I’ve been to Paris quite a few times before – I documented our Spring 2015 here, but I also remember when we came in September 2013 for the parents’ anniversary soon after they moved back to Geneva from Bangkok.
My youngest sister came to Paris on the way to London from New York via Amsterdam in March this year while there was a strike where most passengers were experiencing major delays while going through security and immigration on the French side. Thankfully she wasn’t very affected, but everyone got a blanket email with compensation details. This is what helped sponsor most of my journey, and gave me the motivation needed to come one last time before I turn 25/before UK leaves the EU, at which point I will lose my free/discounted entry for EU citizens under 25/26 around Paris museums and national monuments. 
Day 1 (Saturday – half day) – left home (London) in a leisurely fashion around 10:30am, arrived into Gare de Nord at 14:47, got a carnet of t+ tickets and took metro to 11th Arr. to Airbnb. Unpacked a little and went to Carrefour nearby to stock up on snacks and home meals then we took this walking route from the Airbnb in Saint-Ambrose to Montmartre via République where the Pride Parade had just parked up at, via part of the Canal Saint Martin, then via Gare de l’Est and Gare de Nord, up the Square Louise-Michel to Sacré-Coeur. From Sacré-Coeur we went to the Terrass Hotel for a drink:
It was still light out (21:30 – sunset was around 21:55 that day) and we still had energy so we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower. 
During my September 2013 visit, we spent a lot of time around the Eiffel Tower both as a family and with my friends when I was hanging out with them one night. I remember around midnight we stood right in the centre at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower and we could walk straight through one side to the other to get to the Trocadero Plaza. This isn’t the case anymore – I may have seen some sort of news about it, but until I got there this time, I didn’t process it. They have put a glass barricade all the way around, there are certain entry points where you can gain access to the Eiffel Tower…I guess lobby, after going through security (which now exists at most museums and sites as well). They have made a nice park type of area inside the security space that leads you. It was just different from what I’ve spent time in before!
I had never been up the Eiffel Tower before. If you know your travel dates early on, you should try to buy your Eiffel Tower tickets online – they do get snatched up pretty quickly it seems, especially the ones going to the summit. You can get them for immediate use once you get to the tower, there are a couple options. You can either ascent to the 2nd level via stairs or lift – the stairs line seemed shorter, but we didn’t want to tire ourselves out, and there was almost exactly an hour until the last lift to the summit went up, so we didn’t want to waste time. The ascent to the summit is only by lift. So we stood in line. This was the day after the major heat wave day, and it was heat wave day in London, so Paris was only 2 degrees hotter than London, and more fountains and water spraying things everywhere, so I was glad to be in Paris. It didn’t take very long to get our tickets.
We got onto the lift – the lift is a two level diagonal lift almost and if you’re lucky enough to see it come down or see the previous group go up, then you see a wax figure sitting at the bottom of the lift pushing the lifts up (didn’t get a picture). The weights that counteract the lift are huge!
We didn’t waste any time looking around the 2nd level when we switched lifts to go to the summit, but we were lucky because just as we got to the 2nd level, the clock struck 11pm, so we got to see the sparkling of the Eiffel Tower from inside/on (?) it.
After seeing the summit and coming back down to the second level, we took a leisurely walk from the 2nd level to ground level and took a look around at the second level and first level exhibits.
As we were leaving the Eiffel Tower area, we got to see the midnight sparkle from down below.
We got home around 1 or 2am and after showering and all of that, finally went to sleep.
Day 2 (Sunday) – woke up slowly, had a leisurely morning, had breakfast around lunch time and then took the metro & RER to Luxembourg, then did this walking route:
Saw another Foucault Pendulum at the Pantheon (the original one at the Arts & Metiers used to be housed here before). There was an interesting exhibit on sign language and deaf & mute culture.
From the Pantheon, we could’ve taken a route through the Latin Quarter to the Notre Dame, but since it’s closed after the fire in April including the routes around it, so we thought we’d go to Sainte-Chappelle first. Then we walked all the way around and ended up in front of the Louvre. 
Normally you can walk straight through the Louvre courtyards and glance up at the people in the museums, through the Tuileries Garden to the Champs-Elysée all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe (which we did in Spring 2015), which takes about 45 minutes. I don’t know if it was because it was Sunday, and by this time around 18:30, or because of new security reasons like in the Eiffel Tower, you can’t do that anymore. But this worked well, as in 15 minutes we took the Metro from Louvre-Rivoli to Charles de Gaulle-Étoile (Arc de Triomphe). At 19:04 we had got our €0.00 tickets and were standing under the Arch, and at that time they were just finishing the ceremonial lighting of Unknown Soldier’s Eternal Flame. By 19:08 we started climbing. It seems daunting, but we were up the “never ending spiral stairs” (284 steps about) by 19:11.
We did a little bit of exploration of the exhibits and videos with the history of the arch and comparison with other similar triumphal arches around the world before the terrace.
We ate dinner less than 10 mins away from there at Little Nonna’s, a 100% Gluten Free Italian place, then we came home by around 10pm.
Day 3 (Monday) – woke up, ate breakfast, showered, packed, then took the metro to The Louvre.
Thought we would have to use the Rue Rivoli “secret entrance” while entering in the middle of the day on a Monday in July. But to our surprise, there was hardly any line at the Louvre. And people were being told to go to FNAC and get tickets (which is one of the way of getting pre-paid tickets). Since we are under 25-EU citizens, we just had to show our IDs to get in, and usually you buy tickets when you get downstairs, but all the ticket offices were closed and we were told just to show our IDs where they ask for tickets. So I didn’t get to collect a €0.00 Louvre ticket like the other sites, but it felt really powerful to just go through by showing ID. It seems there was a strike around a month ago from when the ticket offices have been closed.
We kept our backpacks in the cloakroom for free and explored the museum.
First we went to the Sully wing where from the bottom you can see the history of the Louvre buildings – how it was a fortress, then a royal residence, and now a museum.
Then we came out and went into the Richelieu wing and spent some time in the glass covered sculpture courtyards called Cour Marly & Cour Puget. 
Then we went up to the first floor to Napoleon III’s apartments. From there we did a quick walk around the whole of the first floor via Decorative Arts/Europe, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek & Roman Antiquities, The French Crown Jewels, and through the hallway with Italian Paintings straight to Room 711 to see “La Joconde (The Mona Lisa)”. They’ve created an orderly line outside the room, so it didn’t feel as crowded as it did in 2015, but as we were walking towards it, it definitely got more and more crowded as we got closer. There is now what seemed to be, a one way system, entrance through 710/712 and then walk through and end up at 702, we turned left to 700 immediately to see “Liberty Leading the People”. Walked down the stairs to Sculptures and saw “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss” among others and then exited to below the glass pyramid.
After a relaxing drink in the Louvre Pyramid, we went for a relaxing afternoon lunch and then slowly made our way to Gare du Nord for our train back to London.
More about Paris’s under 25/26 discounts:
- Eiffel Tower: if you are between ages 4-24 (under 25) then you get half price ticket
- All national monuments & museums are free to under 26 EU citizens (& a lot of places will have student discounts or if you are a non-EU citizen with a French visa for more than 3 months i.e. studying abroad)
The Spill Queen 