"Immaculate" Paris!

After over 14 years, I’m back in Paris. Even in this occasion, I’m with someone special but different.

Paris never disappoints expectations; it’s always beautiful in every season of the year. I visited it in the summer; now winter is almost here, the Christmas atmosphere makes everything more surreal, the lights, though not abundant (I guess that also French people have to deal with the crisis), are always special, carefully designed.
Paris is expensive throughout the year, especially in December, so you need to be mentally prepared to spend a lot of money; otherwise, you can do just like me: search, search, and search until you find the best deal.
I had been dreaming about going back there for a while, and opportunity makes the thief (275 euro for a Milan–Paris Charles de Gaulle flight departing on Wednesday at 21.10 and coming back on Sunday at 18.05, for 2 people).
Here’s the summary of the 4 intense days of the Immaculate Conception’s long weekend.

Our flight lands at the main Paris airport in the evening, but I don’t understand why the public means of transport that I had previously studied to arrive at the hotel are not working tonight. They provide the passengers with shuttle buses that take them to an Underground stop; from there, we somehow end up on the RER train that takes us to the Gare du Nord. From here it's much easier to find our direction and take the right line to our destination. It’s here, in this station, that for the first and unique time in the whole trip I feel in danger: a black kid on the escalator stares at me and slows down, as if he’s going to wait for me at the top, but he realizes that I have caught him and he resumes his pace to reach his friends ahead. For the rest, we can say that as it happens in all the capitals, the more you move into the suburbs, the more the environment becomes less peaceful.
Our hotel, Timohtel, is located in the district of Charonne. I paid 250 euros for a double room for 4 nights, a fair price if we consider the period of the year, the city, and the proximity to the underground stop (line 2 Avron). Clean and simple, the reception is open 24 hours a day. The trip to downtown takes about 20 minutes.

Tour Eiffel. 2011 © Giovanna Puccia. All rights reserved.

 
December 8, 2011
The tour begins with a visit to Notre Dame. Maybe it’s because of the dreary weather, but the monument doesn’t look so amazing and it doesn’t impress us that much. We find out that even here in Paris there’s a facsimile of the Milvian Bridge in Rome with the locks of love ... the world is the same everywhere! The sun peeps out from behind the clouds and we continue our guided tour through the two islands of the city, which are typically Parisian and therefore very beautiful.
We stop to have lunch and then we decide to go to the Louvre but, I don’t know how, we get the wrong train and the wrong line and we magically find ourselves at the stop of ... the Eiffel Tower! Well, let's take advantage of this chance! Before heading to the tower, we take a ride in the area, we visit the Christmas markets of the Trocadero, we take plenty of pictures and then, as the sun sets down, we get in line to climb the tower. We don’t even have to stay in line for too long (about 30 minutes), we pay 13.50 euros to climb the tower through two elevators (9 euros if you take the stairs) and ..... spectacular! The view of the city is really breathtaking, every corner is visible from up here.
On the top of the tower, the wind blows so wildly that, it's hard to take pictures even with the tripod; plus, the  people keep pushing me to find the right location for their pictures, and they always end up where I am!
When we go back down, it's already past 8 pm, and we want to wait the stroke of the hour to fully enjoy the Christmas lighting of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, the photos don’t do justice to the beauty of the place.

Do you wanna see all pics taken in Paris? Then CLICK HERE

Nôtre Dame. 2011 © Giovanna Puccia. All rights reserved.

2011 © Giovanna Puccia. All rights reserved.

2011 © Giovanna Puccia. All rights reserved.

2011 © Giovanna Puccia. All rights reserved.

  Do you wanna see all pics taken in Paris? Then CLICK HERE

Keep reading... Keep reading.... My travel story continues in the next post!