Wednesday 7 January 2015

CHRISTMAS IN PARIS - DAY ONE


As much as I love the Christmas period, Christmas Day itself can be pretty boring and as an only child with divorced parents, nothing particularly eventful ever really happens. This year my dad wasn't in the country for Christmas so it was the perfect opportunity for my Mum and I to go away on a city break.
After extensively trolling Expedia, we found an extremely good deal for three nights in Paris. Our hotel of choice was the Mercure Paris Centre Eiffel Tower Hotel , a four star hotel right opposite the Eiffel Tower. For the price that we paid, I was pretty impressed with the quality and service of the Mercure Hotel as well as the fact it was right in the city centre. It also had great transport links with two Metro stations within walking distance. My only complaint would be that the size of the bathroom and toilet were extremely small. 

(the view of the Eiffel Tower from outside our hotel) 

Our first day in Paris wasn't particularly eventful due to the fact we both had about four hours of sleep the previous night so we spent the afternoon exploring the Eiffel Tower and all its surroundings (feeling oh so Parisian. The Eiffel Tower really is breathtaking and is one of the most beautiful monuments I have ever seen. After strolling through the Christmas markets we stopped for our first dinner in a cosy Parisian restaurant. After not having visited France for many years, I was extremely excited to be able to order one of my favourite French foods, Croque Madame. 


In the evening we hopped onto the Metro and visited Champs Élysées, a boulevard in Paris 1.9km long consisting of all the shops and restaurants you could ever dream of. It's also home to the beautiful Arc de Triomphe. 


I wasn't intending on doing too much shopping in Paris, mainly because my suitcase was already full to the brim, but I was desperate to visit some French pharmacies to purchase some of their famous skincare products. Halfway down the boulevard we stumbled upon Monoprix. I'm not too sure how to really describe it as the shop was pretty mismatched and sold a variety of things from beauty products to tacky souvenirs and granny underwear. In the corner of the shop was a little pharmacy which stocked some of my favourite skincare brands including Bioderma. Off course I had to purchase the Bioderma Sensibio h2o Micelle Solution (which by the way, is absolutely amazing!). I paid just under 17 Euros for a pack of 2 which I'm pretty happy about considering they were selling the exact same product next to our hotel for 30 Euros! If you're on the
lookout for some skincare products in Paris, I'd definitely recommend Monoprix. I also made a few sneaky purchases at Sephora but I wasn't too impressed with anything on offer. I would say that the Sephora's in America have much better products and deals. 


(sorry for the poor photo quality. It was taken on my phone)

Stay tuned to see what I got up to on my second day of Christmas in Paris, which also happens to be my birthday! 




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