After our visit to Kenya we spent three days in Paris. When we arrived at the Airport we made our way to the trains where we had to tackle the confusion with what type of tickets we needed for our 3 days.  We decided to get a travel card which was the cheapest option, this meant we had to get a passport photo done to be put on the card and after an 8 hour flight overnight we were pretty exhausted with all of this extra effort! Once we got on the train it took about an hour to reach our hotel http://www.chouettehotel.com/en/ . We booked this hotel on Airbnb and we were really pleased with it! It was beautiful.

We left our luggage at the hotel as it was too early to check-in and made our way to our favourite French sports shop Decathlon! We were impressed with the area around the hotel, it was very pretty with some nice parks and good transport links.

In the afternoon after a rest at the hotel we ventured to the Jardin Du Luxembourg which was very pretty and the shopping roads around.  We enjoyed exploring and just taking our time to see some of the streets.

For the evening we decided to use TripAdvisor to find a restaurant near our hotel and were so pleased we did! We visited Al Karam a Lebanese restaurant and enjoyed a selection of dishes including starters, main and desert, all washed down with a glass of Lebanese wine and beer.  The service was fantastic and the staff were very helpful in explaining the food to us as it was our first time tasting Lebanese.  In total the price was about £40 which we were really impressed by.

On our next full day we took the train to visit Pere Lachaise Cemetery.  Some people might think this is a strange option for a tourist visit, but it was a fascinating place to see.  The grave and tombstones are enormous and wide ranging in age. There are numerous famous graves to see including Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.  The cobbled paths around the site are flanked by beautiful trees giving the graveyard a very peaceful feel.

From the Pere Lachaise Cemetery we took a tube to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.  This park is beautiful. It is a lovely place to sit and enjoy the views across Paris. The lakes, streams and waterfalls give it a tranquil feel.  There is a lovely island hill peak to walk across to where you can stroll through pretty gardens and admire the views.

We stopped nearby for lunch at a local café which was good value for chicken and chips.  We then continued to walk through pretty small streets down to the canal at Bassin de la Villette.  There were lots of activities taking place for summer including zip-lines and pedalos.  The streets nearby were pretty cool with some amazing graffiti.  We continued walking in this area and further along the canal to the streets around Rue des Vinaigriers where there were some cool coffee shops and nice places to stop and rest our legs.

To continue our free attraction visiting we took the train to Notré Dame cathedral where we went in to have a look around. The cathedral is beautiful, especially with the sunlight streaming through, however, we personally found that it was a bit too busy to appreciate fully.

We then went to see the outside of the Louvre as this was one landmark we always thought looked pretty nice. It was a lovely walk from here through the parks along the river to the Eiffel Tower.

Before we went to Paris we had decided that we would splash out on a trip to the Eiffel Tower, as our trip would not be complete without experiencing this landmark.  When we arrived at the site we had to go through lots of security checks due to the recent tragic events in Nice.  We arrived at about 9pm and this seemed like a good time to visit as we were able to see the view from the first floor in daylight and then the view from the top at night. We decided to buy the cheaper tickets which meant we walked up to the second floor. The stairs were tiring but allowed us to see the view all the way up and see the structure of the building which was fascinating. On the first floor there is a glass floor which we managed to walk out on to!

At the second floor we saw the lights being turned on which was spectacular.  We then bought our second tickets to get to the top and then we had to queue again for the lift to the top.

The view from the top was amazing and well worth the cost! It is incredible to see the 360 degree views around the city.  We were happy that the Eiffel Tower was the one sight we splashed out for!

On our final morning in Paris we took the tube to Abbesses where we visited Le Mur des je t’aime, the beautiful wall which says ‘I love you’ in many different languages. This is a lovely little park and it is really nice to see lots of romantic couples posing in front of the wall!

We then took the fuicular railway (which is included with the travel-card) and visited Sacré Couer which is a beautiful building, quieter than Notré Dame and with lovely views. We then spent some time wandering around the area, including near Moulin Rouge where we found small cheap cafés and some lovely vintage shops.

Overall we really enjoyed our 3 days in Paris and were very pleased that we managed to spend only about £220 including the accommodation.