A Long Weekend in Paris

Hopping over to Paris for a long weekend from London is a trip that never seems to age. The beautiful scenes of Paris, coupled with the idea of a quick getaway via rail, is such a romanticised concept. But considering how accessible and affordable it is to travel between London and Paris, we’d be fools not to!

Check out the new vlog we posted on the Jelly Journeys channel showing what we got up to during the long weekend and then continue on the post for our photos from the trip!

We’ve been slowly building up our second channel alongside my main channel over the past few months. Make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to get notified of new videos! They’re a collaborative effort with mostly me in front of camera and then Elly responsible for editing them.

This was my 3rd time in Paris and Elly’s 5th (maybe 6th?). Although we know Paris relatively well, it was the first time we’d both been back in Central Europe together in the last 4 years. Excusing Elly’s quick trip to Paris last summer, we’ve mostly just been travelling around Asia and seem to have neglected Europe a little bit.

One thing we were both desperately looking forward to, was the opportunity for great French cuisine, and copious amounts of wine to wash it all down.

I’m pretty sure I could have a croque madame every day of my life!

Considering it’s literally on our doorstep, living in London; we really wanted to make the most of having access to the Eurostar, for rapid rail connections, right under the channel, into Europe. It was the first time I’d ever taken the Eurostar, so I was pretty excited for the whole experience.

I have quite the fascination with trains. There’s just something deeply interesting with how they move and sound and how they vary around the world. I don’t think I can really pinpoint what it is about trains, but I know that I’m not alone with these fascinations ☺

We visited Paris during the weekend of the Paris Marathon. I’m always keen to go to major public sporting events as a way to improve my sports photography. For 3 years in a row, I went to the London Marathon to capture photos of the elite runners and every time, I came away feeling so motivated and inspired by the support of everyone involved.

This year, I wanted to test out my new Fujifilm X-H1 for some sports use, so the marathon was a good opportunity to do that. The timing for everything all fell into place quite comfortably, as a couple of our friends were actually running the Paris marathon, along with another who was celebrating her birthday at the same time!

We lucked out on the weather for the weekend as it was uncharacteristically hot for April, with beautiful blue skies for 3 of the days. Exploring the streets of Paris at a casual walking pace was so enjoyable. I loved seeing all the little details of the buildings and the common styles of architecture threaded throughout this beautiful city.

Montmartre was an area Elly had briefly explored last time she was in Paris and was keen to see more of this time around. The immediate area around Sacre Coeur can be pretty busy with people, but keep walking through the side streets and you’ll discover some peaceful and beautiful areas in no time.

The best view of Paris is easily from the top of the Arc De Triomphe. I’ve done this every time I’ve been to Paris and no matter how touristy it is, I still love it.

There’s a reason certain views are popular tourist attractions. They’re just so damn good.

We’ve been up the Eiffel Tower a few times before, but we weren’t interested in it this time. It’s always great to have the tower itself in your view when admiring the city.

From the first day arriving in Paris at around 10am, we’d covered a huge amount of ground on foot. Starting at our Airbnb near Montmartre, all the way around the west of the city, to the Arc de Triomphe and ending at Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower at sunset. It was at this point I thought, “if I have to get the train back to London, without spending the night, I’d be satisfied”. It really just proves how great the Eurostar is for a convenient and efficient gateway into Europe!

We spent our final day in Paris dedicated solely to some street photography. Elly’s currently writing up a post about that with all our images, so watch this space to catch them!

I’m sure we’ll be popping over to Europe far more frequently in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, follow us across social media to stay up to date with where we are!

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