Two days before my sister and I were to get on a plane for London. we realized we were flying in a day before our hotel reservation. Oops! Suddenly we had to figure out an extra night of accommodations. Trying to find a last minute hotel in London… that is affordable… is insane!! It didn’t take long for us to realize it would be cheaper for us to fly off to Paris once we landed in Gatwick and stay the night in the city of light.

So that’s exactly what we did. 

We found a great hotel on Booking.com, close to the Metro and only a 10-min walk from the Champs Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, L’ Hotel Pergolèse. It wasn’t until we were checking out and saw the publicly posted rate that we realized just how great of a deal we got!  

The hotel was very clean, the room was cosy with a comfortable bed, and good sized bathroom (with bathrobes). The actual tub/shower was on the tiny side (I’m only 5’6″ and I found it small)… taking a bath was easier than taking a shower. The staff were very friendly and helpful with where to eat and what to see. In each room they provide an android for guests to use during their time in Paris. The android has wifi, useful apps (inc. google maps) and free calls for selected countries. Guests can carry it around the city and charge it on the room.  There’s free WiFi and it’s a strong connection. I had no problems doing a Facebook Live video from my room. 

We quickly dropped our bags, changed our shoes and took a taxi to the Eiffel Tower. 

It was my sister’s first time in Paris. I’d been here before, but it had been years… our now 18 year old son was at that time only 7 months old. My husband and I were backpacking through Paris, Switzerland and Italy. 

The sun was setting fast. We didn’t want to miss a minute of our time in Paris, we’d been traveling since the night before, awake for almost all of it. We were both tired and a little cold but that wouldn’t slow us down. P.S. Spring in Paris isn’t as warm as I was expecting it to be, but we couldn’t come all this way and not go all the way to the top! 

We were up there for the 9pm champagne light show. 

Around 10:30pm we walked from our hotel to La Maison for authentic French fare. It was our first full meal in Paris and it didn’t disappoint! It had a good bistro atmosphere, the tables were close together and the service was friendly. I wasn’t drinking the last time I visited in 1999 (I was nursing), so when I ordered a 13 oz glass and paid €12 for it, I had a little bit of sticker-shock, that’s $17.50 Canadian! (an 8 oz glass was €7)

We were both wide awake at 4am, stupid jet lag, far too early to start exploring the city together, so we closed our eyes and slept some more. A little too much more… 5 hours later we jumped out of bed. We didn’t want to run around on an empty stomach so we splurged for breakfast at our hotel. 

We left our bags with the hotel for the day so we could tour the rest of Paris proper. We had a good amount of time before we had to take the train back to the airport. After all, our original trip to London was still calling. 

With the time we had, we decided to take a 1-hour guided Seine River Cruise with Vedettes de Paris. They have a recorded audio commentary in English, Spanish, and French. For about €15 you get to discover the best of Paris. The cruise ships can be found at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on the Seine.

We passed by major attractions like the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, Notre-Dame de Paris, and Pont Neuf. It was a cold and rainy day so the boat was light on occupants. We were able to freely move about from inside to outside with ease. 

We took dozens of photos and videos, snaps and Instagram stories along the route and decided we’d explore Pont Neuf and Notre-Dame a little more after we disembarked. We jumped on a bus and headed for the birthplace of Paris. 

24 hours after landing in Paris we were off to London to meet up with our mom, two of our aunts and one of our cousins. It was a girls-only trip to Wembley, we were all very excited to attend a global sisterhood 2.5 day conference, Hillsong Colour.  

I’ll tell you about that next time…