My Day Trip To Paris

Hello my lovelies, I am so excited to be writing this post.  It is my first lifestyle post and of course to tell you all about my trip to Paris.  It is my 30th Birthday next week arghhhhhhh!!!!!  So I decided to save for a whole year and book a once in a lifetime opportunity (well for me) a trip to New York City to celebrate.  However, my best friend who I am so close with and have known since I was three, couldn't make it to New York to celebrate with me, so we decided to go to Paris for the day.  I headed over to Groupon and found a great deal for £120.  It included the Eurostar, a cruise down the River Seine, a city coach tour and a queue jump up the Eiffel Tower.  We booked it straight away but had to wait for three months until we went though.  I love a bit of Groupon, you can find some great deals.

We met stupidly early (6.15am) and headed to the Eurostar for our 8.31am train with coffee and bacon sandwiches to try and wake us up.  Not going to lie, for 6.15 in the morning, I was like a big kid and mega excited as I had never been to Paris before.  Two hours and twenty minutes later we arrived at Paris Ga du Nord train station at 11.47, as it is one hour ahead in Paris.  We needed to meet the tour company Paris City Vision Link Here at 2.15pm, so we had a few hours to pass.  I was adamant that we had to go on the Metro and experience their underground.  The lines are identified by colours and numbers on a map and the direction of travel is indicated by terminus.  We still did a bit of guessing but on the whole it actually wasn't that confusing, as long as you do your research before you go, as to which trains to get.

We arrived at a place called Pyramides and found the street that our tour company was on and still had a bit of time, so we stopped from some lunch as we was starving at this point!  We found a lovely little restaurant called The Royal Opera and had a yummy burger with chips (typical Brits).  The service was first class and they couldn't do enough for us.  The food was lovely but I think a tad over priced, 8 Euros for a Coco Cola is a hell of a lot if you ask me!  

Feeling stuffed to the brim, we went for a little walk and took some beautiful pictures.  I brought a selfie stick a few weeks back, as I wanted to get some really good pictures of us and to incorporate the views when we were up the Eiffel Tower; so we took this to have a little practice!  Being the typical tourist that I am, I had to buy this jumper from H&M Link Here when I spotted it on their website and I'm glad I did because the Parisian loved it!!

All the walking made me parched, so we stopped at a cute little cafe and had a Caffe Cream....a lush creamy latte!!

We then headed to the tour company for our Paris adventure.  It started with an hour on a double-decker coach with your own headphones for an audio tour.  We did chuckle at this because in between each landmark we were seeing or when sitting in traffic, we listened to French classical music.  Bearing in mind that I had been awake since 4.30am, it was very relaxing and difficult not to fall asleep!!  We drove past Concorde Square, Champs Elysees, The Arc de Triomphe, The Lourve and many other famous marks of history.  We drove past the famous Jardin du Luxembourg, which is described at the most romantic gardens in Paris.  I let out a little squeal when I saw how beautiful it was, as I had done a blog post on the NARS Satin Lip Pencil in shade Luxembourg (link here) which is named after these stunning gardens.  Now looking back I am gutted that we didn't get to actually get off the coach and go and explore it all, but we only went for the day and it is a lot to fit in.  I did thoroughly enjoy seeing all the famous landmarks and learnt a lot of interesting facts.  I did manage to get a few pictures on the coach but they don't give these landmarks the merit they deserve.

After the coach trip, you can do a one hour cruise down the River Seine, however we decided that we wanted to experience the views from the Eiffel Tower, during the day as well as at night, so we gave the cruise a miss.  As I've said, it is so much to fit in, in one day and we wished we had booked to stay overnight but that a lesson learnt!!

We then headed to the Eiffel Tower, with our queue jump passes and it wasn't long before we were in  the most scariest lift I have ever been in and shooting up the Eiffel Tower.

The views from the lift really were amazing.  I couldn't wait to get to the top.  The staff fill the lift to its maximum weight, so if you have a problem with tight spaces, I would highly recommend taking the stairs.  Once we reached the second floor, everyone rushed out and it's crazy how big it actually is when you up there.  It has a inside section with a little cafe, which we became very thankful for, as it was bitterly cold up there.  The closer to the edge you went, the wind really would cut you in half but the views, ohhhh the views are breathtaking!  You can see the whole city floating beneath your feet, from the Arc de Triomphe to Sacre-Coeur.  We stayed up the Eiffel Tower for nearly three hours.  It truly was amazing.  We managed to get some beautiful pictures of the sun setting and even had a cheeky beer whilst watching the sunset.

The Bestie

The Beautiful Sunset

Having a cheeky beer!

After taking lots of photos and a couple of beers later, we headed down.  This took a lot longer than we originally planned.  It's great having the queue jump to get you to the top, but there is no queue jump to get you back down and unfortunately they only had one lift working!  So by the time we got down, we needed another drink, so we had the most delicious hot chocolate, I think I have EVER had!!!

We had one hour left to play with before we headed back to the Eurostar.  We decided to end a fabulous day by watching the Eiffel Tower light show.  Five thousand light bulbs on each side of the tower sparkle for five minutes every hour, on the hour.  What a beautiful scene to watch and I am so glad we stood in the rain, I must add, to watch it.  The pictures really do not capture it as beautifully as it to watch, so if you're heading to the Eiffel Tower this is a must to see.

By the time the light show had finished, we were drenched and ready for home.  We jumped in a taxi and headed back to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar.  I had the best day with my bestie and words can not explain how tired I was by the end of it, but it was so worth it.  I am now officially saving my pennies again, so I can go back for a few days and really explore and live the Paris life.  Hope you all enjoy this post and I thought I would leave you with a picture that sums me and best friend up haha!! 

P.S This is what being over tired does to you!!

P.P.S The train was freezinnnng!!

Samantha x

*Some of these pictures are taken by my beautiful best friend.  Here is the link to her website joneville.com