Paris, France — Wild Rumpus Travel

Highlights

St German & the Latin Quarter
Saint Chapelle Flower Market
Seine Boat Tour
Tuileres Garden

Why visit Paris?

For a vibrant city full of chic people, cosmopolitan culture, stunning architecture, and wonderful food.

Getting There and Around

In April 2024 we visited Austria and Paris by train from the UK. For a cost of £250 per adult (children under 12 are free) we purchased interrail passes. These took us all the way from Sheffield to Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Paris and back.

After spending 2 nights in Innsbruck we took the train to Mannheim in Germany (5 hours). This was a very nice train, with clean toilets, excellent on board catering, and up to date information screens.

We then had a tight, but in theory, feasible 14 minute connection in Mannheim to catch the TGV to Paris. The train from Innsbruck to Mannheim was running late, and we ended up with just 3 minutes to run from one platform to the other at Mannheim.

The other passengers kindly let us alight first and showed us which way to go. We sprinted the length of platform 8, down the stairs, through the tunnel, and up another flight of stairs to platform 3 - no mean feat with backpacks - and we made it with seconds to spare.

Seat reservations on the TGV were mandatory (£17 each). No one checked our tickets during the 3 hour journey, and lots of people didn’t have seats and were stood or sat in the vestibules. So the ‘mandatory reservation’ requirement confused us and we felt like we could have travelled with just our Interrail passes rather than forking out nearly £70 for seat reservations.

Anyway, we made it to Paris and it was wonderful to travel all the way from Austria to France by train so quickly, with very little hassle and no border checks.

In Paris we took the metro to our hotel in Saint Germain. We knew we wouldn’t be using the metro much so we just purchased single one-way ‘t+ tickets’ (£1.85 each). For the rest of our time in Paris we walked to get around.

Accommodation

We stayed for 2 nights at the Hotel La Perle at a cost of £475 per night for 2 connecting rooms and breakfast. This was much more than we’d normally spend on accommodation. Unfortunately when we were arranging our trip we hadn’t realised that our dates coincided with the Paris marathon, and that rates were inflated across the city.

We chose this hotel as it came highly recommended, and the family sleeping arrangements were the best we could find in central Paris. The WiFi was free and generally reliable. The rooms were quite small but cosy, and each had luxurious en-suite bathrooms. The service was polite and friendly. We missed having a kettle to make our own tea, and a little more space to move around the rooms would have been nice.

The continental breakfast was very good and great value at just £4 per person (when rooms are booked directly with the hotel). The breakfast room and adjoining courtyard were light and pleasant.

The hotel was located in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighbourhood on the south bank. The location of the hotel was fantastic, just 2 minutes walk from the Metro. The area was a delightful mix of cafes and shops, in pretty narrow streets with hanging baskets. Yes it was touristy, but it felt very Parisian and we loved it.

Our star rating: 3

Our cost rating: 1

Saint Germain and the Latin Quarter

We hadn’t been very organised and failed to book time slot tickets for any museums or galleries. But because we’ve visited Paris before, and as we only had one full day this time, we decided it was ok not to visit any of the major museums but just to walk around and soak up the atmosphere.

We started the day with a breakfast of eggs, pastries and orange juice at the hotel. Then we spent the morning walking through Saint Germain and on to the Latin Quarter, stopping to take photos and pop into shops that looked interesting.

We walked to Église Saint-Sulpice on the road of our hotel, and then up to Rue de Buci, on to the Musee de Cluny and Samuel Paty Square, the Sorbonne, the Pantheon, and back up to the river. We stopped en route for a rest in the small but peaceful Square André Lefevre.

During this walk we looked in lots of shops including Taschen Books, San Francisco Books, The Abbey Bookshop, Momie Mangas and Album Comics. Sadly we didn’t find a cheese shop, but it’s probably to the benefit of our waistlines.

Finally, we reached Shakespeare and Co Books at the river. There was a long queue to get into the bookshop and as we’ve visited before we opted to skip the shop and rest our feet and enjoy some drinks at the cafe in the sunshine instead.

Saint Chapelle Flower Market

After our walk around the south bank we crossed the bridge to Ile de Cite and took a look at the ongoing restoration of Notre Dame before heading to Saint Chapelle. Here we visited the flower market which was full of gorgeous tulips, roses, scented jasmine, and hydrangeas.

Seine Boat Tour

We booked tickets for the boat tour operated by Vedettes Du Pont Neuf. We booked open time tickets (£10 each) so we could just join the next tour departing whenever we reached Pont Neuf.

We like seeing cities from their waterways and we think a boat tour down the Seine is a great way to see some of the city’s major landmarks. There is, of course, the Eiffel Tower, but the boat also goes past the Musee D’Orsay, Musee Du Louvre, Trocadero and the Statue of Liberty (a replica of the one in New York), among many other famous buildings.

After the boat tour we were all hungry so we walked across the river to the north bank where we had a really great late lunch at brasserie La Cafe Plume. The kids were delighted that their children’s meals of steak, salad and french fries came with ice cream for dessert. The service was excellent.

Jardin des Tuileries

We then walked to the Jardin des Tuileries next to Musée du Louvre. The garden was stunning in the sunshine with beautiful blossoms and spring bulbs.

We didn’t make it to the playground as we were all tired, and Mal had a headache, so we walked back to Saint Germain.

Before calling it a day Harriet and the kids popped into Crêperie des Canettes next door to our hotel (while Mal went to rest).

Even though we’d had a big lunch and were still full, this was the last day of our holiday, and we couldn’t leave Paris without eating a crêpe! The kids had Nutella (heathens), and Harriet the classic sugar and butter.

The verdict: 10/10, absolutely scrumptious, left us wanting more!

Final Thoughts

During past trips we’ve visited many of the museums and parks, and have stayed in different parts of the city including in a tiny hotel in Montmarte, and in a generous friend’s stunning apartment near the Place D’Italie in the 13th Arrondissement. We loved the Saint Germain location though, and would definitely stay in this area again in future.

With just one full day in Paris we couldn’t do a lot, and we didn’t want to rush around trying to cram everything in. Also, we visited on a Monday when many museums were closed, and those that were open, were fully reserved before we organised ourselves to book tickets.

So we spent the day simply moseying around, moving slowly, chilling at cafes and taking it all in. It was a lovely end to a fabulous spring holiday in Europe.

This trip has inspired us to return to Paris in the near future. We’d love to revisit some of our favourite things in Paris that we didn’t manage this time like Monet’s waterlilies at Musée de l'Orangerie, and the view from the Sacré-Cœur.

During our two days in Paris we went way over our usual budget thanks to high accommodation costs and spent: