WHAT TO SEE ON CITé ISLAND

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Day 4: Paris: Louvre - What to see on the Cité Island: Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chapelle- Alexander III Bridge - Charles de Gaulle Airport - Barcelona - Lloret de Mar

We start the day at 6:30 in the morning at the Hôtel Résidence Nell to receive a visit from the staff of the accommodation in our room at 8, with the fresh breakfast that will give us strength and energy, this last day of the trip to Paris in 4 days to discover all the places what to see in Cité Island, the place where we will focus tomorrow morning.

Breakfast at the Nell Residence

At the Hôtel Résidence Nell, against the Hotel de Nell, where we were the first days of the trip, there is no buffet breakfast, but they offer you a daily list, select what you want and at the time you choose they serve you directly in the room . A different concept but really, we have to say that we liked it.

It's about 9 in the morning, today we took it with some more peace of mind, when we left the hotel leaving our luggage at reception and taking the subway to go directly to the Louvre.
The idea, although we have to say that I would not have loved it is not to enter, since we have practically no time, but to take a walk through one of the most spectacular museums in the world and also in the surroundings, to be able to take a picture of the day and remember the visit we made on the trip to Paris in 12 days and from here follow the itinerary we have planned today, with all things what to see in Cité Island.
A good option to learn more about the history of the city is to book this free tour of Paris with a guide in Spanish. Free!

Louvre

Louvre Museum

We have to keep in mind that the Louvre Museum It is not only the most important museum in France, but also one of the most visited in the world, so it is very common to find queues, even at the time of opening.
If you want to make this visit (in addition to enjoying the surroundings), we recommend that you come early in the morning, when the organized groups have not yet arrived to be able to take a walk around the surroundings and enjoy the surroundings almost without people. The same happens if you want to see this area at night, as we did the first day of the trip, it is best to come late in the afternoon, at which time the light begins to go down and wait for people to take their photos to tour the enclosure with tranquility.

For the visit to the Louvre Museum, proper, we can make the long visit or a shorter visit, in which to see the most important works such as La Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci, Las Bodas de Caná de Veronés, La Venus de Milo , The seated scribe or The Winged Victory of Samothrace.
If you want to do the short visit, calculates approximately 4-5 hours to make the tour and enjoy it with some peace of mind.

Visiting hours are: Monday, Thursday, Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Keep in mind that on Tuesdays the museum remains closed.
The entrance fee is 15 euros and free for children under 18 years.

One of the options to make the most of the visit to the Louvre is to opt for a guided tour in Spanish, with which you will also skip the lines.

Although we see that time comes upon us with all things what to see in Cité Island that we have in the planning, we cannot avoid staying a little longer in the Louvre Museum enjoying one of the most symbolic images of Paris.

Louvre Museum

Pyramids of the Loyvre Museum

From here we set off to the Ile de la Cité, approaching the Bridge of the Arts, where we see a painter who is painting a totally exceptional painting, in front of which we are left with our mouths open, where at the same time we are spectators of a robbery of a group of girls to some tourists.

Bridge of the Arts in Paris

After this episode, in which we help the girl to make herself understood with the police in French, since she does not speak the language, and that the body returns to normal after the shock, we go directly to the Cathedral of Notre Dame , where we want to climb the towers, since in our previous stay in the city, the weather was quite covered and the views of Paris were as spectacular as we would have liked.

Notre Dame Cathedral. What to see on Cité Island

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- Tour of Paris, boat trip and Eiffel Tower
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We look at the clock and seeing that it is 11:00 in the morning and that with the tail there is they tell us that it will take approximately 30 or 45 minutes, we decide to take turns, since we are in full sun, to climb the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral and today, that the day is very clear, finally enjoy the spectacular views of Paris.

Details of Paris in front of Notre Dame

What to see on the Cité Island: Notre Dame Cathedral

The Notre Dame Cathedral, located on the Cité Island, is one of the most visited cathedrals in France and also in the world, being also one of the oldest Gothic cathedrals in the world. As with the Louvre, this is also one of the most visited places in Paris and one of the 100 things to see and do in Paris that we recommend, so it is worth getting up early and start queuing up before the organized groups arrive.

Visit to the Notre Dame Cathedral

On weekends there are free guided tours in Spanish every Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and in English on Wednesday and Thursday at 2:00 p.m.
The entrance to the Notre Dame Cathedral is free, something that also makes the queues even bigger, so it is advisable to arrive before 10 in the morning and thus avoid long access lines.

Visit crypt of Notre Dame

In this crypt, which is located in the basement of the same square of Notre Dame, you can see the ruins that were discovered during the excavations of 1965. The price of admission is 7 euros. We do not enter any of our visits to Paris, so we cannot recommend this visit or not.

Climb the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral

The Notre Dame Cathedral has two 69-meter towers from which you have fantastic views of Paris, including the gargoyles, symbolic element of this incredible cathedral, which can be seen and almost touched on the visit.
To access the towers from heading to the entrance (a small door) on the left side of the cathedral. Once you enter, you must train yourself to 387 steep steps to reach the highest area of the towers and have Paris at your feet.
The price of access to the Notre Dame towers is 8.50 euros per person.
A good option to learn more about its history and climb the towers is to book this guided tour in Spanish.

45 minutes pass when we finally reach what is the entrance to the towers of Notre Dame, where we pay 8.50 euros per person and we are ready to climb (or assume) the almost 400 steps that separate us from first of the platforms, from where we have really spectacular views of Paris and that is with the day so discovered that we have It really is worth and very much worth the effort and the time to have climbed here.

Notre Dame in Paris

Views of the Sacre Coeur from Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower from Notre Dame. What to see on Cité Island

We spend approximately 20 minutes on this floor and then go up to the second, where to get there we have to climb almost a hundred and a half more stairs. Comment that the stairs are very narrow and snail, so it is better to take it easy and climb slowly, without committing excesses and more if we are not very fit.
After a few minutes of ascent, we arrive at the highest area of the Notre Dame Cathedral, from where we have more exceptional views if possible, but this time from the highest point of Notre Dame, from where we can see the rooftops and the gargoyles a few centimeters.

Amazing views of Paris from Notre Dame

Rooftops of Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower from Notre Dame

It is practically 1 noon when we leave the Notre Dame Cathedral, but not before turning our heads to have a final vision of this special place in Paris, where we could not leave without making a visit and enjoying one of the the most special views of the city.

Notre Dame. What to see on Cité Island

While in this area we cannot stop approaching Shakespeare & Company, one of the most famous bookstores in the world, where we had not entered our previous visit to Paris.

Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare & Company Bookstore Street

How could it be otherwise, we enter and enter a world in which we would stay days and days, but that due to the number of tourists that we meet in their halls and seeing as many of the customers that are there they look at us with some discomfort (and with all the reason), we decided after a few minutes to conclude the visit and stay with the image of one of the most historical bookstores in Europe.

Willing to look for a place to eat, we realize that right next door we have the restaurant Le Petit Chatelet a highly recommended restaurant on TripAdvisor, where we decided to stay to eat a plate of salmon and one of meat, more water and two express for 46 euros, a price more than adjusted telling that we are almost in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the quality is very good.

Le Petit Chatelet Restaurant

It's a little after 2:30 in the afternoon when we continue our tour of what to see on the Cité Island, approaching the Sainte Chapelle, another of the places we didn't want to miss on this trip to Paris. As soon as we arrive we see that there is also a line, but it does not take more than 15 minutes to reach the ticket offices where, after paying 10 euros per person, we enter one of the most beautiful chapels in Paris and also in the world.

Sainte Chapelle

View to the Sainte Chapelle

La Sainte Chapelle, located on the Cite Island, is a Gothic-style church, which once housed the relics of the Passion of Christ, relics that were later saved, those that survived, in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Notre Give to me.

The entrance fee to the Sainte Chapelle is 10 euros and free for children under 18 years. The schedule, from March 1 to October 31, is from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. From November 1 to February 28 the schedule is reduced until 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. A good option to know the history of this church and not miss any detail is to book this visit with an expert guide in Spanish that also includes the Notre Dame Cathedral. If you do not want to do any guided tour you can book this ticket without queues in advance.

Lower chapel of the Sainte Chapelle

This chapel, with a statue of the Virgin presiding over the room, is decorated in all reds and blues, reproducing a medieval decoration. Despite the spectacular of it, it is much more modest than the upper chapel.

Upper chapel of the Sainte Chapelle

The upper chapel is decorated much more sumptuously than the lower chapel, highlighting the stained glass, sculptures and colors of the room.

After this visit, we have to say that knowing that we had already visited it, we really had a very vague memory, something that makes us realize, as it happened to us on the trip to Rome in a weekend, to return to the places we have already been, in addition to showing you how you have changed, it gives you memories that you already had completely forgotten.

It's after three in the afternoon when we leave the Sainte Chapelle with the idea of starting to finish this tour that has taken us through the points to see on the Cité Island, but we cannot say goodbye to Paris without approaching the Bridge Alejandro III, one of the places that we did not travel on our previous trip and that we did not want to leave for an upcoming occasion.

Alexander III Bridge

Eiffel Tower from the Alexander III Bridge

After walking around the area and seeing that our time in Paris begins to run out, we decided that the time has come to take the subway to go to the Hôtel Résidence Nell, collect the bags and make way to the Charles de Gaulle airport, from where Our flight leaves for Barcelona this afternoon-night.

How to get from Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport

We have several options for go from Paris to Charles de Gaulle:
- Roissybus: Bus that leaves from the Opera Square and connects to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in approximately 60 minutes (it depends a lot on traffic). The price of the ticket is 11 euros per person and they have service from 5:45 in the morning until 11 at night.
Stop at all the terminals of the Charles de Gaulle airport, except at 2G and the stop is at the corner of Scribe and Auber streets //bit.ly/2dvaiW8, in the Opera Square.
- RER: Line B connects the center of Paris with the Charles de Gaulle airport in about 30 minutes or so. The price is 10 euros and with this you can change in the subway if necessary.
- Taxi: The price of a taxi from the center of Paris to the Charles de Gaulle airport is approximately 70 euros. You have to apply nightly supplement, holidays and Sundays.
- Private transfer to / from the airport: The most comfortable option, especially if you are several, thus reducing costs.

We choose the first option and also the most inhuman which is the RoissyBus. As soon as we ride the bus we see that it is a bus line, without air conditioning, something to take into account days like today in which at this time of the afternoon we have 35 degrees and no luggage space, so you have to Sit down and put your suitcase on your knees or directly stay in the hall, holding the suitcase for 60 minutes. Really pathetic a service like this for a city like Paris.

More practical information to prepare your trip to Paris
- The 5 best tours and excursions in Paris
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Paris
- 100 things to see and do in Paris
- 20 essential places to visit in Paris
- The best free tours in Paris for free

After 70 minutes, we arrive at terminal 2F when it is 7:30 in the afternoon, at which time after passing the controls, we go directly to the boarding gate, where there are only a couple of restaurants in the area, the rest is all under construction, where neither the escalators nor the air conditioning work (it is clear that these last hours of the trip will be at least hot), so we decided on the one with fewer people where we ordered a couple of sandwiches with two soft drinks that serve us as dinner while we wait to board punctual on our Air France flight that takes off at 9 at night bound for Barcelona.