In spite of being in London for nearly 3 years now, I applied for a Schengen visa a few months back. To open the visa you’re required to visit the country your applying from and what better place to visit than France and isn’t Paris the romantic capital of the world!
So, Ashwina and me planned a three day trip to visit Paris the week before Christmas. Paris is a little over two hours from London with the Eurostar and it is a comfortable trip from St. Pancras International to Gare du Nord.
We stayed at Hotel Le Petit Paris, which is just close to the Panthéon. We reached there late in the afternoon and being December, it was also starting to get dark. We went off to Montparnasse Tower and went up to the 59th floor to get a glimpse of the whole of Paris including a beautifully lit up Eiffel Tower!
After we had sunk in the Paris lights, since we weren’t ready to call it a night, Ashwina and me took a walk down the beautifully lit Champs-Élysées past the Christmas markets to finally reach the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a long long walk and if you’re as unfit as I am, then it feels even longer…
Post this we headed back to the hotel, grabbed some dinner at an Italian restaurant close to the hotel and then called it a night.
When we had visited Scotland back in September, we used to get up early in the morning. This time we decided to take it a bit easy and actually got out only at lunch time.
Remembering names of restaurants in Paris is definitely not my strong point, but we did manage to get a good lunch at one just opposite the Panthéon, which was our first museum visit. Ashwina tried her French skills to order the food while I nodded my head and pointed fingers at the menu 😉
We completed the rest of the day with a close-up view of the Eiffel Tower, trip down the Seine, Notre Dame de Paris and the Louvre.
Like most tourists visiting the Louvre, the first place that we headed to was the Mona Lisa. And, we also came across the simply beautiful and super large painting of the Wedding at Cana.
On the last day of our Paris trip, we headed off to the Palace of Versailles, which should definitely be on the list of any visitor to France. The palace is grand and beautiful and is well known for its history. It has been well maintained over the past several years.
We returned to our hotel and had dinner once again at Kokonor, which is a small Tibetan restaurant with simply amazing food!
And, the next day we headed back to London to enjoy the rest of my vacation, which included midnight mass at Westminster Cathedral.
And, since then, it’s been all work!
