Paris, France

Paris, the City of Love, or the City of Lights, is one of the most dreamed-of destinations of many people throughout the world.  I have been to Paris a few times, most recently in March of 2025.  I have never visited Paris in the summer, but my winter and spring-time visits have usually yielded rain, and on one occasion, snow!

There are many must-see destinations when visiting Paris, and I will write about a few:

*  The Eiffel Tower

*  The Palace of Versailles

*  Notre Dame Cathedral

*  The Arc de Triomphe

*  The Paris Opera House

*  The Flame of Liberty

*  The Statue of Liberty in Paris

*  The Paris Temple

*  The Louvre Museum

*  Disneyland Paris

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is the most famous landmark in Paris and is a must-see on your trip to Paris.  I've never been to the summit because either it was sold out when I booked my tickets, or it was too windy and the lifts were closed.  After nightfall until 1 a.m., the Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes.  I captured videos and photos of the Eiffel Tower sparkling, but can't show them here because they are protected by copyright.  I'd recommend purchasing tickets to ride the lift to the summit, or at least to the second floor.  36 euro will get you to the top by elevator.  But book your tickets 2 months in advance to be sure you get a spot!  The official website of the Eiffel Tower is here:  Eiffel Tower

The Olympic Rings from the 2024 Olympic Games are right next to the Eiffel Tower

View from the Eiffel Tower

The illuminated tower right after dusk

My full blog post about our visits to the Eiffel Tower can be found here:  The Eiffel Tower

A video of our visits to the Eiffel Tower can be seen here:  The Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame was destroyed by a horrific fire in 2019.  In December of 2024, the doors opened to visitors once again.  We visited the interior of Notre Dame in March 2025 by making a reservation on their official website:  Notre Dame de Paris

Construction continues on the exterior of Notre Dame

The Blessed Virgin and Child Jesus marble statue

The Virgin of the Pillar, or Virgin of Paris, which was returned to Notre Dame in November of 2024 after being removed following the 2019 fire.

My blog post about Notre Dame is here:  Notre Dame

The Statue of Liberty on Pont de Grenelle

The Statue of Liberty in Paris is 1/4 size of the actual Statue of Liberty in New York.  It was given to Paris in 1885 by citizens of the United States who lived in Paris. There are three replicas of the Statue of Liberty that can be seen in Paris.  The one I visited in March of 2025 was at the end of the man-made island in the Seine River that can be accessed by climbing down the stairs of the Grenelle Bridge.  It is 9 meters high and now its base is covered with graffiti.

My post about the Statue in Paris is here:  Statue of Liberty Paris

The Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is in the center of Paris and only a 30 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower.  If you pay the 22 euro to climb the 284 stairs to the top, you will find a very nice panoramic view of Paris.  To access the Arc, you have to take an underground tunnel because there are cars driving around the Arc 24 hours a day.  The outside of the Arc is accessible 24 hours a day, but you can only reserve a spot to reach the top of the Arc between 10 am and 11 pm.  The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and eternal flame are underneath the Arc.  There is a camera in the ceiling of the Arc that allows people on the terrace to see those on the ground.  The Arc is located at Place Charles de Gaulle 75008 Paris.

Underneath the Arc

Stairs to the roof of the Arc

Entering the tunnel to access the Arc

View of the Arc from the other side

My blog post about the Arc de Triomphe is here:  Arc de Triomphe

The Flame of Liberty, or Place Diana

The Flame of Liberty is located at the intersection of l'Avenue de New York and the Place de l'Alma.  It was dedicated in 1989 as a gift to the people of France by donors from around the world, and is an exact replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty.  It represents the friendship between France and America.  

It has since become a memorial to Princess Diana, who was killed in the tunnel underneath the intersection where the flame was placed.  In 2019 it was officially renamed Place Diana.  There are photos and memorabilia to Diana around it, as well as lots of locks attached to the chains.

The Flame of Liberty with the Eiffel Tower in the background

The Flame of Liberty

The Paris France Temple

If you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visiting the Paris Temple when you're in Paris is an absolute must!  If you aren't a member of the Church, you won't be able to enter the temple, but you can visit its beautiful grounds and see the Christus Statue.  It is about a five minute drive from the Palace of Versailles, or a half hour walk, which is very pleasant in nice weather.  You can read my blog post about the Paris Temple here: Paris France Temple

The Louvre Museum

The Louvre Museum is located at 75001 in Paris.  Tickets cost 22 euro and can be purchased on the Louvre's official website here:  The Louvre

Inside the Louve is the famous Mona Lisa, the most well-known painting in the world.  There are many other famous pieces of art in the Louvre as well.  It would take a week to see it all!  If you only have time to visit a small part of the Louvre, I would highly recommend the Denon Wing.  My blog post about the Louvre is here:  Musee du Louvre

The Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is located at Place de Armes, 78000 Versailles.  Their official website is here:  Palace of Versailles  The easiest way to reach the Palace from Paris is to take an Uber, which is what I highly recommend.  Figuring out the metro or buses and then walking is not worth the effort.  Book your visit well in advance so that it doesn't get sold out.  It costs 32 euro to visit all of the palace complex.  The highlight of the visit for me is the Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, ending WWI.  My blog post about visiting the Palace is here:  The Palace of Versailles

During the off-months you can visit the gardens without charge.

The Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, ending WWI

The golden gate of the Palace grounds

Disneyland Paris

My daughter, son, and grandsons with me at Disneyland Paris in March of 2025

If you are a Disney fan, I 100% recommend that you visit Disneyland Paris!  I like Disneyland Paris better than California's Disneyland.  It is less crowded, less expensive, and easier to get on all the rides.  Their official website is here:  Disneyland Paris

Ticket prices vary based on date and when you purchase them, but you can get tickets for under $100.  It is open every day of the year, and its opening and closing times vary depending on the day.  Disneyland is a half hour drive from the Charles de Gaulle airport.  It is located at Bd de Parc, 77700 Coupvray, France.  It is about an hour drive from the Eiffel Tower, so is not very close to the center of Paris, but it is close enough to make a visit to this Disney theme part totally worth it!

There are fewer rides at Disneyland Paris compared to Disneyland in California, but there are some parts about Paris's Disney park that are much better.  For instance, the Sleeping Beauty Castle has a dragon in the basement!  Discoveryland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Main Street USA will sound familiar if you've visited Disneyland in California.  Rides such as Big Thunder Mountain and the Phantom Manor will remind you of rides from the famous California park.  Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain and Star Tours will also remind you of their California counterparts.  Character encounters occurs in Paris just like in California, and we had the opportunity to have an up-close-and-personal time with Darth Vader.  He even did a private "photo shoot" with just me, and gave me a hug before we left!  The confused workers told me as I was leaving, "he never does that!"  It might have had something to do with the Leia Disney shirt I was wearing...

Peter Pan's flight was the big ride that everyone wanted -- every time we checked the app for wait times it was always an hour or more long!  So, sadly to admit, I didn't ever ride on it.  I can't tell you what the big draw was to this particular ride, so next time I suppose I'll have to wait in the long line and see what all the hype is about.  The It's a Small World ride is very similar to the California one, although perhaps a bit more modern.  And the Tea Cups ride is the exact same as in California.  I really love roller coasters, so Big Thunder Mountain was my favorite ride.  We were able to go on this ride repeatedly as the park was getting ready to close.  I also really enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril.  

One problem that we did encounter was that as the park was preparing to close, they started closing walkways and we actually had a hard time finding our way out of the park!  We had chosen to continue going on rides rather than watching their Disney Tales of Magic at Sleeping Beauty's castle.  Then we had a hard time finding our way out while avoiding the crowds gathered at the Castle.

My blog post about Disneyland Paris is here:  Disneyland Paris

My March 2024 Visit to Paris:

My mom has always wanted to go to Paris, so I tried to fit it into the end of our Mediterranean Cruise.  We were only in Paris for a short time because we had an overnight layover in Paris on our flight home from Rome.  We reserved a hotel room at the Hotel Eiffel Seine, which is about a block away from the Eiffel Tower.  Our plane landed at nearly 11 p.m. and we had to figure out how to use the ticket machines for the metro.  Through trial and error we were able to purchase round trip tickets on the metro.  However, since it was so late at night, the map that we had studied to reach our hotel was of no use, because one of the metro lines shut down for the night.  We were lucky enough to find some metro workers who were leaving work at midnight and gave us a round-about way that we could still reach the Eiffel Tower metro stop even though the more direct line had shut down.  We finally made it to our stop and I put the hotel address in my phone, but my GPS sent us all over the place - when we reached what the GPS thought was the destination, it was definitely not our hotel!  I called the hotel and he went out on the road to try to find us, but we were nowhere in sight, because we were quite far from the hotel by then.  I had our GPS take us back to the Eiffel Tower, and we finally found the hotel, which was right next to the metro stop exit.  Lesson learned -- we should have taken a taxi in the first place!  I just thought it would be too expensive because the Eiffel Tower is about an hour from the airport.  But, there aren't escalators in the Paris metro so we were dragging our suitcases up and down several long flights of stairs at each metro stop, plus dragging them around Paris in the dark and rain - it was not fun!  During the day, and when you aren't lugging suitcases around, the Paris metro will work fine.  But if it's late at night, and you have luggage, use a taxi!  Or better yet, an uber!

The Hotel Eiffel Seine was under construction when we were there, but our room was nice.  We got there about 2 a.m., and had to leave by 6 a.m. to ride the metro back to the airport to catch our connecting flight.  The only thing we saw in Paris was the Eiffel Tower, in the dark and rain, so that was my only experience with Paris up to that point.  Also, since it was so late at night, the Eiffel Tower was no longer lit-up.

view of the Eiffel Tower from our metro stop

the Eiffel Tower at about 1 a.m. on a rainy night in March

My mom at the Eiffel Tower 

It wasn't as big as we were expecting

Hotel Eiffel Seine

The Paris Metro website

Places to Eat in Paris:

We enjoyed La Cantina in Versailles, which is located at 30 rue des Reservoirs, 78000.

La Fregate near the Louvre Museum is spectacular!  It is located at 1 Rue de Bac, 75007.  If you are visiting the Louvre or Notre Dame, do not miss eating at this restaurant!

Our view from our table by the window at La Fregate

The crepe was my favorite