Paris is my favorite city in the world.

That may seem like an exaggeration, but it’s true. I’ve fallen in love with lots of cities on my travels, but none have captured my heart quite like Paris. I realize that many people don’t share the same sentiments as me, but all the same, I still believe it’s a place that everyone should visit at least once if they ever get the chance.

Beautiful Parisian architecture

The worst part about my first visit to Paris was that I only visited for three days. My friends and I chose this as our final weekend trip during our study abroad program. The journey began with a Thursday night flight into the city, where we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower all lit up. The excitement of that bird’s-eye view carried over into the next morning, when we could finally begin our adventure.

We didn’t have any major excursions planned on our first day as we wanted to simply spend time exploring. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower, where we took some photos and enjoyed one of the nearby parks. I was in awe of the size and beauty of the Tower and couldn’t stop staring at it, even when we went to explore other parts of the city. It’s definitely a landmark that stands out! From there we made our way to Notre-Dame Cathedral, admiring the Parisian architecture and charm along the way. It was fairly crowded inside the cathedral, but this was to be expected since admission is free. Afterwards, we continued exploring the streets at a leisurely pace and got to see part of a wedding take place (which was very romantic)! We then enjoyed an amazing steak dinner and witnessed our first of many random metro performances – it’s fairly easy to catch people putting on their own interesting shows on the subway. It was a great first day.

Delicious steak dinner

We made sure to wake up early the next morning so that we could visit the Louvre. After watching another metro performer (this one had an accordion!), we waited in line to see the Mona Lisa. I later learned that the best time to visit the Louvre is actually in the afternoon, since it’s most crowded in the morning. Rookie mistake! We finally got into the museum and made our way to the famous painting. She is tiny! Luckily I had heard this already and wasn’t too disappointed, but it’s definitely surprising that arguably the most famous painting in the world is so small. We then explored other parts of the museum and made our way back to the Eiffel Tower, this time to go up to the top.

My touristy picture outside the Louvre

The lovely (and very small) Mona Lisa

I personally think that visiting the top of the Eiffel is a must-do. The lines are long, but the view is incredible! There are actually two types of tickets: one only goes to the second level while the other takes you all the way to the summit. We chose the summit ticket and spent some time enjoying the view from several different angles. There is a champagne bar at the top where you can enjoy a glass of bubbly while taking in the scenery. We chose not to do this because it was 17 euros for a glass, but I kind of wish I had just done it. After all, not everyone can say they’ve enjoyed champagne from the top of a world-class landmark! Anyways, we made our way down to the second level and had some wine while relaxing and enjoying a different (but still enjoyable) view.

View from the summit of the Eiffel Tower

Somehow it was already time for dinner, so we met up with another friend from school and had more steak and various French cheeses. Then we made our way to the Eiffel yet again, where we spent the evening bartering with “vendors” selling champagne and enjoying the dazzling lights of the Tower. Before we knew it, our second day in Paris was over.

The Eiffel at night

On our final day we had quite the adventure. We had plans to visit the Palace of Versailles in the morning, which we thought would give us plenty of time to catch our 5 PM flight. We were wrong – do not try this! First of all, it took us around two hours to even catch the right train to Versailles. There is a metro line that has a stop called “Versailles” – this is not the way to get to the Palace. We mistakenly took this and ended up frustrated on the outskirts of the city. Finally we decided to just hail a taxi to the Palace, which was an expensive 30-minute drive. It was already after lunch by the time we arrived, and then we had another horrible surprise. The lines to enter the Palace were huge! Like, two hours long. We quickly realized that we wouldn’t have time to even make it into the Palace, let alone explore the place. The extent of our Versailles tour involved walking around the gardens and peering into the windows from the outside like total dorks. To make matters even worse, it took us so long to make it back to our Airbnb that we nearly missed our flight back to school. I can now empathize with people who are seen sprinting through airports – and it isn’t fun. We can all laugh about it now, but it really wasn’t funny at the time!

Our only glimpse of Versailles

If you do decide to visit the Palace, be sure that you know exactly how to get there and map out the directions before-hand! It is honestly probably worth it to take a guided tour to the area, because the directions are seriously confusing if you are unfamiliar with the area. After that mishap, we were thankful that we were going to make it back to school on time. I was very sad to leave Paris, however, and have already visited again twice. It was a great introduction to an amazing city.