The city of light

Paris is one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. It is art & sophistication, city with rich history and architectural beauty. It is best known for fashion, cafés, luxurious boutiques, and world´s famous museums, cathedrals and iconic landmarks. Paris is called “City of light” because of two reasons; in literal sense, Paris was one of the first European cities with gas street lighting; in metaphorical sense light is understood as “Enlightenment” and it suggests the importance of Paris during the Age of Enlightenment. In other words, Paris not only did bring the lights into darkness of the streets, but as well light, in sense of knowledge, into the world thanks to outstanding French philosophers, scientists, intellectuals, and artists. The French museums gained their importance and status, mainly because of the masterpieces of these Masters.

This article describes, primarily, my experience with exploring Paris in just one day. It was my second destination I travelled to as a cabin crew, and because it was my first time in the city, I wanted to make most of it. However, one day is really just not enough to experience Paris properly; you can only get the slight glimpse of the Paris splendour; it can be a good “introduction to the city”. If you have never been to Paris before, you can use this article as, not only a summary of the most famous places to visit, but as well as a brief guide to learn something about each of these places; plus you might use some of my recommendations on how to successfully plan your trip, presented at the end of the article.

Seine River cruise

With my colleagues and friends we decided to get to know Paris by river cruise. It was relaxing activity and we managed to see some of the major buildings and landmarks in Paris, accompanied by the tour guide´s presentation. We did not have time to see any of the famous museums or cathedrals from inside, so the river cruise was the best option for us to enjoy the atmosphere of the city. One of my friends in the group could speak French, so she arranged the tickets for us. If you don´t speak French at all I would recommend buying all your tickets online; especially the tickets for the most popular touristic attractions, so that you can avoid long queuing and not get too frustrated with the language barrier. My experience shows that local people are very friendly but not so keen to speak English.

Seine River Cruise with my friends.

Paris at night.

Eiffel tower

Eiffel tower is probably the most iconic symbol of Paris. We saw it from the boat during the cruise on Seine River and then later at night we walked all the way to have a closer look. The square it is located on was quite crowded, so we took some pictures and then sat for a while in the park next to it and enjoyed the view of the illuminated tower at night.

What is interesting about the Eiffel tower is that when it was built back in 19th century it was considered ugly and not supposed to stay – it looked like it was only going to stay for the Paris International Exhibition. When it was inaugurated it was the world´s tallest monument. Somehow it became popular, mainly because it looked so odd, and eventually it stayed. A great decision not to destroy it, I would say, because nowadays it belongs to the most famous touristic attractions in Europe.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral is a medieval Gothic church; one of the most beautiful and greatest buildings in France. It is definitely a masterpiece I would like to see from inside as well. I did not have enough time on this visit so I only enjoyed its view from a small coffee shop on the square next to it, while having a coffee and croissant. A pleasant experience, indeed!

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe is a famous monument worth seeing, which represents the line dividing two avenues: Champs-Élyseés and Avenue Charles de Gaulle. You might have heard about Champs-Élyseés from songs and movies. It is famous mainly for its theatres, luxury shops, cafés and restaurants, and it is the finish of the Tour de France bicycle race as well.

Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles is a true masterpiece of King Louis XIV. The Palace is not only famous as an architectonic treasure but it bears a historical significance as well, as it used to be the symbol of absolute monarchy back in times. Nowadays it is a museum and one of the most popular tourist attractions in France. If you have heard about famous Hall of Mirrors, it is right here, in Versailles.

To best enjoy this place, I recommend allowing yourself sufficient time for the visit; I would say for Versailles it would be the whole day. It is enormously big and if you go there just for one or two hours you will find yourself rushing around without enjoying or learning anything. Most importantly, get your tickets online, most ideally “skip the line” tickets as this place is always crowded and you do not want to waste your time in queues; there are so many other pleasant things to do in Paris.

Louvre Palace

Another famous museum, housed in the Louvre Palace is Musee du Louvre. It is known for the Louvre Pyramid, the iconic triangle- shaped glass and metal cupola. It is located, together with three smaller pyramids, in the courtyard of the Louvre Palace and serves as the main entrance to the museum. Louvre is the world´s largest art museum, therefore it is practically impossible to manage to see everything. What you can rather do is to target a few areas you want to explore and focus on those instead of focusing on seeing as much as possible. Again, make sure you get your tickets online and you have a plan of what you are going to see.

Musèe d´ Orsay

The building of today´s Musèe d´ Orsay used to be a train station in past. Now it houses a museum with collection of the impressionistic and postimpressionistic art, mainly French, such as photography, paintings, sculptures, furniture. Generally, it is less crowded than Louvre, so if you have problems with crowds, this could be a good choice.

My advice when visiting any museum is to take the opportunity and learn something new about particular culture. Renting an audio guide might be very helpful, if you don´t like walking around the museum while reading the guides you get for free at the entrance. Look for the pieces that can in some way enrich your life, the pieces you think you can understand what the author is trying to portray and relate to it. In this way, visiting a museum can become an unforgettable experience; you never know which portrait will “speak” to you.

Charcuterie & apèro

French cuisine is generally known for delicious warm croissants, baguettes, cheese boards, grapes, wine and Champagne. Of course there is so much more to it, but this is generally what pops to my mind as first when I think of French gastronomy. On our trip, when we asked a waitress to recommend us something typical French, she said straight away “charcuterie”. I have never heard this word before so I felt I need a bit of googling here. Don´t be surprised, if throughout my articles, you find some references to explaining the meanings or etymologies of some words. Language is an indispensable aspect when exploring a new city, plus since I studied linguistics I always look at new words from this perspective. So, for those who, like me, have not heard the word charcuterie before, here it is: French word charcuterie is a combination of two French words: “chair”(English “meat” or “flesh”) “cuit” (English “cooked”) and as a whole it refers to all cooked meat products such as bacon, ham, sausages, or patés.

What we had in a restaurant that day was a typical apéro as they call it in France. It cannot be accurately translated to English, because apèro refers to a typical French custom or phenomenon. It is time in the afternoon, or evening, around 7. PM when people get together and have a glass of wine with cheese and charcuterie. In England, the closest phenomenon would be “Afternoon tea”, in Sweden they also have something similar, they call it “Fika” and it is time when they serve strong filtered coffee while having social time. As you can see it is not really about what is being served; whether it is wine, tea, or coffee, all these expressions are habits with a strong cultural significance. They are about enjoying and spending quality time with friends and families. They are called differently in each country and as such they are untranslatable to other languages because no two countries have the exact same culture and habits.

Our apèro in Paris: red wine, cheese board, and charcuterie.

Plan your Paris trip

To summarize the ideas presented in the article, if you are planning to visit Paris for the first time, these are my suggestions for you:

1. First of all decide which attractions you want to see. List them in order of importance for you.
2. Decide, based on how many days you are going to spend there, how much time you will spend at each of them. Bear in mind, some attractions, such as the museums mentioned in this article, are best enjoyed if you allow yourself bigger time frame for their visit.
3. Get the tickets online.
4. Read something very briefly about each place you are going to see, so that you can understand and appreciate them better once you are there.

Planning here is just so important because Paris is full of attractions worth visiting and if you are going there thinking you will just see whatever you can, you will find yourself rushing from one place to another, without really enjoying the French culture and atmosphere of the city. I hope this practical guide can help you enjoy your trip more fully and you won´t feel overwhelmed or lost, as it sometimes might happen, when you are in a new big city with high expectations and eagerness to see, do, and try everything.

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