A cruise on River Seine, Paris..

Love sunsets? Love cruising on azure waters? I do!! If you could enjoy both these combined with the sights and sounds of Paris, why will you not take it?

Sunset -not on the Seine though!

 

On our first evening in Paris, after visiting the Notre Dame and enjoying some superb gelato and crepes in Amorino (which I have covered in my earlier posts), we decided to just walk down the banks of Seine to head for our evening cruise and discover the monuments of Paris by sunset.

 

To my mind, there is no better way to start your holiday in Paris than an evening cruise on the River Seine. After due research on the net, I decided on the -http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/home/ .

 

The Cost per person for the evening cruise is 10 Euros for adults and 5 Euros for children when booked online. I strongly recommend buying the tickets online as they come cheaper.

 

The cruise departs from Paris’ oldest bridge, the Pont-Neuf and lasts for an hour or so. Metro Stop – Pont Neuf is just on the opposite side of the bridge to the dock. 2 minutes away. Easy to get there and easy to  go back when the cruise is done. The tip is to get there early and get seats right up in the front of the boat.

 

 

The cruise takes you past the glorious Paris monuments from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower and you get to enjoy the wonderfully lit sights of this city at dusk. Paris is also a city of bridges which you will cruise past and enjoy the sounds of the gushing water of the River Seine. The photography opportunity of the lit monuments is something which one has to experience. There is English commentary on the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

We really had a terrific time on the cruise and clicked some wonderful pictures. Once done we got out and walked towards the Louvre Rivoli Metro which is 600 m/ 8 minute walk and boarded the Metro Line 1 towards  La Defense Grand Arche and got down at Franklin D Roosevelt Station from where the apartment is under 5 minute walk.

We ended the day with dinner at a restaurant just off Champs Elysee...
 

Eiffel Tower you will, Amorino you MUST...

While travel is one passion, food is another fetish that I have. While on this journey in Europe I will be taking you through some lip smacking, visual treats, enough to make you feel famished and yearn for more.

After we spent some wonderful time basking in the glory of the Notre Dame and clicking pictures we decided to walk across the Seine over the bridge to some cul-de-sacs.

 

We had some time before getting on board the evening cruise on the Seine and hence thought it would be a great way to initiate ourselves into the Parisien culture. We found some nice memoirs and curio shops where we picked a few things as we kept walking down the cobbled streets in this area.

There were some Asian restaurants serving Indian cuisine, some Greek, some Middle Eastern restaurants serving the usual ‘doner’ and ‘shawermas’.

 

 

 

We then stumbled across this shop where there was a long queue for buying gelatos and I immediately wanted to get in there and my family was also equally delighted to go in.

 

IF YOU ARE IN PARIS, you MUST and I INSIST you MUST visit the ‘Amorino- Gelato Al Naturelle’.  With over 50 shops in France and 20 of them in Paris you will find it difficult to miss one. We visited the one on 16, Rue De la Huchette, across the Seine and a 5 minute walk from the Notre Dame. Especially on days when you have been walking around and tired, this is one place where you can just spend a good 30 minutes and get those batteries re-charged

 

Can you see the people in a queue behind the door?

Well, let us begin with their renowned gelatos. Served in cups and waffle cones, they are a sheer treat to the tired senses! Absolutely delicious ice-cream, presented like a pretty flower in the waffle cone with a center round scoop and then 'petals' made from a spade-like scoop. Each petal can be a different flavour, if you so wish.

 

 

Some of the favourites that I could assess from the people in the queue were Pistachio, Chocolate Orange, Caramel 'au beurre et sel', Tahitian Vanilla and Equatorial Dark Chocolate. The gelato doesn’t come cheap however one just can’t have enough of it.

 

They also offer some amazing waffles; we had ordered for a Waffle with chocolate but were served with crepes. No regrets though, every bite a sheer delight.  They serve Crepes with Caramel, Crepe with Chocolate and Crepe with Ice cream and I am sure each one outdoing the other.

 

What caught my fancy were macaroons with ice-cream. It was rather late and I just did not feel like ordering one as I had my fill. Macaroons with Ice cream- Mango sorbet, Pistachio in between the macaroons was something I had never tasted although I had tasted Laduree and Fauchon macaroons, I thought I would keep it for my next visit to Amorino, which eventually never happened. I had a learning here, if you yearn for something, go for it. Don’t keep it for later, who knows, you may never get there again. Don’t deny yourself of this DIVINE experience.

 

They serve some delicious Latte Macchiato, Cappuccino and Americano Espresso here as well. My only regret is that we visited it JUST once…As they say, keep pining and some day we shall get there...

 

 

 

6 dreamy days in Paris !

Our first port of landing was Paris. It doesn’t take much to fall in love with this city. In fact, it is usually love at first sight. For me, this happened in 1999 when we first visited Paris. It is indeed one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Whether it's a riverside vista that takes in the Seine, the countless bridges, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Eiffel Tower, or the view of elegant buildings and mansard roofs from your room window, one cannot be but smitten.

It is my endeavour my readers to have a seamless holiday and hence I have tried to give all the information in this blog while trying to keep it interesting to read as well. So here goes…

Arrival into Paris & Day 1:

CDG Airport to Paris: (This section is very useful & a recommended read once you finalize your trip or else you can go to the next section i.e. Rest of Day 1)

We landed at the crack of dawn at the Terminal 2C, Charles De Gaulle (CDG) Airport. Immigration was a breeze and took us just a few minutes. CDG airport is in Roissy, about 28 kms from Paris city.

The CDG airport is one of the busiest airports in Europe and if you are not going through an organized tour it will be useful for your onward commute to your hotel in Paris. CDG has 3 terminals; Terminal 2 consists of seven sub-terminals: 2A to 2G. This can sound intimidating but no worries; all you need to do is follow directions at the airport and tips in this blog.

If you know the airline that you are travelling, you can click on the below link to find out which terminal you will be landing.

http://www.easycdg.com/1/airport-guide/which-terminal/which-terminal-information-paris-cdg-airport-charlesdegaulle/.

 There are several ways to reach the charming city of Paris from the airport.



Ways to reach Paris city from CDG Airport



 

For more information you may click on

http://www.easycdg.com/1/ground-transportation/ground-transportation-access-paris-cdg-airport/

The quickest and most convenient way is to take the RER train and we did exactly that. However if you have too much luggage and are arriving during peak rush hours you may want to consider an alternative form of transport.

Follow the signs "Gare SNCF"/"Railway Station" to make your way to the train station.

 

Commuting between terminals (T1, T2 & T3) is also well marked and either on foot or CDVAL the inter-terminal airport train.

If your arrival is in one of the sub-terminals of Terminal 2. The below will be useful to you.

 

Charles de Gaulle railway station is underneath terminal 2, between terminals 2C/2E and 2D/2F, it consists of a 5-storey building.

Buying tickets:

There are 2 ways in which you can buy a RER ticket:-

Ticket-vending machines: Credit cards with an embedded microchip and PIN will work in these. Mine luckily had one so we ended up using the machine.

Ticket counter: Where you can pay with cash or a credit card. However these may be shut down late nights and early morning.

This ticket is good enough for you to reach your destination using both RER and Metro lines, keep inserting it in the turnstiles. I bought 2 Carnets (kar-nay) of tickets. Each Carnet has 10 tickets and can be used in the Metro.

Typically you would be getting down in one of the first 3 stations mentioned below, depending on where you have chosen your hotel/apartment and then take the connecting Metro Line to reach your hotel. We did just that….

 

 

 

 

 

The connecting Metro Lines are mentioned alongside the station for example: From ‘Gare Du Nord’ you could take the Metro Line 2, 4 or 5 OR you could also connect to RER D & E. The Metro is super convenient and again cost effective. We got down at the ‘Chatelet Les Halles’ station and took the Connecting Metro Line 1 to finally alight at Franklin D Roosevelt Metro station on Champs Elysee. Our rental apartment was a 4 minute walk from this metro station.

While using the transportation just remember “Correspondence" in French means roughly "transfer point" to connect with a different Metro Line & "Sortie" means "exit”.

I strongly recommend going through the enclosed link before using the metro. You will enjoy using the metro once you familiarize yourself with it.

http://parisbytrain.com/tag/paris-metro/

Rest of Day 1: I had taken printouts of directions using google maps to go from the Roosevelt Metro station to the apartment at Rue Du Colisée. The directions, distance and time taken are precise so please do use google maps.

The apartment was located on Level 2 of the building and after an overnight flight it was quite tiring heaving the bags up but we managed to do that, had coffee with some brioche and slept for a few hours. The weather in Paris was just fabulous, the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds and an occasional light drizzle. We were famished by the time (2 pm) we were ready to hit the streets of Paris.

We got down and just outside the apartment building was a restaurant ‘Mezzo Di Pasta ‘serving pastas and salads, just the right things for us. With hungry rumbling tummy’s we polished the pastas and some salad with ‘still aqua’. The restaurant was functional and served the office goers and not a fine dining venue. We were a happy trio with the stomach’s becoming content. We then set of to visit the Notre Dame. We used the Metro and got there very comfortably. 

Whether you opt to explore the historic, fashion-conscious, bourgeois, or bohemian and arty sides of Paris, one thing is certain, the City of Light will always enthrall.

Notre Dame

 

So au revoir until my next...