đ„ Paris 2026 trip
This February, my girlfriend and I visited Paris for the first time. I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the city. You usually hear a lot of negative things when it comes to Paris - how it’s very dirty, overcrowded, filled with bedbugs etc. But our experience was overall positive, dare I say pretty much perfect for the 5 days we spent in the city of lights.
The good Link to heading
The city looks incredible. It’s basically the classic European architecture turned up to 11. I loved how all the buildings in the “central” districts had dozens of small chimneys on their rooftops.
The Seine river was an ever-present entity during our visit, as basically all the “main” stuff in Paris is built around it. During our visit the river was even more noticable because of the slight flooding that’s been happening in Paris - some paths were closed of because the river has consumed them, either partially or completely.
This however did not stop the people in Paris to enjoy the unusual vibe of this waterfront promenade.
It also looked really cool to meâfor some reason it looks amazing when stuff that’s usually completely above water gets consumed by the element.
The city streets were remarkably clean. Granted, we were usually in the city centre, but after getting bombarded by the bad press that Paris usually gets, this was a very nice surprise. Every morning we saw city workers diligently cleaning the streets. For the whole trip we saw a single rat right next to Notre Dame, which is a totally acceptable amount of rats.
Food was also great. We of course had some traditional pastries like croissants and pain au chocolate, which were a very big step up from the Lidl versions we are used to in Slovakia. I also had some buckwheat crĂȘpes with goat cheese, which was great and a very new taste for me.
The prices also weren’t that horrible. Paris is definitelly more expensive than my home town Bratislava, but not by much. If I had to guess, Paris was only about 25% more expensive, which probably says more about Bratislava than about Paris.
The bad Link to heading
There is not much I would hold against Paris after our trip, but if I had to pick a single thing, it would be the public transport system. The trains / buses were good, but holy moly the system around them is shit.
First, for some reason, you have to install 2 apps. The main one - Bonjour RATP - forces you to install another app so that your phone can be used with the terminals they have. You then buy some tickets through the first app and tap your phone on the terminals / gates.
Some of the gates, however, don’t give you any feedback after scanning your phone - no beep or light that the verification is OK and you can proceed through the turnstiles - this resulted in my girlfriend having to crawl under the turnstiles one time because her ticket was already spent but she missed the window for crossing the turnstiles.
The app also crashed on me multiple times, forcing me to restart it and waiting next to the terminals in one of the busiest cities on the planet.
But the metro trains are automated which is pretty cool - you can sit in the front and watch the dark tunnels unfold as you travel.
Highlights Link to heading
The Paris museum of sewers Link to heading
This was amazing. Basically, a small section of the real Paris sewers was semi-converted into a museum. The section is still actively used - you see sewer water flowing through the cannals, hear the distant waterfalls and see massive pipes going above your head. As it’s basically part of the real sewers, you can also smell it - but it’s not that horrible and only adds to the overall vibe of the place. It was very industrial-feeling and fascinating to me. It also stimulated the water-in-man-made-things part of my brain that also enjoyed flooded Seine.
Notre-Dame Link to heading
Honestly, Notre-Dame is probably the most beautiful building I have ever seen. The pure scale of the cathedral was crazy, and the details everywhere made it almost incomprehensible how anything like this could have been built by people 800 years ago. Our hotel was right next to Notre-Dame, so everytime we went anywhere, we walked right past this beauty. The sound of the bells was very soothing - you could feel the scale of the bells and the bell towers by the resonant and deep sound.
The national air and space museum Link to heading
Another great museum. If you like aerospace and engineering even a little, I recommend this visit wholeheartedly. They have some amazing machines displayed here, most notably 2 real Concordes (that you can go inside), Mirages, some ESA space rockets, WW1 and WW2 planes and many more. Its relatively far from the city centre - around 50 minutes of travel from Notre-Dame, but in my opinion, definitely worth it.
Tips for Paris visit Link to heading
Based on my experience, here are my recommendations if you plan to visit paris
- Go everywhere popular in the morning - For some reason, the city started to feel crowded only in the afternoon. Even for super-popular stuff like the Eiffel Tower, when we went there in the morning at around 9 am, we basically did not wait in any lines.
- If you can, use a bike to get around - according to google maps, the fastest way to get around Paris was by bike. The bike infrastructure looked great, but we did not use it as large portions of it were flooded and we would have to use normal roads which were pretty crowded. The bike infrastructure reminded me of Amsterdam, so it looked very very good.
- Get accommodation near the city center - Our hotel was directly next to Notre-Dame, which definitely helped us explore Paris easier. You travel everywhere for a relatively short time and you can have very nice walks next to the Seine right after stepping out of your hotel.
- Versailles - don’t buy the ticket - You don’t need a ticket to visit the Versailles gardens, which in my opinion is the main attraction. The ticket is for the insides of main chateau and both of the trianons. We went inside and honestly, it was pretty meh. If you’ve seen any European chateau before, this will be very familiar. Its just super fancy old stuff that honestly did not look that interesting in my opinion. If you are not into this stuff, easy skip. The free gardens, however, were beautiful.
TL;DR Link to heading
It’s very good, definitely recommend. Only 1 rat seen. No bedbugs (as far as I know).