This was my first visit to Paris and I was not disappointed. We stayed in the Hoel Helvetia very close to Gare de Lyon station ( chosen for that reason). The Hotel was clean, comfortable with an amazingly large bathroom & very reasonably priced.
We had two full days in Paris so not enough to see everything so I decided I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. John is very familiar with Paris and speaks good French so for him it was lovely to hear French and to speak it.
So on the first day Thursday we set off to walk along the banks of the Seine towards Notre Dame. We walked most of the way down on the embankment itself. Most of it has been developed for leisure and has lots of houseboats and pretty gardens. It was a long walk and when we got to Notre Dame there was a long Q to get in so we decided to walk on to the Eiffel Tower which is pretty impressive close up.
After a picnic lunch we walked back to Notre Dame and went in. Much to our surprise there was a service on the music was beautiful so we just sat & listened.
On the Friday ( my legs were very tired) we used the Metro more. We went to the Pompidou Centre and then the Arc de Triomphe & from there walked all the way down the Champs Elysees. Beautiful with some lovely shops and pretty "gardens".
