7 days in Paris: my route around the city

When I was planning a week in Paris, everything looked perfect in my head: coffee and a croissant in the morning, museums and walks in the afternoon, and a glass of wine in the evening with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Of course, reality quickly made its adjustments. But my experience has shown more than once that expectations and reality are not the same thing.
During the week, I managed to get lost, get wet in the rain, come to the closed door of the restaurant and choose the wrong subway line several times. But it seems that it is precisely because of these small failures that I remember Paris as the present.

Day 1. Exploring Paris and the first failure

On the first day, I decided not to overload the sights. I left my suitcase, left the hotel, and just went for a walk. The first point of the route was the Seine embankment. From there, I walked to Notre Dame, looked at the Isle de la Cité, and then headed towards the Latin Quarter.

And it was here that the first failure occurred. After the trip, I naturally got hungry, and instead of choosing a normal cafe, I sat down in the first place near the tourist street. As a result, I got an expensive, but cold and tasteless omelet.

But in the evening I bought a baguette, cheese and fruit and had a simple dinner. It turned out much tastier and much more Parisian than my expensive lunch.

Day 2. Louvre, Tuileries and 20,000 steps

The Louvre Museum was scheduled for the second day. I naively thought that I would spend two or three hours there. As a result, I came out almost five hours later with the feeling that my brain was no longer able to perceive art.

After leaving the Louvre, I walked through the Tuileries Garden to the Place de la Concorde, and then decided to walk to the Arc de Triomphe.

It turned out to be a mistake)))

By the evening, the phone showed more than 20 thousand steps, my legs officially refused to cooperate, and the new shoes, of course, rubbed my heel. I had to find a pharmacy and buy patches. The romance of Paris at that time looked something like this: I was sitting on a bench, taping my leg and eating chocolate from the nearest supermarket.

When the lights on the Champs-Elysees came on in the evening, the good mood finally returned.

Day 3. Montmartre and the rain that "should not have been"

I completely reserved the third day for Montmartre. In the morning I went up to the Sacré Coeur Basilica, looked at the city from above and went to wander through the small streets.

It was the Paris I had imagined before the trip: old houses, small cafes, artists, stairs, balconies, and random beautiful courtyards.

And then it started to rain.

The umbrella was left in the room, of course, because it was sunny in the morning. 10 minutes later, I was already standing under the tiny awning of the store, along with several other equally optimistic people. As a result, I bought the most tourist umbrella in Paris, which broke down two days later. After the rain, I still made it to the Place des Tertres, and in the evening I found a small bistro away from the busiest streets. I ordered onion soup and decided that wet jeans could be considered part of the French experience.

Day 4. Eiffel Tower and the Subway War

The fourth day is the Eiffel Tower. I specially came in the morning to see her without the evening crowd. Then I walked along the Champ de Mars, reached the Trocadero and sat for a long time with coffee, just looking at the tower.

After lunch, I decided to take the subway to another area. And this is where my personal war with Parisian transport began. It turns out that I got on the wrong side, and noticed it after a few stops, got off, moved to another platform, then for some reason I got the wrong direction again. At one point, my route on my phone looked like I had specifically decided to explore underground Paris.

The trip, which was supposed to take twenty minutes, stretched for almost an hour. But in the evening I returned to the Eiffel Tower. When the lights turned on, all my transportation misery instantly ceased to matter.

Day 5. Croissants, Mare and a closed cafe

On the fifth day, I decided to arrange the most peaceful morning for myself. I found a bakery, bought a fresh croissant and coffee, and went for a walk around the Marais.

I really liked this area: here you can walk for hours without a specific purpose, go into small shops, look at the windows and periodically stop for coffee.

The main gastronomic point of the day was supposed to be the cafe, which I had saved at home. I specially set the route so that I could be next to him for lunch.

Came.

Closed.

It turned out that the establishment was not working that day. Of course, it did not occur to me to check the schedule in advance.

In the end, I bought a sandwich and ate it on the first bench I saw. And suddenly it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable dinners of the entire trip: the usual Parisian life is around, someone is walking the dog, someone is reading, someone is in a hurry to work. No specially created atmosphere, just a city.

Day 6. Versailles and the fatigue of beauty

On the sixth day, I decided to get out of the center and go to Versailles.

The palace is really impressive, but by this point I had already realized an important thing: even beauty can get tired. After the halls, paintings, gold, and endless photographs, I went out into the gardens and realized that what I most wanted was not cultural experiences, but just to sit down.

Of course, I also forgot to have a proper breakfast before the trip. That's why I looked around Versailles for about half of it with one thought: "Where can I eat here?" There were no plans for the evening. I returned to Paris, went to the supermarket, bought ready-made food and had dinner in my room. And you know what? After six days of restaurants and cafes, this dinner seemed almost perfect.

Day 7. Paris without a plan

I purposely left the last day empty. No tickets. No mandatory museums. There is no timetable by the minute.

I went out to the Seine again, bought coffee, went to several bookstores, walked the streets for a long time and returned to places that I liked in the early days.

And that's when I realized that my best day in Paris turned out to be a day without a route.

During the week, I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Montmartre, Notre Dame, the Marais, Versailles and dozens of beautiful streets. But for some reason I remember not only them.

I remember the broken umbrella. Patches after 20 thousand steps. A closed cafe, for which I walked half the city. A trip in the wrong direction by subway. Dinner from the supermarket and that unfortunate omelet on the first day.

That's probably how travel should be. Because the ideal route can be saved in notes. And the real trip starts exactly at the moment when something doesn't go according to plan.