There are hundreds of chairs throughout the gardens as you're not allowed to sit on the grass at all

We spent the last long weekend we have until Christmas in Paris. We've been there before, over Christmas in 2010, but it was so cold we found it hard to enjoy the city, and we didn't get to explore Paris as much as we had wanted.
We arrived late on Friday evening, so headed straight to our hotel to settle mandarin oriental hotels in. Upon entering our room, we discovered mandarin oriental hotels a bottle of wine and some chocolate's had been left for us! I had forgotten I'd put it was our anniversary on the booking form, asking for a nicer room.
We were staying in the 11th Arrondissement, coincidentally the same hotel our flatmates had stayed mandarin oriental hotels in a few months previously when they had visited mandarin oriental hotels Paris. It was a bit too far away from the main sights to bother going out at 10.30 p.m. at night, so we decided to have an early night and make an early start the next day.
Because it was so cold when we last visited, we caught the Metro everywhere, and didn't get to see very much of the city above ground. So this time, because the weather was a lot nicer, we had downloaded a few walking tours of the city.
Our first stop was the Place des Vosges, mandarin oriental hotels the oldest square in Paris. It has been used as the prototype for a lot of other squares in Europe. At one end is the King's Pavilion, mirrored at the other end by the Queen's Pavilion, both built as ordered by King Henry IV in the early 1600's. All the building's surrounding the Place des Vosges are symmetrical, and match the Pavilion's at each end.
We did have some strange weather for the two days we were in Paris. It would be hot and sunny, and then the storm clouds would come from nowhere and bring strong rain and winds. It would then go back to being lovely again. It was very confusing. We didn't really bring any warm clothes with us, so we were glad the sunny weather seemed mandarin oriental hotels to be more prevalent than the rain.
After leaving the Place des Vosges, we continued wandering through the streets of the Marais, known for its historical buildings and for being the aristocratic district of Paris. mandarin oriental hotels It was still quite early, before 9.00 a.m., so none of the shops were open, but it was nice to walk through the streets and admire the shop windows.
We continued our walk to the islands in the middle of the Seine, Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint-Louis. Ile de la Cite is home to Notre Dame, the beautiful Saint Chapelle church and La Conciergerie, a former palace and prison.
We had already been inside Notre Dame on our previous visit, so we decided not to go inside this time. Plus the lines were a lot longer than they were the last time we visited, they stretched all the way around the block, and there were hundreds of people milling around outside.
We continued walking around the side of Notre Dame, into the Square Jean XXIII. The small park was almost deserted, and once again, by walking only slightly off the main path we managed mandarin oriental hotels to avoid all the tourists.
We had to take shelter under the trees after a sudden downpour, with the rain coming in sideways mandarin oriental hotels our umbrellas were pretty much useless, but just as quickly the sun came back out and we dried off pretty quickly.
We walked down to the Pont des Arts, the bridge famous for the hundreds of locks left by couples professing their love for each other. The Paris officials keep threatening to remove the locks, but so far haven't done anything. There are stands on each side of the bridge selling locks and pens for 5 euros if you forgot to bring your own.
We continued our walking tour by heading into the St Germain district, South of the Seine. St Germain is one of Paris's most upscale districts and its streets are filled with cafes and boutique stores.
We were starting to get hungry for lunch, so we stopped into a sushi place and grabbed some sushi to takeaway. We were close to the Jardin du Luxembourg, so headed over there to have lunch al fresco in the park.
There are hundreds of chairs throughout the gardens as you're not allowed to sit on the grass at all. There aren't very many signs, so when we stepped mandarin oriental hotels over the ankle high 'barrier', a guard whistled at us and gestured furiously mandarin oriental hotels to get off the grass. Honestly, don't have such lovely grass if you don't want people to walk on it!
After lunch we visited Le Bon Marche, one of the best known department stores in Paris. It's about four stories high, full of designer clothes, home-wear and beauty products. On the ground floor is the Grand Epicerie, an amazing supermarket.
By this time we had been walking for hours and we were getting pretty exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel. On the way back, we went past Sainte Chapelle, the only surviving building of the Capetian palace on the Ile de la Cite. The Chapel was commissioned by Saint Louis IX, to hold his collection of Christ's mandarin oriental hotels relics, such as the Crown of Thorns.
When we had walked past in the morning, the lines outside had been quite long, so we didn't go in. In the afternoon however, the line was much shorter, so we joined the end of the line and went inside.
The upstairs Chapel is filled with amazing stained glass windows. There are 15 huge windows in total, and almost the entire Chapel is glass instead of stone. They were beautiful with the afternoon sun shining through.
We went back to the hotel to rest our feet before we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We had made a booking for the evening so we also wanted to put on some sightly warmer clothes in case it was freezing up the tower.
I pre-booked tickets online, mostly because I hate waiting in queues, and because I wanted to have a definite time so we would have to go. When we arrived, the lines were huge. The wait was over an hour just to get in the lift. We went to the gate for pre-booked tickets, and breezed straight past all the people waiting and got straight mandarin oriental hotels in a lift. It was all I could do not to yell "in your face line losers!!'....
I was a bit nervous about going up to level two, so I was thinking I'd go up to level one and then have time to get used to that before going higher. mandarin oriental hotels Nope. They don't give you a choice. The lift goes straight from the ground to level two, so I had a little freakout when we got out and didn't venture too close to the edge. It was so windy, my hair was just blowing all over the place.
We had only bought mandarin oriental hotels tickets to level two, not right up to level three, because I thought that would just be too high for me. When we got to level two, you get in a separate lift if you want to go higher, and the wait for that was over 45 minutes, so even if I wanted to go higher, I could never be bothered waiting in line for that long.
After spending a while watching the sunset from level two, we headed down to level one. I enjoyed level one much more than level two. It was much less crowded, and I think we got a better view over Paris. I also didn't find it is scary since it wasn't as high, so I could spend more time admiring the view.
Great photos again,we went right up to Level 3 and I hate heights but I thought what a chance in a lifetime to do that so we did and I am glad that we did as the views were Amazing.. Reply Delete Add comment Load more...