Journeys Far and Wide (the back catalogue) - #1 Paris

Last August my boyfriend, his Dad and a friend decided to cycle from London to Paris. You know, as you do.

Not one to miss an opportunity for a quick trip to France, myself Nicks mum and the friend's girlfriend decided to fly out there to meet them under the Eiffel Tower when they finished their mammoth ride (which took 3 days), n'awww. And it was definitely one of the best decisions I made in 2013, because Paris is and was beautiful.

Due to time constraints of the trip and the fact that it was a bit of an impromptu decision to meet them at the end, we were only actually in Paris for one full day but it was still amazing, and quite exciting to be such a jet setter for a couple of days!

We got there on the Tuesday evening and had a lovely taxi driver pick us up from the airport to take us to our hotel. I normally hate the time spent on the transfer because it seems such a waste, but it was actually quite a good journey because the taxi driver took it upon himself to give us a little tour and he was pointing out all the popular tourist attractions and landmarks, which was really great because we had such little time there we knew we wouldn't see hardly anything really.

Our hotel was literally a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower and it was exactly what we were looking for (Hotel Auteuil Tour Eiffel if you're interested), and great value for two nights in the middle of summer right next to the Eiffel Tower. 

So we got there, dumped our bags and headed out to the Tower to assume our places on the imaginary finish line! It was such a beautiful day and although we had quite a wait, I cannot imagine a more perfect place to wait :)

  (Meet Katie!)

(Meet Nick!)

After the arrival there was much time spent snapping away the Eiffel Tower, the boys under the Eiffel Tower avec their bikes, then couples under the Eiffel Tower.... you get the gist. Then we went back to the hotel, the boys collapsed for a bit, I read a bit, and then we went out for a lovely Parisian meal, and someone actually ordered snails (I know, what the hell?!)

The next day (our only day, boo) we went to the Eiffel Tower, on a cruise down the Seine (both of which were lovely) and I forced everyone to go on a perilous journey down the Champs-Élysées to find Sephora (aka heaven. I got an amazing highlighter and a coral lip gloss, that sadly no one I was with cared about). We had crepes, we had wine and the weather was beautiful - it was just a perfect day. And to say the men of the party had finished a 350 mile bike ride the night before, they were all troopers and didn't complain about being tired, or achey legs, bonus! Also, there was actually no complaining throughout the mammoth journey from the Eiffel Tower to the Champs-Élysées which was quite surprising since I was the only one who was remotely interested in that part of the day!

 (At the top of the Eiffel Tower - I'm on the right)

(This one is purely here because the fountains were making a rainbow, which is just delightful).

So after the wonderful day, we headed out for our final meal, sob. We went to a bustling restaurant in the Italian Quarter and after we had a few cheeky drinks in the little bars around and then saw the night lights on the Tower (awesome), and headed back to the hotel (by this time, the men really were tired).

(Nick and I, made into black and white because the hotel lighting was horrendous and made us both an odd yellow shade).

All in all, it was fabulous and I cannot wait to go back! Hopefully I will have another excuse very soon, and hopefully next time it will be for a considerably longer time than one and a bit days! I do think city breaks are best kept short and sweet, but maybe one day is a bit too short. But it was definitely fun, and lovely to have been there to meet Nick after such an acheivement!

Until next time :)