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Like many girls before me, I too have dreamed about visiting Paris and on a subconscious level somehow knew that one day I would stand amid the Tuileries Garden with a coffee in hand and a plan to visit all the places on my itinerary. Books I had read as a kid and gorgeous movies I had grown up watching like Sabrina and Before Sunrise had built up a world of beauty in my head about everything that Paris is. There was no doubt in my mind that I would be able to see the city I already knew so much about. It was in December 2019 when I found myself in France for the first time, at last.

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The City of Lights was everything I hoped it would be. The architecture undoubtedly secured a status for Paris as the most gorgeous city I have ever seen with its zig-zag pathways and stylish apartment balconies from where the locals observed the busy crowds at the foot of the street. The air seemed different there too - lighter, filled with promises of allure. Everywhere I turned, I saw the clash of raw, unfiltered beauty - the kind that comes from the ordinary of everyday life that can be subtly observed in the big cities - that same beauty, which existed in harmony with the exquisite luxury that only places like Paris seem to have in abundance.

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It was no surprise that the people were dressed with elegance that reflected the ethos of their hometown. Fragments of grace were scattered everywhere. The fountains in the gardens, the displays full of freshly-baked pastries in the local bakeries, the cafés where groups of strangers were taking their time to enjoy long drags of their cigarettes paired with a glass of red wine.

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We walked everywhere in order to soak up as much of the city as we could in the short amount of time we had to spend there. What quickly became clear was that you can never have enough time to fully immerse yourself in the beauty of Paris.

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It was impossible not to visit the Louvre Museum so we walked past the Arc de Triomphe on our way there. The pyramidic design of the state-of-the-art museum was even more astonishing to see in person than I had realised it would be. We dedicated a whole day to explore the different areas of the Louvre, however the treasures inside are not something we could rush seeing.

 

On our second day we walked to Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre from where a panoramic view of the city nearly took my breath away. The cloudy-covered, postcard-worthy scene of The Eiffel Tower in the distance was a sight straight out of my wildest dreams. The steep path on the way up Montmartre was worth every step we had to climb so we could stand at the top and be able to connect to Paris in a way that defies any possible explanation. 

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From the Panthéon to the Palace of Versailles and The Centre Pompidou, we had a lot of ground to cover but that only made us walk around the city with a stronger intent to get to know the culture as much as we could. In the winter of 2019, the Notre-Dame Cathedral was still under re-construction after the fire that destroyed it earlier in the year and it felt ever more precious being able to stand before it and see history in the making.

 

At sundown on our third day there, we walked down the Seine River. It was a tranquil afternoon and it seemed as though locals and tourists alike were taking in the last rays of the sunlight. It was such a privilege to exist in a place where we could blend in with the heartbeat of the city at a time when the locals were enjoying their end-of-the-day rituals. Salesmen and women were trading landscape pictures, postcards and books from the small stands arranged around the river; the restaurants were filled with groups of lovers and friends meeting up to enjoy the start of the fin de semaine; the bistros were echoing with the subtle sound of clinking champagne glasses. Life seemed to slow down as the daylight transitioned into dusk. 

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At night the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower brought a magical charm to the already stunning city. Paris must have never looked more beautiful than it did that night.

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