Bonjour, Paris! {Deetour}

I thought it was only right that my first ever step outside of Asia would be on the soil of my #1 dream destination: Paris.

We arrived at 7:30 am. I had enough sleep on our 12-hour straight flight from Singapore (window seat rocks, y’all!) so I didn’t feel jetlagged. I had worried about that. I think it’s best to take flights which arrive in the morning so you can just sleep through the time difference.

There were so many people queuing for the immigration and they were very disorganized. Drew was worried that he had underestimated the time it would take to get from the airport to Thalys, our train to Amsterdam, because after he had booked our ticket he read some blogs saying that it would take more than the three hours he had allotted. But we made it with ample time to eat breakfast at the station – my first coffee and croissant in Paris! ☺️☺️☺️

Galleries Lafayette

We left Paris and frolicked in Amsterdam for two days. When we came back, we took the train to our hostel, Generator Paris, left our luggage, and took the train again to Galleries Lafayette to do some shopping. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mall this pretty!

Then we hurried back to our hotel because we had to make it to our call time with our tour. On the way to our hotel, I saw an interesting sight – a man selling corn grilled on a shopping cart. I love corn, so we bought some, but it didn’t taste good.

We found a grocery store and bought some bread and yogurt for our very late lunch (this was past 4pm). We prioritized shopping over food. 😅

We had booked a tour with Topdeck which would take us through France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy and Vatican. It was supposed to start from London but we decided to meet them in Paris.

Our tour bus arrived from London as we were eating. The tour guide, Ray Ray, handed us our keys to our rooms. Kes and I were in a room with two other girls, while Drew had to room with four boys. Our room had double bunk beds and for the first time in years I had to sleep on the top bunk again. It was cool because each bunk had its own electric port.

We had dinner in the hostel before heading out to the bus for a city lights tour.

Square Louise Michel & Sacre Coeur Church

We went down at Square Louise Michel. We were warned that there were a lot of gypsies who would try to tie a friendship bracelet on your wrist and then ask you 10 euros for it, and it was wise to “keep your hands to yourselves.” Sure enough, I did see a lot of them there, so I did as instructed. 😨

Square Louise Michel is a leafy square and garden offering city views and fountains with steps leading up to Sacre Coeur Church. Oh boy, it was tiring to climb up all those steps! But it was worth it for my first touristy pose in Paris.

City Lights Tour

After that we boarded the bus again and Ray Ray pointed out a lot of nice sights outside the window while giving interesting information about them. I hated that there was a giant sticker on the window which prevented me from getting good shots sometimes.

One time, he told us a fun fact about Napoleon and his teddy bear and said that we could sometimes see the bear on the window of a building on our left, and we should try to have a glimpse, so we did, but we couldn’t find it! Then he said, “now look to your right.”

He had purposely fibbed so we’d get surprised by the Eiffel Tower! 😅

Oh my gosh, the lit up Eiffel Tower at night was such a beauty. Seeing it up close and personal was a long time dream come true! It felt so surreal. 😍

We eventually got back on the bus to see more of Paris in all its lit up glory.

But Eiffel Tower was definitely the highlight.

I have so many pictures of Paris that I thought I’d break them down into bite size pieces instead of cramming all of them into one post.

So I’ll end it here for now. Au revoir!

Up next: The Louvre. To read all my Paris entries, start with Bonjour, Paris.

EUROPE ENTRIES
🇳🇱 Netherlands: The Charm of Amsterdam
🇫🇷 France: Champs Elysees * Eiffel Tower * Louvre * Nice * Seine River Cruise 
🇨🇭 Switzerland: Lauterbrunnen * Jungfrau
🇲🇨 Monaco: Monte Carlo
🇮🇹 Italy: Pisa * Florence * Rome * La Spezia * Cinque Terre
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Edinburgh * Harry Potter Studios * Jersey Channel Islands * London Borough Market * Mayfields Lavender Fields * Oxford, Stratford, & Cotswolds * Richmond * Scottish Highlands * Stonehenge
🇻🇦 Vatican: Vatican 

See all: Europe Tours