I want to tell you my story about a family trip to Europe in December 2023. Friends from Italy and Spain have been inviting us to visit them for a long time, so when the opportunity arose for work, they asked Koradius kelionės specialists to make us a route to visit Italy, Spain and France, pick up flights and book hotels. Our children study well, so there were no problems with teachers at school – they were quietly allowed to travel during their studies. The youngest daughter is learning French, and has long dreamed of seeing the Eiffel Tower, so we decided to surprise her and additionally visit Paris during the trip (she found out about this just before flying to Paris, at the airport in Spain))). In general, there were a lot of emotions and impressions during the trip, both positive and negative – in Paris, the scammers managed to deceive us and extort money. But about everything in order…
First we visited Bergamo (Italy), you can read the story about this trip here, the next city of our trip was Milan (Italy), the story about this trip is HERE, well, and then we went to sunny Spain. You can read the story of the trip to Althea and Guadalest here, and to Valencia here. The final destination of our winter family trip to Europe was Paris.
Paris (France)
We flew from Spain to France in 2 hours and 20 minutes, the air temperature was +6 °C, and it began to rain in the late afternoon. We got from Beauvais Airport to Paris by bus. Buses from the airport run every 30 minutes.
A little trick: at the airport in the arrival hall you will immediately see automatic terminals for buying bus tickets to Paris, the cost of tickets in them is 18 euros, both for an adult and a child, but literally 5 meters away there are stands with information about buying tickets online at a price of 16.90 euros per person. Discounted tickets can also be purchased online for children under 11 years of age – for 9.9 euros. The transfer is free for children under 4 years old. And if you buy round-trip tickets, it will be even cheaper.
The average travel time from Beauvais Airport to Pershing bus station in Paris takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes, however, we arrived on Friday evening and there were terrible traffic jams in Paris at that time, so the transfer from the airport took us more than 2 hours. Keep this in mind when planning your route.
In general, the French lead a leisurely, measured lifestyle, know how to enjoy every moment of their lives, sit relaxed in a cafe, communicate with each other and relax. Even if you came to Paris for the purpose of tourism for one or two days, it is still better not to rush – you will not be able to physically see all the sights of the city in a short period of time, so choose the route you are interested in in advance and follow it relaxed, and a leisurely walk around the city is guaranteed to give you a lot of pleasure -100%!
The famous Arc de triomphe (Arc de triomphe de l’Étoile), which was supposed to symbolize the triumph and strength of Napoleon’s invincible army. Napoleon lost the war and was exiled to St. Helena, but the arch remained and was even loved by Parisians and guests of the French capital 😉
Grand and Small Palaces (Grand Palais and Petit Palais):
Invalides Palace (Hôtel des Invalides):
Alexander III Bridge (Pont Alexandre III):
The pearl and one of the most famous sights of Paris is the Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre). This museum is visited annually by more than 10 million tourists, it houses such masterpieces of world art as Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Giaconda”, the sculpture “Venus de Milo”, Eugene Delacroix’s painting “Freedom leading the People” and many, many other works of art that became public after the Louvre was opened to the general public.
Tickets to the Louvre (Musée du Louvre) cost 22 euros per person, children under 18 and EU citizens under 26 are free to enter, but you need to show a supporting document. It is best to buy tickets online so as not to waste time and not to stand in a long queue at the ticket office.
A little trick: every first Friday of every month after 18-00 and July 14, admission is free for all visitors.
Even the metro station located near the Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre) can easily be called a work of art.
In order to get a better look at the sights of Paris and listen to the guide’s comments, near the Eiffel Tower we bought tickets (16 euros for an adult and 7.5 euros for a child under 12 years old) and went on a river cruise along the Seine. And they didn’t regret it:
And here is the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, which suffered from a fire in April 2019. Access to the cathedral is closed today, of course, but it is clear that repair work is actively underway at the facility – it is planned to complete the restoration of one of the symbols of Paris in 2024. About 1 billion euros have been allocated for repair work. The whole of France is looking forward to the completion of the renovation, and the events of 2019 are still being discussed on television. The restoration of Notre Dame de Paris is indeed a national event in France!
In general, it was noticeable that in December 2023. Paris has already been actively preparing to host the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games, which are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. Many attractions were partially closed for repairs (including some buildings of the Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre), Trocadero Square (Le Trocadero et son esplanade), sculptures on the Square (Concord Place de la Concorde) and even some floors of the Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel)!!!), and many buildings were Banners have already been posted welcoming athletes and Olympic spectators.
La Conciergerie Castle is part of the Palais de Justice complex. At first, the French kings lived in the castle, and after moving to the Louvre in 1358, it began to be used as a prison, thieves, murderers, political prisoners and fraudsters were kept here.
The appearance of the castle stands out from the general architectural appearance of Paris, since it was built back in 508, thereby further emphasizing its uniqueness and historical value.
Well, what about without the main attraction of Paris – the Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel)? Every tourist who comes to Paris will definitely head here first to take as many atmospheric photos as possible and be surprised by the actual size of the metal beauty.
The cheapest ticket for climbing to the top will cost 22.40 euros per adult, 11.20 euros for young people (from 12 to 24 years old), 5.7 euros for children (from 4 to 12 years old), for children under 4 years old – free of charge.
There are fares offering a lift only to the second floor, guided tours, with breakfast in a restaurant or an individual visit.
In the evening, after sunset, the illumination of the Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel) turns on. Thousands of lamps cover the metallic beauty with golden light, and at the beginning of each hour the tower begins to flash with white lights, giving its appearance solemnity and elegance. The glow lasts for 5 minutes, and at one o’clock in the morning, the illumination is turned off completely – in order to save money and for the benefit of the environment.
Opposite the Champ de Mars, not far from the Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel), there is the Trocadero Square (Le Trocadero et son esplanade) – one of the most visited places by tourists, which offers an excellent view of the Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel). People from all over the world arrange photo shoots here, walk, relax, buy souvenirs.
However, this place is also characterized by the accumulation of a large number of thieves and dishonest merchants selling cheap low-quality souvenirs at an inflated price.
Also near the Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel), Champ de Mars, and Trocadero Square (Le Trocadero et son esplanade) (in the places of the largest concentration of tourists) there are a huge number of scammers, the so-called “thimblers”, offering to play a game with them for money and guess where it is located the ball. You will definitely lose money, the question is how much. We happened to witness how a tourist was cheated out of 800 euros, not real spectators gathered around her and shouted “Bravo!”, calling for higher rates. It is better not to stop near such companies at all, because scammers can easily imperceptibly pull your wallet or phone out of your pocket while you are distracted and watching the “game”.
Many tourists wear backpacks in front of themselves to constantly monitor it.
But despite the fact that we were extremely careful, the Paris scammers still managed to deceive us, and it happened on the first day of our arrival.
From Pershing bus station, we headed to the nearest metro station, Porte Maillot, to get to the booked apartment.
There was no employee at the metro ticket office, and we had to use an automatic ticket sales terminal. A white woman in uniform-like clothes with a subway employee’s ID on a ribbon immediately approached us and offered to help us buy tickets at the terminal. We agreed.
Paris is divided into transport zones depending on the distance to the center and this woman convinced us that a single ticket for one person costs 4 euros, and it would be very unprofitable to move around the city without having multiple tickets. She showed all the prices on the screen of the automatic ticket sales terminal. In total, multiple tickets for four people cost 88 euros.
After we agreed, she showed us how to pay for tickets in the terminal with a card, but an error notification appeared on the screen. The payment failed. But the woman explained that the terminal is faulty, at the moment it does not read the cards, so she can make a payment using her administrator’s ID, and we will give her cash. We agreed. She attached her ID and the tickets came out of the terminal, we paid her in cash and we went down to the subway and safely got to the rented apartment.
The next day it became clear that we had been deceived when we could not get on the subway with any of the tickets. We turned to the cashier and he explained that we had been sold tickets for one trip at the cost of reusable ones, and the price on the ticket itself was specifically hidden:
It was a shame.
When we were returning back to the airport, our “metro employee” was not at the station, but we noticed that other scammers were trying to deceive tourists from Poland, we approached and explained everything to the guys, the scammers immediately disappeared. The guys from Poland thanked us and it became a little happier that our sad experience helped someone avoid deception.
We liked Paris very much, but the feeling of insecurity was constantly present and did not allow us to fully enjoy its beauty and grandeur. Paris, and you are not so easy, but we will definitely get to know you better!..