A Weekend in Paris

I’ve only ever had a very brief love affair with Paris and visited for a fleeting day visit, so when we were invited to stay at the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal, Danny and I hopped on the train and arrived in Paris last Friday evening. Our train got into Gare du Nord just before 5pm, so we still had a whole evening ahead of us. The Grand Hotel du Palais Royal is the only five-star hotel in this central location of Paris and is situated right opposite the Palais Royal and gardens, leading onto the shopping streets and also just a short walk to the Louvre museum. Everything is most certainly on your doorstop.

We checked into the hotel and the staff were so lovely, in fact which they were throughout our whole stay. We were showed to our room and when confronted with the Palais Royal Suite, the second best in the hotel, let’s say I was pretty a happy lady. This is definitely how you do luxury travel.

The Suite Palais Royal is situated on the 7th floor of the hotel, with stairs inside the suite that take you up to the stylised suite. It was all beautifully presented, shelves were filled with fashion and art reading, fresh flowers had been put out and we had a lovely welcome drinks and macaroons, along with a welcome letter. The suite has a bedroom with king size bed, lounge area, bathroom and balcony area.

I stumbled onto the balcony and in true Carrie Sex & The City style squealed when I saw the Eiffel Tower right in front of me. The view was amazing. Inside the lounge there is a window covered by beautiful shutters, which looks onto the hills and Montmartre and Sacre Coeur and if you stick your head out round the corner, you will see the Eiffel Tower smiling back at you.

Once we got over the excitement of the panoramic view of Paris I took a look into the bathroom. The bathrooms at the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal have Carita toiletries, which is a lovely Parisian brand. The bathroom itself was all marble, a big double sink and mirror, separate toilet area, a rather large shower and a beautiful tub to watch the world go by through the window.

Before we left for the evening, the staff came into turn down the room and left breakfast menus and slippers out for us. We figured we better make a move to actually see some of Paris but after checking in we would have been more than happy to stay in for the evening.

However I had booked us tickets to the Tour Montparnasse to see over all of Paris, little did I know our room would be doing this for us. We took the metro to the tower and got there just as it was starting to get dark. The tower has two floors, one inside and one on the very top which was definitely the best floor for me. The view was fantastic and you can see all around Paris.

As the sun set we decided to get a glass of champagne and watch the world go by.

By 9pm it was fully dark and the lights started to sparkle. We left for dinner and then headed back to the hotel, where we relaxed ready for the day ahead and prepared ourselves for the rain, but more on that tomorrow.