I’m a big fan of the EDT – the extreme day trip (which can include short trips up to 3 days duration as well!) that is technically meant to be a day in a place (on a plane) there and back in one day, no overnight stays, and on a budget, and so I booked Paris for two nights and one full day recently with my beautiful 16-year-old niece.
IMO it would be tres arrogante to give Paris less time than it is worth; for me it is in the top 5 cities in the whole world and I really think 5 days minimum will do it justice. It is just so damn beautiful. Chic, clean, well set out and Instagram paradise. There’s huge, impressive buildings everywhere you look and a ridiculous amount of things to see and do.
As the trip got closer, I started to look into our itinerary and I began to panic at how much there was on my list. We flew from Manny airport and parked at the Regus office complex which is a 15 minute walk away (via YourParkingSpace app £30 as it was over 3 days), we bought our flights via EasyJet £50 each (I LOVE EASYJET – FACT!) booked in November 2024.
We flew at 3pm and after a one hour flight and a one hour train ride we walked a few km from Gare du Nord and arrived to our hotel at 7pm. We had a quick change and freshen up, rammed a snack Maccies down our throats and dashed across the City towards the Eiffel Tower to catch Seine boat tour at 10pm (£33 for 2 of us) taking in many sights. I wanted to do something that first night and to utilise every second of the trip. It was completely awesome and seeing the glittering Eiffel Tower on the hour was stunning. This was my niece’s fav part of the trip and she sent her friends about 3000 Snaps of the illuminated tower! We had the best start to the trip, despite us being frozen (there were no blankets on the boat as advertised but hey ho) and the bar’s kettle broke so we could not have hot drinks. FirstWorldProbs though, right?!
I had pre booked the Eiffel Tower 2 months ahead plus the Dior Museum 4 months ahead as well (you do need to pre book these attractions-adult cost is 23.10EUR with lift to 2nd floor and under 24 is 11.60EUR), la Galerie Dior was 24EUR for 2 of us (14EUR adult and 10EUR for 10-26s), then I started planning other things to see and do around tour tickets to these two attractions. It worked out that there was not much time after descending the Eiffel Tower to get over the la Galeri Dior so we simply walked across the city taking in the general sights. We had around 1.5 hours to bomb it around the stunning Galeries Lafayette, grab a snack lunch in the cafeteria (large pizza slices were 8EUR each), go up on the terrace, and marvel at the magnificent art nouveau glass dome – just WOW
Other things we managed to do included two walks across the Trocadéro, plus two failed attempts to get a famous choc chaud at Carette as I cba with queues, we did lots of dreamy walking Emily-in-Paris-style wearing our berets (plus a red lip) mainly as it was quite chilly still, plenty of mooching around the designer areas, we whizzed on foot past Louvre & the Grand Palais, a couple of metro adventures, 35k steps, a lot of pastries, two x maccies stops to save cash, a lovely Italian meal at Pratolina (58 euro for a drink each, a shared starter and a pasta each), and we got snacks from Lidil and watched re runs of Emily in Paris in bed both nights! Result
Transport was a mixed bag in terms of cost. We found local taxis affordable and these were generally 14EUR to go 3km across centre for various mini trips, our Uber back to airport was a bargain at 30EUR as the train from CDG into the centre cost the same 15EUR each(!). The airport is faily massive as well of course and on the way home, departures was a pleasure; so clean, comfy (the biggest best armchairs ever), all the phone chargers/plugs actually worked, plus cafes to die for and of course MORE MACARONS.
I am not someone that likes to generalise, in general, but we are aware that many people like to say tht the French are rude and in particular Parisians and we can honestly say that the Parisians we encountered were friendly, fun, helpful & welcoming. We were treated to a free upgrade to the rooftop penthouse in our budget hotel (Hotel Brady approx £220 for 2 nights) in the 10th which meant we had a private floor to ourselves & balconies with panoramic views overlooking this magical place & this made our trip extra special
We got back home to a warmish UK totally knackered, with the best memories & happy hearts, j’adore Paris. My clothes are telling me that I can’t eat another pastry for a while!
