TMQE Travels || FRANCE - Paris in Summer (travel tips)

TMQE Travels are travelling again! This time we’re back in Paris, this time in summer, strolling along the banks of the Seine and visiting The Louvre, Notre Dame, Centre Pompidou, Opera Garnier, Pantheon, Invalides, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Chateua de Vincennes, Montmartre and the Sacre Couer as well as a brief trip out in into the rolling French countryside.
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a European roadtrip exploring the best places for a city break on the continent. We love to escape Britain to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that Europe has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re in Paris, we will show you the best things to put on your itinerary.
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Transcript:
Paris is a remarkable city. With the combination of its wide boulevards, grand public buildings and genuinely iconic landmarks, there is definitely something about Paris that makes it really stand out. That certain je ne sais quoi. This is our second video about Paris and in our last one, we took you inside The Louvre. The world’s largest museum it is housed inside the former palace of the French Kings. Its distinctive – and initially controversial – glass pyramid was built in 1989 and I don’t know about you, but I love the contrast between the shiny new architecture and the beautiful old palace. Except it wasn’t beautiful enough for Louis XIV, who abandoned the palace and built Versailles instead.
A stroll along the famous River Seine inevitably leads you to the Notre Dame, the medieval cathedral that has stood proudly on the Ile de la Cite since 1160. Proudly until last year that is, until a small fire got in the way. The entire roof and spire went up in smoke and I, like all Parisians, watched in horror as it burned. So a trip to the Notre Dame nowadays means you only get to see it from outside.
Paris is famous for its museums and galleries. This time we went to Le Centre Pompidou, which is the city’s biggest museum of modern art.
The Opera Garnier was built by Napoleon III and is the epitome of opulence. Finished in 1875, it is named after its architect Charles Garnier and even though its artistic and architectural merit means it earns its status as one of the city’s most remarkable landmarks. It is probably best well-known for being the setting for Gaston Leroux’s famous novel The Phantom Of The Opera and all its subsequent adaptations for stage and screen.
Across the city and we also had a look inside the Pantheon. Originally a church, it was commissioned by Louis XV, but by the time it was finished, the French Revolution was in full swing. It was decided that the building was to be repurposed as The Temple of the Nation; a mausoleum, in which Paris’ most distinguished citizens would be buried, just like the Pantheon in Rome.
The crown jewel of the city is of course The Eiffel Tower. Finished in 1889, it was built by Gustav Eiffel for the World’s Fair and was meant to be a temporary structure. But people loved it so much that they kept it. 130 years later and it’s still here! It’s 321 metres high, which is the equivalent of an 81 storey building and is the tallest structure in the city. In fact it held the title of the Tallest Structure in the world for 41 years. And a trip up the tower is absolutely worth it.
Meanwhile, don’t expect the roads around the Arc de Triomphe to ever look this quiet again. As a Parisian, I have to say how remarkable it was to see Paris as quiet as it was in summer 2020 thanks to COVID. I doubt we’ll never see it like that again. Because the usual density of traffic here is world famous!
Of course the most famous suburb is Montmartre, the spiritual home of bohemians worldwide. With its narrow winding streets and steep slopes, Montmartre is very distinctive, reminiscent of Old Paris, of the time before Haussman rebuilt most of the city in the nineteenth century. Towering over everything is the Sacre-Couer, the famed basilica built at the highest point in the city. The building of the Sacre-Couer was started after the socialist Paris Commune of 1871 and was designed to constantly remind Paris’ most rebellious suburb about the Catholic conservative values the government wanted its residents to hold. It took four decades to build and wasn’t actually consecrated until after the First World War.It’s an impressive structure and the views from the top are pretty spectacular.