My five favourite places in Paris, France

My five favourite places in Paris, France

Hello everybody! How are you? Today I bring you the last post about Paris. I'll remind you that previously I told you about the places that you have to visit and get to know, in order to get a full picture of ​​the French capital. You can read them by clicking here (for the first part) or here (for the second). Today, finally, I want to show you my five favourite places in this city, to see what you think. Let's go!

Le Marais

I was lucky to be able to see and experience this Parisian neighbourhood the last time I was in this city, which was three years ago now. This neighbourhood is special and it stands out because its whole aesthetic is perfectly maintained. It is full of coffee shops where you are drawn in by the smell of warm croissants, as well as vintage clothes shops, small alleys with little shops, or also some interesting museums such as the Picasso Museum.

Just here you can find the Place de Vosges, which I talked about in the previous post, and which is undoubtedly one of the main features of this place. Here, there is also the former house of the writer Victor Hugo, the author of well-known works such as Les Miserables or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even so, the best way to get to know Le Marais properly is by taking a long walk through its streets.

This neighbourhood has a lot of charm because in the past, the upper class of society lived in these buildings and adapted them to a very bourgeois style. Having this fame, it is not surprising that the entire neighbourhood is full of clothes shops from the most famous boutiques. Also, if you visit this neighbourhood, you have to visit one of its restaurants or have a coffee on the terrace of a cafe, where the wicker chairs stand out on each terrace. From these cafes and bars, you can feel the authentic Paris, as on the streets, there are Parisian people walking and riding bikes with their freshly bought baguettes. Honestly, Le Marais is an open-air museum. Each local food place and each little house are so special that it is not surprising that the most beautiful photos of Paris are taken here.

The Wall of Love

The literal translation is the wall of "I love you". It is located in the picturesque neighbourhood of Montmartre (specifically in Abbesses square) and it is a wall that is 40 metres long.

It is special because on it there are lots of different phrases that all mean "I love you". The nice thing is that they are all written in different languages ​​and it is really fun because all the tourists are looking for the one in their own language. I love the Wall of Love because it is a space which is solely dedicated to love. In addition, the fact that "I love you" is written in more than 300 languages ​​reminds those of us who visit it that love is something universal and that it doesn't understand culture, sex or religion. On the tiles that make up the wall there are small, little red pieces that represent a broken heart, symbolising a broken society that is dominated by individualism. Instead, the wall tries to fix this heart, piece by piece, bringing them all together in this place, representing love and peace. Definitely, you could say that this wall is a link.

Paris the city of love par excellence... so there could not be another place that could share this same attraction. It is the perfect place to say “I love you” to the person you love in different languages. It is not unusual to see couples taking a romantic photo together with the wall in the background. Here, I'll leave you this beautiful picture that my friend Sandra and I took together when we were there.

Sacré Coeur

Very close to here is the most famous basilica in Paris, the Sacre Coeur. This religious temple is located on the hill of the neighbourhood, presiding over it, so from here you can see the whole city, a beautiful panoramic view.

I have seen pictures of the basilica in the middle of winter, when it snows, and it is beautiful. It is a shame that all the times that I have visited have been during scorching heat or when it was not cold enough for it to snow. Its architecture is inspired by the Romanesque style but also by Byzantium's own architecture. At the front of the entrance to the Sacre Coeur, there are green areas, some small gardens where people sit to chat, have a picnic or rest.

Every time I have gone there, I have gone on foot, but you can also take a cable car that goes up the whole hill. It is incredible to walk through the tiny alleyways of Montmartre and then suddenly, turning around the corner, coming across the basilica, humungous before you, which even seems like it is going to fall on top of you.

This basilica is the icing on the cake because the whole Montmartre neighbourhood is beautiful: the painters, coffee shops, the Wall of Love... But the Sacré Coeur is what completes this area of ​​Paris. It is a must-visit attraction.

Musée d'Orsay

Located next to the river, the museum does not go unnoticed, due to its beautiful architecture. I only visited this museum the last time I was in Paris. We quickly visited the Louvre because we wanted to spend most of our time at the Musée d'Orsay. We had to wait in quite a long queue, going inside well into the morning, but it is worth it for all the magnificent works of art that are inside. When we went inside, we were amazed by the interior decoration, it was very elegant. Then, we went straight to a specific place because we were most interested in the impressionist works of art.

The most famous ones are the works of Vincent Van Gogh like "Starry Night", "The Room" or "The Self Portrait. " Even so, I had a great interest in the paintings that I had studied in Art History, such as "Ballet Class" by Degas or "Breakfast on the grass", which I had to do extensive work on and a presentation when I was doing my A-levels. We could also see the “Impression. Sunrise”, by Monet. In addition, there were quite a few paintings by Cézanne, an artist that we knew perfectly because he lived in Aix-en-Provence for a long time, a city which we did our Erasmus in. In this museum, we could see the paintings he painted and many of them reminded us of Aix-en-Provence: the trees, the geography, the typical landscapes of Provencial France... But the one we liked the most was the one that the Saint-Victor Mountain appears in, the same one that we decided to climb until we reached the top one day and that we saw from our student halls every morning.

It was very satisfying to be able to walk through the galleries of this museum and see with my own eyes the impressionist brushstrokes so well-defined, that from close up they can look like there nonsensical, but from afar one can appreciate the beautiful landscape that the brushstrokes form. If you like paintings, it is definitely worth visiting this museum.

La Bossue

Finally, seeing as I have not talked about any cafes specifically in these blog entries about Paris, I wanted to recommend La Bossue. It is a very small but quite busy cafe, which is also located in the Montmartre neighbourhood. "La bossue" means "the hunchback" in French, which is inspired by the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I would imagine.

Seeing as it is in Montmartre, it is better to book if you want to go there at peak times. We were lucky because there was a small table left with four chairs. We went at the end of the day, to have a good coffee and milk, along with some French pastries. They have everything you could imagine: croissants, chocolates, pain au chocolat, hot rolls… There is a breakfast option, the now known brunch, normal food, and coffee served until the end of the afternoon. And the best thing: it was all homemade! Here are the photos so you can judge for yourselves. You can sit down right in front of its large window and watch the Parisians passing through the streets of Montmartre.

And this is everything that I wanted to tell you. I hope you that you have enjoyed hearing about these 5 places in Paris, which have been very varied, ranging from famous museums to not so well-known cafes... I love Paris and I think it is my favourite city in the whole of Europe. Without a doubt, I think everyone should visit this city before they die. It is multifaceted and it has a lot of things to offer. And that is all for now. Thank you very much for reading, I hope that you enjoyed the photos and I will see you in the next post with more content. Bye.

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