Paris, the capital of France, also known as the 'City of Love', is one of the most popular destinations for honeymooners across the globe. Eiffel Tower, the most iconic and recognised monument of France, is a crowd-puller for newly-weds. The reputation of Paris as the city of love has its genesis in the early ages when Paris emerged as the centre for art in Europe and romaticism of love in the various movies that it produced.
I always wanted to plan my honeymoon to this fabled city, where you would find lovers kissing on the Eiffel Tower overlooking the grand city. After I got engaged, Paris was the obvious choice of destination on my mind for my honeymoon.
As we set out on our honeymoon, the first place we decided to visit was the Palace of Versailles. It is a huge palace spread over a million square feet and requires at least half a day to even have a cursory look around. The biggest mistake we made was visit the Palace of Versailles immediately after landing in Paris. After a long and tiring flight, we did not have enough energy to cover the entire palace. However, we enjoyed the visit nevertheless.
The Louvre pyramid is a very famous photo spot seen in numerous blogs. The museum houses the 'Mona Lisa' - the most celebrated work of the prolific artist Leonardo Da Vinci. It is so huge that one would need an entire day to cover the whole place. It is an interesting place for historians and architecture enthusiasts. But the lesser interested people would be seen crowding around the 'Mona Lisa' painting and other chambers would be relatively very empty.
The most overrated place in Paris is the Eiffel Tower. No doubt it looks gorgeous with the blinking lights at night. But in May, it gets dark only at 9pm so you need to wait alot for the day to end. During the day, it is a very ordinary iron structure always crowded with tourists. Paris is well known for pickpockets even at the top of Eiffel Tower where only people with valid tickets are allowed. There are huge sign boards everywhere advising tourists to always be extremely cautious of their belongings.
There is a small interesting museum inside the monument which is the only thing worth visiting. The city view from the top is similar to what you would get from the top of Eiffel tower so you can give this a miss and save on some Euros. Rather, just pose in front of the monument at a good angle for a great photo with it.
This is not one of the best Disneylands from around the world. It is always so crowded that you need to wait for 45 minutes to 1 hour for a ride which would hardly last a minute. Waiting kills the enthusiasm of visiting the place because eventually you will cover very less places in and entire day unless you decide on an overnight stay at Disneyland which comes at an added cost.
The Seine river cruise in the evening was the best part of our trip. One hour of peaceful ride on the river does count for a very romantic experience.
Top Tip : The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum look truly magnificent under the moon light. In case you still plan to go to Paris, make sure you don's miss these views.
A few other points also contributed to a sour experience in Paris -
1. Stay is quite expensive and the rooms are matchbox sized.
2. Food is very expensive and Vegetarian and Vegan options are extremely scarce.
3. Travelling is very expensive and inconvenient - an Uber would cost you around € 14 for 1 km and travelling in a metro is a task for people who don't know French. Most of the signboards and instructions in Paris are in French and even the people there just speak French so no help from anywhere.
Cost of stay and sight-seeing (in Euros):
Hotel Idol (Junior Suite "My Chérie Amour") - € 530 for 3 nights which does not include the local tourist tax (€ 2.48/personight) to be paid at the hotel in Euros. The room was very pretty but we paid a bomb for it.
Palace of Versailles with audio guide - € 18 per person
Skip-the-line Louvre Museum Tour - € 20 per person and € 40 per person with audio guide
Paris City tour at night - € 48 per person
Eiffel Tower 2nd Phase and Seine Cruise - € 60 per person
Arch De Triomphe - € 21 per person
Disneyland and Walt Disney World Paris Day pass - € 107 per adult
