Back to travel posts! Right after we arrived in Paris, my husband and I freshened up and went straight to exploring for a bit. The first stop was Musée d’Orsay.
And since it’s summer in Paris and it was about two in the afternoon, we found the longest line known to mankind.
Of course, my spirits weren’t dampened. We each have a Paris Pass! Surely, there’s a special line. Yes, there is! But it’s also equally long. *insert disappointed face emoji here 😒*
For those who haven’t heard of the Paris Pass, it’s your ticket to a lot of the attractions in Paris and includes a lot of perks and freebies too. Oh, you can also opt to get a train ticket with them that will give you unlimited Metro rides for the duration of your stay.
Some would say it’s kinda gimmicky but you actually save money and time by using it if you plan to go to a lot of museums and attractions. Since it’s the husband’s first time in Paris, we had a pretty tight itinerary so we could go to a lot of the ‘must-sees’.
Sadly, we had to skip Musée d’Orsay for this trip due to the crazy line. I really wanted to go show him my favourite Renoir which can be found in this museum. 🙁 Weird enough, we didn’t have the same problem with the Louvre. But I’ll talk about this on a different post.
We then moved on to Musée de l’Armée which is something we’re really excited about.
France’s National Military Museum is located inside Les Invalides. A compound in the 7th Arrondissement that houses a couple of beautiful buildings that relate to the country’s rich military history. Aside from Musée de l’Armée, you can also find a couple of war monuments, a hospital and retirement home for war veterans, and even a former Church that houses Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb. We’ll get to that in a bit. 😉
This museum gives you a glimpse at war. First, through weapons and armour from different points in time and even different parts of the world.
Of course, they have a lot of artefacts from WWII. That famous photo of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower after the Nazis marched into Paris? You can see it there and it will still give you chills down your spine.
After the museum, we made our way to the Dôme des Invalides which was a former Church that always leaves me in awe. Yeah, still the same as the last time I saw it just a couple of years back. It is French Baroque architecture at its finest.
Inside, you will see way too many people for my taste along with beautiful wall paintings, elegant statues, and if those are not enough to take your breath away, there’s this:
The Musée de l’Armée and the Dôme des Invalides are located at: 129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris, France
During our time of visit which was August 2015, they were open daily from 10 in the morning till 6pm. However, do bring a fan with you if you decide to go to the museum during the summer. While the Dôme is air conditioned, the museum isn’t and it can be horribly hot inside.
We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower on foot. My husband and I love to take long walks after all.
There it is. ❤️❤️ I wonder if I’ll ever get tired of seeing this view. It’s beautiful in any season! Though during the summer, there’s just way too many people that get caught in your camera’s line of sight.
I keep complaining about the number of people in Paris during this season and the weather (the material of my top on this day was very light so I expected to be comfy). It’s a lovely place, don’t get me wrong. But I guess I do prefer it during the winter just to avoid the crowds.
Sitting on one of the benches along Champs de Mars is a lovely way of giving your feet a bit of rest from all the walking. Admiring the Eiffel from this large green space is also relaxing.
To be honest, I’ve never been on top of the Eiffel Tower due to a couple of reasons. One is that I just prefer to actually see it in full view and two, the lines to go up are horribly long. If you want to admire Paris from the top and to see the perfect rows of houses and buildings from a higher angle, I would suggest going up the Tour Montparnasse, Arc de Triomphe, or the Grande Arche in La Défense. You’ll get better value for money and when you take photos, you can have Paris’ major landmark in your frame. Makes more sense, right?
Or, if you want to do it for free, you can just go to Montmartre where the Sacré-Cœur is. The Church is on top of a hilly area that also gives you a spectacular view of the city.
During the summer, people open up stalls selling food and other knick knacks in Champs de Mars. While admiring the tower, my husband and I decided to grab a bite to eat. That shawarma wrap right there was my dinner and it was perfection. It also cost us around 5 euros. Not bad. Not bad at all.
There are also souvenir kiosks selling the usual t-shirts and keychains but what really attracted me was this stall that sells soaps from Marseilles. I’m crazy about soaps – particularly French ones. I have this addiction for luxurious bath products that I normally try to curb due to the sky high prices of such things in Asia. But in Europe – 4 bars of soap for 10 euros! I felt like I was in heaven.
Alas, it was time to make our way back to the hotel so we can rest for the next day’s adventure – which was set to be more tiring. 😉 We decided to walk to the opposite side of the tower to get to a Metro station.
Hope the travel tips in this post were useful! For more posts on our Europe trip, do go to the Travel tab! Or click the Europe tag below. 🙂 It will take you to a page compiling everything.
More posts soon!
Love,
Carol
*Trip is not sponsored by any country’s tourism department, company, or brand but by my side of the family living in Europe. 😊
