For as long as I can remember, I have had a fascination with Paris. I am not exactly sure why (perhaps the fact that I am a hopeless romantic doesn’t help). I even have pieces of furniture in my bedroom which are ‘Parisian’ themed. Up until recently I had only ever seen Paris portrayed through film/ television and formed an idealisation of the place in my head from the books that I’ve read. To put it simply, Paris has long been at the top of my travel bucket list!

However, on Monday 17th of February, I arrived in Paris for the very first time. I’ll never forget the feeling I had stepping out of Gare de Nord station and onto the streets of the city – it was honestly like stepping into one of my dreams, everything was just like how I had imagined it would be – bustling streets with beautiful, grand architecture and quaint Parisian bistros.

I travelled to Paris via the Eurostar from London’s St Pancras station with my two friends. We were staying in Paris for the next two nights, which meant we had the next couple of days to explore the city and immerse ourselves in Parisian lifestyle as much as possible.

In this post I have gathered together some of my top tips for visiting Paris to help you get the most out of your trip!

Use the Metro to get around the city to sight- see

The Metro is definitely the cheapest, most convenient and quickest way to travel whilst in Paris, especially if your visit will only be a fairly short one as it will help you to cover a lot of ground. We stayed at the Kyriad Bercy Village hotel in Bercy, which was around 15- 20 minutes from central Paris via the Metro (our nearest Metro station was only about a three minute walk away!). I’ll be honest, the idea of using the French Metro as a mode of transport appeared daunting at first, but by the end of the first day we had pretty much figured out the basics. If you’ve used the London Underground before, then this will definitely help you! (Although in some ways, the French Metro seemed easier to navigate as there were large touch-pad screens at most of the stations on which you could plan out your journey – this told you which lines to use, the direction you should travel in and how long it would take to reach your destination). I feel like the London Underground definitely needs a similar sort of system! The travelling cost on the Metro was also very reasonable – we bought a three-day Metro pass which covered Zones 1- 3 (these zones cover all of central Paris – if you’re planning on visiting the main tourist attractions then this pass will suffice). This cost about €26 and I’d say that we certainly got our moneys worth, as we were constantly hopping on and off.

Make sure to take enough money – it’s pricey! 

Please don’t let the expenses put you off, but it’s always good to be prepared. You should know – Paris is expensive – but also completely worth it. (This is why it might be worth saving money where you can and travelling via the Metro)! My friends and I ate out at various restaurants during our trip and at every place we went to in central Paris it cost us at least €5.90 for just one soft drink (eg: coca cola or Fanta). A glass of wine was cheaper at around €5, whereas some cocktails were as much as €14 each! This gives you a rough idea. Personally, I tried not to let the prices bother me too much because honestly how many times do you get to eat at a restaurant with the Eiffel Tower as your backdrop? (It’s certainly a rarity for me).

Book tickets for tourist attractions in advance

This is something that we didn’t do, but I really wish that we had! Unfortunately we had to miss out on going up the Eiffel Tower because of how ridiculously long the queue was and we were quite short on time. I would definitely recommend looking into all of the attractions that you think you might like to visit and try to buy online tickets and also look into opening times etc. For example, prior to our trip I found out the Louvre is actually closed on Tuesdays (although you can still visit outdoors). I was pretty gutted about this as it our visit happened to fall on a Tuesday and we didn’t really have enough time to visit another day. So if you can, you should consider things such as this when planning your trip!

Visit the Eiffel Tower at night

You are not going to want to miss this. I would one hundred percent recommend fitting a night time visit to the Eiffel Tower into your itinerary. It’s an impressive sight to behold during the day, but in the dark there is something even more magical about it!

See Sacré- Cœur Basilica

I could quite easily have filled this entire blog post by just recommending all of the wonderful sights to see in Paris, but I have tried to only include my absolute favourites here. The Sacré- Cœur Basilica is definitely a favourite of mine and just absolutely stunning. This was recommended to me by a friend prior to my trip and I am so glad that I was able to see it for myself! It also offers breath-taking views of the city from the second highest point in Paris (the first being the Eiffel Tower). The catch is, you have to climb a mountain of steps in order to reach it, but the views at the top make it all the more worthwhile.

That brings us to the end of my top travel tips for Paris – I hope this post was somewhat useful and if you’re travelling to the French Capital any time soon then I wish you a wonderful trip!
Merci beaucoup!