went to Laduree for tea. I was so mad because later at night I found out the Ispahan is €5 cheaper if I take away .\_/. The pastries were good but of course very pricy.

We went to the Eiffel Tower again because we haven't seen it in the day but it was still rainy and foggy :(  We took the bus to the same spot but this time we went around it to the front and the view was indeed better! 

I was so ganjiong that it'll lit up because I haven't walked far enough for this shot at the time.

I tried but couldn't get the feel I wanted :/

Tip from an instagrammer: Alight at Trocadero station instead of Tour Eiffel, turn left upon the exit and you'll have the whole Eiffel Tower in front of you but walk further down to the stairs. (only read about this after I came back :<)

We headed back to Champs-Élysées and after walking back and forth we decided to have our anniversary dinner at L'Alsace for some French food. The onion soup was delicious whereas the mains were not bad but kinda pricy. (Didn't snap a photo of the mains with my camera oops)

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Anddddddd we went back for more macarons before leaving Paris hahaha.

^ It was slightly "crushed" after staying for 10 hours in my handbag

Will blog about my Strasbourg trip soon so stay tuned!