Three Nights in Paris

Like last year, Else planned a short trip for Ilse as a birthday gift. While we went canoe camping near Berlin last year, this year’s trip brought us to Paris. Paris! Both of us had been to Paris before, but we never visited the city of love and romance together.

While planning the trip, Else thought a lot about traveling in times of COVID-19, but cases of new infections were dropping, Paris is just a three hour train ride from Cologne, France seems to be very responsible when it comes to prevention measures. Then, about a week before we were bound to leave, numbers in Europe started to rise again. What was supposed to be a surprise destination, had to be revealed and discussed. We finally decided to go, be super careful, and monitor the numbers. It was a rather stressful trip, but fun nonetheless!

Probably because of the pandemic, hotel rates in the center of Paris were very low and we had a wonderful hotel with a view on the Hôtel des Invalides from our room. We could walk to the Eiffel Tower or the Seine in just fifteen minutes. Being careful, we also walked to and from the train station, Paris-Nord, to Sacré-Cœur and Montmartre, and to all the other sights. In the end, we walked more than 50 kilometers in four days! And although walking all these distances was tiring at times, we also saw so much we wouldn’t have discovered otherwise (plus: workout included!).

On our first day, we walked from the station to Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur. On our way, we were offered drugs and witnessed pickpockets—a rather disturbing start. But when we reached the basilica and had our first views on Paris, we (almost) forgot these things. Walking down to our hotel took us a while, but we saw so much from Paris, including Moulin Rouge, had the best crêpes we ever ate, and had so many glimpses on the Eiffel Tower and its strange beauty.

When we finally arrived at our hotel, it was better than we had expected. Walk-in rates for our room would have been 500€ per night! When we opened the windows and sat on our bed, we could almost touch the Hôtel des Invalides. After we had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant the first night, our bed became our favorite place to eat for the last nights. We had cheese, wine, baguette, and the best view. We couldn't have wished for anything else!

On our second and third days, we explored all the major tourist spots: the Seine and its bridges (more views on the Eiffel Tower!), the Louvre that we sadly couldn't (or wouldn't) visit, the Île de la Cité, a river island in the Seine where Notre-Dame is located. We took a stroll on the Champs-Élysées, had the first macarons in our lives, and visited the Arc de Triomphe.

The last day, before we had to leave in the afternoon, we explored Le Marais, a part of the city where particularly Jews and the LGBTQ+ community live. The rainbow colors were visible everywhere. And what was so visible here was exactly how we felt during our entire trip: accepted. We never felt unaccepted or disrespected. No one stared or made comments. We wish we would have had more time; we wish we could have visited all the fantastic museums. But we will certainly be back and explore more.