Paris, France

My friend and I decided that we wanted to go on a mini break for a long weekend before I gave birth and these things become much rarer. Once we had a date we just needed to find a location. We initially wanted to go to Budapest but getting decent flight times over the weekend just was not happening, so after going back and forth with a few different options we eventually settled on Paris! I had been to Paris once before but that was when I was in high school, so I was looking forward to seeing it properly this time around. Below is a list of the main things we did on our weekend in Paris...

The Catacombs of Paris
The Paris catacombs consists of a network of underground tunnels holding the remains of more than 6 million people, so a pretty freaky place. My friend and I do love macabre things in a weird way so this was something we really wanted to go and see. The queue to get in was rather long but it did move quickly and before we knew it we were inside and heading down. At first, there is a few tunnels with information to learn about the reasonings behind these skeletons being there and some information on what happened at the time. We made our way through this part thinking that could be in but as we progressed further underground we soon realised that we were actually going to see the skeletons themselves! It is hard to describe how it looks (best to Google images of this!), but all of the bones of the people buried there are carefully arranged into walls that just go on and on and on. It is really quite fascinating to see, if not a little freaky! There is also a film based in the Paris catacombs on Netflix called As Above, So Below that we watched that night - not the best film but after being down there earlier that day it was rather scary!

Moulin Rouge
As Moulin Rouge is my all-time favourite film, a trip to see the live show when in Paris was an absolute must for me. We hesitated slightly due to the price of it (over £100!) as we wanted the weekend to be kept relatively cheap, but being on my bucket list I just had to go. Unfortunately, I wish I had not bothered! In my mind I was expected performances similar to that showed in the film, which I appreciate may have been a little farfetched, but what was shown was so far from this it was very disappointing. The dances and stories were all so poor and random it just was not worth it for me. This is not something I would recommend or would do again.

Notre Dame, The Louvre & The Eiffel Tower
What trip to Paris is complete without visiting the iconic Eiffel Tower! We went for a walk to the tower and around it but decided against going up it with us both having done this before. The tower is a great sight to see and we had a lot of fun spotting it on our trips around the city. Of course, we also took some great selfies with it!

We went to visit The Louvre whilst in Paris - what a busy place that is! It is also huge and there is so much to see. We didn't want to do everything (partly due to it not being our thing and partly because I was 7 and a half months pregnant and it would have just been too much!) so we selected the places of interest to us and went there. A trip to The Louvre would not be complete without going to see the famous Mona Lisa, which we did. It was hard to truly see and appreciate the painting as it was heaving around it. You had to actually wait in a hoard of people to get to the front to be able to see it - but at least it is something I can now say I have seen.

Unbelievable timing happened with regards to our visit to Notre Dame, due to it unfortunately setting on fire the next day with severe damage happening. We were lucky not to be there when it happened and extremely lucky that we were able to see the building before it became damaged. It was a beautiful building that is just huge! A very impressive site and something I hope they are able to restore in the not-too-distant future.

Montmartre
Whilst in Paris we stayed at a small hotel in Montmarte. There is a lot to do in this area and it has a great atmosphere. There are also some beautiful churches to see! The most obvious one is The Basilica of Sacre-Coeur - a huge white building which is just truly beautiful and definitely one worth a visit. However, we went for a walk on our last day and came across The Church of Saint Pierre de Montmorte. This was on top of a hill and over looks most of Paris. There was a Sunday service of some sort going on and the atmosphere surrounding the place was great, with buskers and singers performing and people selling hand-made gifts. The walk up was a little steep but definitely worth it for the views! I really recommend visiting here if you get the chance.

Overall we had a great weekend in Paris, enjoyed some great food and got to see all of the things that make Paris great