Hey! For a surprise 21st birthday treat, my boyfriend treated me for a little getaway to PARIS! He tried his best to keep it a secret from me, only telling me that we were going away and not saying where. But packing not knowing where I was going was incredibly hard, so I begged for clues until he eventually caved in a week before we went.

Day 1

We started the day super early which normally is a struggle but it was even worse because my graduation and celebrations were the previous day. Doing my eyelashes at 3 in the morning, half asleep, was an interesting experience! Also, later in the morning, having my bag getting stopped through airport security did scare me a little, as much as I love watching border control I was worried that I would become a part of it.

Once we got to Paris, after a super quick flight on Vueling Airlines, we had some communication issues with the cab driver we got a ride to our hotel for €50. We could have travelled on the Metro for so much cheaper I’m sure but we didn’t look into this before hand and would have 100% got lost.

Wandering around our hotel, Hotel Sasha we found The Wall of Love and the Moulin Rouge and had lunch at the Le Sancerre. I would definitely recommend going to this part of Paris for nice sweet walks and for delicious ice cream at Amorino. Check out the picture below, the server made the ‘ice cream flower’ in about 20 seconds I was honestly amazed!

 

 

 

Next stop – The Lourve! Honestly it was so amazing, the art is beautiful and if you have the time queue up to see the Mona Lisa. Even though we queued for ages and only saw the Mona Lisa for like a minute. After all that waiting, we took a little break at Le Café Marly. After seeing on Instagram how amazing the view of the Lourve is from the restaurant, it’s worth going for a quick drink.

 

 

 

For dinner we found a Lebanese restaurant, Chez Sofia, it was absolutely delicious. First time having Lebanese food and it did not disappoint! We did plan to see the Moulin Rouge again in the evening to see the lights and get better photos but unfortunately it started raining.

 

 

 

Top tip of the day: Get tickets for the Lourve in advance to avoid the queues to get in, but be prepaid for the long queues

Day 2

My birthday! We started the day early, walking down to the Eiffel Tower passing the Pont Des Arts and Pont Alexandre III to find breakfast. It was actually quite hard to find a place that was open for breakfast! The first place we found was Le Recrutement, not too far from the Eiffel Tower, we got croissants for €2.50 each.

 

 

 

We booked tickets for the Eiffel Tower in advance but the queues through security and to get to the top were still so long. It did however give us loads of time for pictures in the queue. Once we finally got to the top, the view was amazing! I’m not the biggest fan of heights but I actually did enjoy going up all the way to the top floor, its a much better view than the other floors. Possibly because there were less people there so I could get to the edge to see and not have people pushing next to me!

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon relaxing at Champ de Mars park, the greenery just below the Eiffel Tower. On the way to Arc de Triomphe, we stopped off at  Le Marceau for lunch. We both ordered the duck with honey sauce, and I obviously enjoyed it too much and got the sauce on my WHITE playsuit! We walked down the Champs-Élysées, I had a great time window shopping at Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel.

 

 

 

For my birthday dinner we booked another Lebanese restaurant, Maison Noura. We walked passed it on our walks during the day and saw how stunning the decor was and knew it was perfect for my birthday dinner. The food and the service definitely met our expectations; Lebanese food is now one of my fav types of cuisine.

 

 

 

The evening was spent walking back to the Eiffel tower to see the sparkling lights. We walked back towards Champ de Mars and cuddled on the benches until it was dark enough for the lights to turn on – it was about 9pm when the sparkly lights started. I didn’t realise how quick the sparkling would stop, I thought I’d be able to get loads of pictures but it only lasted for about 2/3 minutes. It was worth seeing the lights even though it was an hour walk back to our hotel afterwards!

 

 

 

Top tip of the day: Check the opening times for restaurants for breakfast time (Petit déjeuner) and possibly get some snacks for the morning to have until your preferred restaurants open.

Day 3

Our final day in Paris! We had a little lay in until check out time at the hotel and then headed out with our suitcases for one last walk around Paris. As we were heading to the Galeries Lafayette we stopped for burgers at King Marcel – such delicious burgers! More window shopping for me in the department store, I probably would have spent longer in there but there were queues for the designer bag sections. After a little shopping in the Lindt chocolate store we walked to see the Palais Garnier, an opera house. We didn’t have enough time to go in but we did take some pictures outside.

 

 

 

For our final stop in Paris we headed to Sacré-Cœur Basilica to relax before heading to the airport. Yet another beautiful building! With our suitcases we weren’t able to go up the stairs and see the church up close so we stayed on the benches relaxing and reflecting on our trip.

 

 

 

Top tip of the day: Definitely bring comfortable shoes! We worked out that we walked over 59,000 steps over the 3 days (sooo much walking!). All the blisters were worth it, Paris is a beautiful city.

I’ve got so many pictures from our trip that I’ve not only posted on my Instagram but I am also posting on Pinterest. I’ve started to now post a lot more on Pinterest, comment if you also have a Pinterest account I’d love to link up with you!

Thank you for reading!

Antonia

xoxo

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