Many of us have a dream destination list of the places we’d like to visit one day. Not surprisingly, for many, Paris often makes that list. But for some odd reason I never considered Paris as one my dream places. Perhaps I felt it’s so overrated, or it’s too expensive, sigh, why does everyone want to go to Paris? Well it turns out that I had the opportunity to visit the City of Lights, in a flash, and fell in love.

As we put together our travel itinerary to Sofia, Bulgaria from Lyon, France, we noticed that the flight we wanted had a layover in Paris. Thus, to ease the 7+ hour traveling journey we decided to make a pit stop in Paris and continue traveling the next day.

For our one-night stay we opted to book a private room via Airbnb. We searched and booked one in the 9th Arrondissement, or administrative district, very close to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica.

Our travel day was getting close, yet we didn’t have a definite plan as to what places we wanted to check out. Time for research. We knew that there were a lot of things to do in Paris but didn’t expect that there would be so many; they all sounded wonderful.

As we kept digging we discovered interesting places such as a the Paris Sewer Museum. I never imagined there could be a museum talking about the history of the sewers.

My husband expressed strong interest in going up the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to get tickets online but everything was sold out; and with the few hours we had, we couldn’t afford getting in the long lines to buy tickets. We kept searching and found that a lunch or dinner reservation at one of the two restaurants at the Eiffel Tower includes a lift ticket and there’s no waiting in line. Just show up at the time of your reservation and voilà. We had a stroke of luck when we saw that there were only two dinner reservations available at the 58 Tour Eiffel restaurant—we booked one immediately. We also bought tickets for the Louvre Museum.

In Paris

We arrived at 8:40 a.m. at the Marne la Vallée Chessy train station, which is east of Paris and about an hour and 15 minutes away from the place we booked. We purchased the one-day Paris Visite pass which allows you unlimited travel on all the public transport networks: bus, tramway, metro and trains in the Île-de-France region. To get to our place, we took the RER A train, which got packed, and then Metro 2.

From the metro station Anvers, it was an eight minute walk to our place. When we got to the address we followed the instructions provided to access the building. Alex, our host, wasn’t home when we arrived and left his mom in charge of our check-in. She gave us the key, showed us our bedroom and around the apartment. While we were settling in and unpacking a few things, Alex’s mom offered us a cup of coffee. We gladly accepted and took the opportunity to get to know each other. A few minutes into the talk Alex showed up, carrying a messenger bag, he introduced himself and gave us a warm welcome and told us of a couple of nearby boulangeries. After finishing our coffee we excused ourselves and gathered our cameras, cell phones, Louvre Museum tickets and other essentials to tour the city.

We were hungry. We spotted one of the boulangeries that Alex told us about and bought two items: one was a sweet pastry with raisins, it looked like a big cinnamon roll, and the second one was a cheese-filled savory pastry. Both were delicious.

While researching Paris attractions, one of the places I found was the Galleries Lafayette on Haussmann Boulevard. It’s a high-end department store with impressive architecture and a rooftop terrace where you can enjoy panoramic views of the city. We looked up the directions on the map and headed there. As we got to Haussmann Boulevard, I spotted a building with a green copper dome, colonnades and golden statues on the top. I was mesmerized by its stunning architecture and photographed it right away.

It wasn’t until we turned on Place de l’Opéra and noticed the words at the top of its south façade: Academie Nationale de Musique—it was the Palais Garnier, Leroux’s setting for his famous Phantom of the Opera novel. After taking a few more photos we headed towards the Louvre Museum. The Galleries Lafayette will have to wait for another day.

We went southeast on Avenue de l’Opéra street. As we entered through Place du Carrousel I was dazzled by the size of the Louvre Palace. After walking a few more steps I looked to my left and there was the iconic glass pyramid. As I scouted the views around me while capturing photos, I saw—for the first time—a bit of the Eiffel Tower, what a thrilling moment.

The museum’s main entrance is underneath the glass pyramid. There are long lines here, so I strongly encourage you to purchase tickets online. After clearing the security checkpoint we proceeded downstairs. Photo tip: before heading down, take a few seconds to snap a photo of the glass pyramid, you’ll have the Louvre building as the background.

Because it’s impossible to see everything in the Louvre, the world’s largest museum, in one day, we downloaded an audio guided tour on the Rick Steve’s Audio Europe app.

The audio guided tour was just perfect. With step-by-step instructions it took us through the must-sees in the museum in just over one hour.

In the tour we saw Pre-classical and Golden Age Greek statues; Roman busts; Medieval paintings; Italian Renaissance art; French works painted between 1780 and 1850, including Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque, Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa and Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Of course, no visit to the Louvre is complete without admiring these masterpieces: the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Da Vinci’s La Gioconda, better known as Mona Lisa and Michaelangelo’s Slaves.

After a quick, yet very pleasant, visit at the Louvre we walked along the Seine river towards the Cathédrale Notre Dame. It was a bit windy with sporadic showers. As we got closer, I spotted people way at the top of the cathedral’s walkways. Although entrance is free, we had to skip going inside because of a long, slow-moving line.

Notre Dame

On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we bought a veggie quiche and a slice of flan at a boulangerie. We sat and ate our food at Le Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Garden. Our eating was delighted by a live band playing music—sounded like they were playing movie soundtracks. After eating we strolled through part of the 23 hectares of manicured lawns, ornate flower beds and tree-lined promenades. This majestic garden houses over one hundred statues, monuments and fountains. I LOVED this place.

After walking for a few minutes, east on Rue de Fleurus, we bumped into a chic and cozy little place—Judy. There was a chalkboard easel sign near the door that read: cuisine bio & locale. I told my husband, “it says organic and local cuisine.” We decided to go in and have a tea or coffee. I opted for a chai tea latte with their house-made almond milk—it was delicious. My husband felt like having a matcha green tea latte. We shared a slice of carrot cake. The carrot cake was delectable—not too sweet, the cake was dense and compact, and it had frosting with nuts and goji berries. It was just the right complement for my tea.

Delicious chai tea and carrot cake

We continued on our way to the Eiffel Tower. After about 35 minutes we made it to the Champ de Mars park. There it was, the monumental Tour Eiffel. I had seen the tower in countless movies and photos, but it’s a whole different animal when you see it in person. It’s beautiful, it’s mind-blowing, it’s vast. I took photos from every angle possible, as I say, “you can never take too many photos.”

Tip: to capture the best views of the Eiffel Tower, head to the Place du Trocadero, which is located right in front of the Seine river.

It was around 8:45 p.m. and we were waiting for the lift to take us up to the first floor for our dinner at the 58 Tour Eiffel restaurant. I overheard two families speaking in Spanish—by their accent and the words they used I could assure they came from Mexico. The lift ride was fun, as you go up you immediately have an astonishing view of the landscape below you.

We entered the restaurant and the hostess accompanied us to our table. The waiter served us bubbly champagne and took our order. The menu consisted of a starter, main course and dessert, plus wine, mineral water and coffee. We spent almost two hours at the restaurant and the food was very good. Although we didn’t get a window table, the fact that we were eating at the Eiffel Tower made it a unique and unforgettable experience.

After dinner we took the stairs to the second floor, and by the time we reached it, I was huffing and puffing—my heart was pounding. Interesting fact: there are 669 steps from the ground floor before you reach the second floor. We took photos of the enchanting night view before us and moved from one side of the tower to the other. It was chilly and breezy…oh, what an amazing time.

We made our way down to catch the tower’s light show at midnight. Every night from sunset to 1 a.m. (2 a.m. in summer) the tower twinkles for five minutes at the top of the hour. It’s magical to see the sparkles swathe the tower from top to bottom. Right after the light show, we headed home to get some sleep before catching our 10:30 a.m. flight to Sofia.

I wished that the day would have 27 hours to explore a few extra things, but even adding the extra three hours wouldn’t be enough to visit all the great things Paris has to offer. This city now holds a special place in my heart and hoping the next time I come it will be for a longer stay.