That Random 6-Hour Day Trip To Paris

So, my friend from New Zealand visited London after a few years. One early morning when I picked him up from his hotel, he asked what else could we do whilst he was here. I jokingly told him we should go to Paris to have coffee. His eyes lit up and he got excited like a child going to Disneyland for the first time. Paris was already on my itinerary this year as I have a friend visiting from California in June, so I was not so keen to go. But my friend was very excited that he did not want to leave the hotel until we booked our flight. So at 0800 in the morning at the hotel lobby, we booked our flight to Paris. Whilst I prefer taking the Eurostar to Paris, tickets were twice as much as an Easyjet flight, so we opted for the latter. 

To be honest, I have forgotten how to tavel to Paris on a plane as I haven't done this for a very long time. Besides, we only had 6 hours to spend in Paris so maximising our time was essential. I have been to Paris a few times, however, there is one route that I have not done before. With our limited time, I decided to plan our itinerary based on this route.

Our first destination was the Eiffel Tower. In my previous trips, I took friends to Trocadero for the Eiffel Tower, but this time, I took my friend to Rue de l'Universite first.  To get there, we took the Metro to Invalides and walked via Rue Saint Dominique, where you can easily get a sight of the most famous tower in the world. 

From Rue Saint Dominique, we took Avenue de la Bourdonnais that led us to Rue de l'Universite. At 12 noon, it was expectedly very busy in that area. If you want to get that photo without the crowd, you have to be very patient. Otherwise, go closer to the tower as it's less busy there.

From Rue de l'Universite, we headed to Pont de Bir-Hakeim  via Quai Jacques Chirac- which was a good timing because as we were approaching the bridge, it poured quite heavily. We took refuge on the bridge until the rain stopped, then we made our way to Trocadero through Avenue du President Kennedy.

Trocadero remains one of my favourite viewing points of the Eiffel Tower no matter how crowded it can be. Again, it is very difficult to get a photo here without the crowd, but with a lot of patience, you will.  My favourite spot for a photo is the stairs going down to the garden.

My friend was contented with the amount of photos we took of/with the EIffel Tower, so after this, we headed for lunch near the Louvre- our final destination on this trip.

I chose Au Pied de Cochon for lunch after watching Erwan Heussaff's vlog on restaurants and cafes in Paris. I must say it was a good recommendation as the food was truly good. I ordered their classic pig's trotters (as the name of the restaurant suggests) and my friend opted for the salmon. The restaurant is open until 0500am and reopens at 0800. 

At around 1645, we arrived at the Louvre. It was very windy and cold which probably was good on this occasion because there were not many people at that time. Going inside the Louvre museum was not on the itinerary, hence we only took some photos of the pyramids.

The rain poured whilst we were on our way to Cafe Kitsune for a cup of coffee, and by this time, we have seen everything that we wanted to see. We walked through Jardin des Tuileries for a while then made our way to the airport as our flight was at 2040.

It was an easy 6-hour trip to Paris and a successful one I must say. In fact, thinking about it now, we actually went to Paris for a photoshoot and why not? The results are pretty amazing- thanks to my friend who loves the camera- I was able to unleash my inner photographer.

The last few years, I've only been going to Paris on day trips and I really enjoy it. Saying this, I also would like to stay the night again one day. The last time I stayed overnight in Paris was at Christmas many years ago- when reels was not real and everyone's life was not documented on social media.

Anyway, if you have 6 hours in Paris, how would you spend it? Would you spend it with me? :)

Until my next day trip to Paris.

Tintin x

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