Michael and Sally in front of the Eiffel Tower
Of all the cities in the world, I had always dreamed of travelling to Paris. Intrigued and inspired by the art, fashion, history and culture of this city, I was so excited to finally travel overseas (for the first time in my life); and to visit the city of love on our honeymoon seemed like perfect timing. My husband, Michael, has previously only travelled to the US, so he too was keen to explore what Europe had to offer. On the advice of a well travelled friend we stayed in a quaint little french hotel named ‘Quai Voltaire’, situated on the edge of the ‘Seine’ river and opposite the magnificent ‘Louvre’ museum.
View of market stalls from our balcony window
Walking the streets of Paris
Our first day in France was spent exploring the city on foot! We thought we would use or map books and Lonely Planet to find our way around and hopefully make our way to the Eiffel Tower. That turned out to be too big of a mission for day one, but we did find our way there eventually! And I am glad to report that despite the language barrier and never ending streets and buildings, we only got lost once! On our travels we managed to stumble across the beautiful ‘L’Hotel national des Invalides’ which is an amazing building constructed in 1670 which now contains museums and monuments relating to the military history of France. It also contains various tombs, including that of Napoleon Bonaparte.
View of the magnificent art work of the dome above Napoleon Bonapart’s tomb
On our second day of ‘wandering’ we made it to the Eiffel Tower and took a few snapshots. We didn’t stay for too long because the crowds were quite big and there were lots of street sellers around, but we stayed long enough to appreciate the uniqueness of this world famous monument.
One of our favourite parts of Paris was the art culture. We spent 2 days wandering around the Louvre Museum and we could have gone back for more! It is so huge that I think it would take a good week to explore it all. It was well worth it though.
Exploring the grounds of the Louvre
This is as close as we got to ‘The Mona Lisa’… as you can see it is quite popular!
Another one of our favourite Parisian landmarks was the ‘Notre Dame Cathedral’. This beautiful Gothic style building was first constructed between 1163 into the 1240s. We climbed the narrow spiral stair cases to the top where the famous ‘gargoyles’ sit, and the view of the city was absolutely AMAZING!
Michael outside the Notre Dame
Together at the top
We had one of the BEST days at Disneyland Paris!! It was a freezing cold day and it rained a little, but once we bought some Micky Mouse winter gear we were good to go! I’m not normally brave enough to go on roller-coasters, but considering we had travelled half way around the world and this was probably going to be a once in a life time opportunity Michael convinced me to brave the ‘Space Mountain’ and ‘Crush’s Coaster’.
Michael all rugged up and ready to ride!
Meeting Mickey Mouse!
I have always been a huge fan of the Moulin Rouge movie, and a lovely friend of ours bought us tickets to see the show as a wedding gift! It was such a unique experience! We both had a great time and that is definitely one to tick off the bucket list! It was quite interesting to venture into the ‘Red Light’ district (where the Moulin Rouge is located), which has a rich and vibrant night life compared to other parts of Paris.
Our last night in Paris was spent on a magnificent dinner cruise on the ‘Seine’ river. The food was delicious and it was a really romantic way to spend the evening – the perfect way to end our stay in the city of love.
Our Entree
Overall we spent a week exploring Paris and I think we will definitely need to go back again, because I don’t think we got to see half of the sights or visit half of the places that I planned to see! If we go back again we will surely need to work on our French language skills, as I think this was the hardest part about getting around and ordering food! Although we did get very good at using gestures to get our message across! Our next stop on the honeymoon adventure was ‘Florence’ in Italy… but you will have to stay tuned for that post!
Photos from Sally and Michael’s collection 
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