What to give your six-year-old girl for Christmas? Last year, our Little A had one wish that caught our attention. She wanted to go to Paris. We like to travel and it wasn’t long before we found a good spring break flight option. As school is mandatory in Sweden, there are only a few breaks during the year when you can go away for a long time.
Little A had been fascinated by the animated TV series Miraculous during the fall and knew several of the main sights in Paris from this series. We thought it would be extra fun to connect a fictional universe with real experiences. Additionally, it’s nice when movies and series occur in France instead of the usual large cities in the United States.
Out of the six nights in France, we had only booked a hotel room in Paris for the first four. We would decide later if we should stay in Paris or head somewhere else for our last two nights.
Flight to Beauvais–Tillé Airport
We were flying with Ryanair from Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Unfortunately, the flight did not leave from Stockholm Skavsta Airport, which we usually prefer due to its proximity. This time we headed north of Stockholm to Arlanda instead for our morning flight. Little A was, as usual, in a good mood. She tends to be as excited as me about flying. Well, in the sense that we both sleep most of the flight. Sometimes even before takeoff.
So it was quite an uneventful flight down to France. It was, however, a cloudy France that greeted us. It looked like it could begin to rain at any moment in Beauvais. I had forgotten to purchase the bus tickets before leaving Sweden but fortunately, we could book them on the phone after landing. That is how we just a few minutes after arriving in France were onboard a bus towards Paris. A ride that took a little bit over an hour.
Arriving in Paris
The bus eventually dropped us off at Porte Maillot, near the Arc de Triomphe. So we got our bags and began to walk towards the metro next to the monument. This is from where metro line 2 took us to our hotel in the 19th Arrondissement. But before finding out how to purchase tickets for the metro, we just had to take a few touristy photos of the Arc de Triomphe.
We got off at the station Jaurès, from where we just had a few hundred meters to walk to our hotel. It was not the coziest area, with many homeless people setting up their tents around the metro station. It is a sad sight, way too common in many large cities.
After check-in, we continued out for an early dinner. Yes, the time had passed for lunch while we were heading towards the hotel. We left our room and soon found a cozy little Georgian restaurant. We still dream back to the food we ate when visiting Tbilisi in 2016 and couldn’t miss the opportunity to taste some Georgian cuisine. A seven-dish shared menu was eventually our choice and even Little A tried a few things we never thought she would, eggplant and a few other vegetables are usually not high on her wish list for food ingredients.
An Evening Walk in Paris
After our dinner, the two ladies needed some rest. Traveling can drain energy sometimes, especially with early morning flights. I still had a lot of energy left and headed out for an evening walk in Paris. Well, in the 19th Arrondissement. The walk took me along the waterfront of the Le Bassin de la Villette. The basin is the largest artificial lake in Paris, and it was completed in 1808.
A walk across the bridge Passerelle de la Moselle offered me my first glimpse of the Tour Eiffel. Yes, it was far in the distance, but it was there. We would see more of the Eiffel Tower the following day, but seeing it there in the distance made it feel more real. We were really in Paris!
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