Four days in Paris

Today I'm going to tell you about my short trip to Paris. I have already spoken about the useful information in another post so,today, I can talk only about what we saw and we did in my four days in Paris. We walked a lot and we also got tired a lot, but we were in Paris, a very beautiful city (even though my favorite European capital remains London). We arrived on Monday at lunchtime, we took the "OrlyBus" and then we walked to the hotel, with a lunch break annexed. The afternoon of the first day we did what we could call "tour of the churches": after the first stop to the Pantheon (ticket costs 7.5 euro), where there are buried several important person of the French history, we headed to 4 churches close enough to each other and near the Latin Quarter (the area where our hotel was located): Saint Severin, small and very beautiful (in my opinion it must be visited), Sain Julien le Pauvre, evidence of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic style, Saint Germain des Prés with its Romanesque bell tower and remains of the Merovingian construction(visible in the Saint Symphorien chapel), ending with Saint Sulpice, the largest church in Paris after Notre Dame. To conclude the day we went for a walk into the Jardin du Luxembourg, getting close to where we were housed and it really is a place to relax. Of this garden hit the tables to play chess (and the crowd of observers), tennis courts (and yes, there are people who play there) and the area for playing boules. It affects the large amount of chairs made available to the visitors of the park as there is a ban on sitting on the grass On the second day (Tuesday), we woke up early. We started our walk with a visit to Notre Dame. I do not think that this place need many words to be described: beautiful and impressive. From there we moved to the Conciergerie/Palais de Justice. Next to it there is the Saint Chapelle that we have not seen for the long (very slow) queue that was there. The ticket, however, costs 8.5 Euros (with discounts for certain categories). We moved towards the Louvre through the Chatelet and Saint Germain l'Auxerrois (parish of the French royal family since the House of Valois settled in the Louvre). So we go to the Place de la Concorde through the Jardin des Tuileries. We had lunch and then we rested at the hotel (it looks like an easy path, but it is quite long and tiring). In the evening we took the subway and to go to Montmartre, where we visited the Sacre Coeur and we remained open-mouthed in front of the view of Paris (you will see all, or nearly so, the most important monuments of the city). So here we had dinner in Place du Tertre. We started our third day in Paris with a walk to the cemetery of Saint Vincent, the smallest cemetery in Paris. Then we moved to "Montmartre Cemetery" where are buried many important figures of the past (such as Hector Berlioz, Stendhal, Edgar Degas and Dumas fils). So we went to the famous Père Lachaise cemetery, looking for other important characters of the story: in that cemetery there us, among others, the grave of Jim Morrison (and Heloise and Abelard, La Fontaine, Gay Lussac, Balzac and Delacroix). We stopped to have lunch (there were two p.m. passes for a while) and then we went toward the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées. You can go to Paris without seeing, at least once the Eiffel Tower? Of course not! So we arrived to the Jardin du Trocadero, with its fountains, and then we passed under the Eiffel Tower, symbol of Paris. We walked through Parc du Camp de Mars, at the end of which you can see the military school, to take the underground to go back to the hotel. We had dinner in a Japanese restaurant in the Latin Quarter (many of these japanese restaurants offer the fixed price menu for two people), we took something to drink in a pub and go to bed (we were really tired). the day of departure we had the whole morning free before having to go to the airport (our plane was at 17:50). We decided to go to the Musée d'Orsay: there's not much to say, except that it is well worth a visit! If you have less than 26 years, you can enter for free! We had lunch and then we went back to take the Orlybus, with the promise, sooner or later, to came back in Paris(maybe for a slightly longer period of time!). You find all the photos of Paris on Flickr. I remind you that you can follow me on instagram , facebook and twitter.

Some useful information about Paris

I could not avoid this post about some useful information about Paris. I arrived at Orly Airport (South Terminal). To get into town I chose the OrlyBus: the ticket costs 7.4 euro, it stops at South and west terminals and takes you to Denfert-Rochereau where you can then take metro or RER. The alternative is a shuttle that takes you to the RER. A single Metro tickets costs EUR 1.8: if you want save some money, you can buy a carnet of 10 tickets, it costs 13 euro (you save 5 euros) and you can use the automatic machines (at the counters do not take cash). There are several metro lines (identified by an "M", a number and also with a color) and some RER lines (Identified by "RER" and a letter) and the metro lines works exactly like the London underground lines: at each station you will find a map with all the lines marked. You will find the line divided into two parts, depending on the terminal destination of that particular train. Check the stop where you have to get off and then find your direction of journey. Surely it is easier to do that I'll figure it out on someone who writes on the internet. And now let's talk about food: Paris is not very cheap: keep in mind that even a basic food like pizza may cost 10 or 11€! A kebab is the cheapest food for lunch or dinner (usually they give you, in the same plate, fries or rice). If you have between 18 and 25 years old and you want to visit a museum, get in line armed with documents: you have some big discounts... At the musée d'orsay I entered free: I showed the document at the time of taking the ticket and the cashier told me that I had only to show the document to the ticket check!