I was organizing one of our storage closets today when I came across a few old photo albums. One was from 10 years ago, when my husband and I took our first international vacation together. I was just 23 years old at the time, and up to that point, the farthest I’d ever traveled was from Chicago to San Francisco, so I was pretty excited about the prospect of getting out of the country. We spent a considerable amount of time selecting a destination, and ended up choosing Paris.
The first thing we had to take care of was booking a hotel. We weren’t online back then, so the only way we could find out which Paris hotels were worth staying at was by reading reviews in different guidebooks. It took forever to compare all the different reviews (especially since a large number of the books focused on Nice hotels as well), but we ended up getting an awesome deal at a four-star property, so all that extra effort did pay off.
Anyway, once we were in Paris we had an amazing time visiting some of the most famous attractions the city has to offer. We of course went to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Notre Dame — all of which were breathtakingly beautiful. We also took in the Tuileries, saw Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides, and visited all the famous gravesites at Père-Lachaise.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make it out to Versailles and a few other historical places, so I definitely want to go back to Paris someday. I know our next trip will be even better than the first because we already have some experience with the city. Plus, it’s now easier than ever to find France hotels online, so we won’t have to spend hours upon hours at the bookstore checking through every travel guide on the shelves!