On the 20th of February, my boyfriend, Robert, and I took a very early train from St. Pancras International to Paris, where we spent the entire day. As a person who thrives on organising everything, I obviously had to do some research and create an itinerary for the day. I wanted to see as much as I could in as little time as possible. I also wanted to try as much vegan food as I could while there, because you know, I’m a little bit obsessed with food as well (I wouldn’t be part of Spoon otherwise, now, would I?). So I thought I’d share my experience in 7 tips to organise the best one day trip to Paris — including the best vegan food!
1. Don’t Go on a Tuesday
The first mistake I made was booking the trip for a Tuesday. I thought I was being clever, you know, going in the middle of the week — less tourists, cheaper prices and all that. Well, it turns out places like The Louvre Museum and many restaurants are closed on a Tuesday. So choose any other day and you’ll be fine. (Also, don’t go during winter — the gardens aren’t as good.)
2. Buy a Couple of Transport Tickets as Soon as You Arrive
I need to credit one of my friends for this tip. My plan included taking the underground trains – or Métro – at the end of the day, once to go get dinner before going back to Gare du Nord and then to comfortably get to the station with enough time to spare. This is because my itinerary ended at Arc de Triomphe, which meant we were far from both the restaurants I wanted to check out and the train station.
3. Choose Only One Place to Visit Properly
Because The Louvre was closed, we didn’t get a chance to see it inside, and I honestly didn’t want to spend the money to go up the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame (I’m a student in London, okay). But I realised that we could have had the time to do at least one proper visit. Instead, we spent that time to eating out for lunch, instead of grabbing something from a supermarket like I had originally planned. And this brings us to the next tip…
4. Have Breakfast on the Train and Plan Only One Meal at a Restaurant
Be it a lunch or a dinner, depending on when you have booked your tickets back. I had the pleasure of having both a proper lunch and a quick dinner – cough cough, more like a dessert/dinner – at Hank’s Vegan Pizza and Cloud Cakes. We also found a little vegan shop on the same street as Hank’s Pizza and I grabbed a few snacks to take home.
5. Wear Comfortable Shoes
Do I even have to tell you this? We walked something like 30,000 steps that day. You weren’t planning on wearing heels or flat shoes, right?
6. My Itinerary
My itinerary included a lot of walking and almost no transportation. We started from the Tuileries de Gardens, to Notre-Dame de Paris, which is a quick walk away from Shakespeare & Company. We then walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, the Champ de Mars and ended up in front of the Tour Eiffel. Finally, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, and at that point we were free to go back towards Notre Dame to find a place to eat. There is a lot more to see in Paris, but I think it’s a pretty good itinerary for just one day.
7. Be Flexible
Write down a general time you think you’ll be at each location, but also plan for extra time if you decide to go somewhere else as an impromptu. I spent a lot more time than planned in Shakespeare & Company, for example. And we ended up going into a lot of supermarkets, just because I think supermarkets say a lot about people’s cultures. And again, I’m obsessed with food
I hope these tips can help you organise your own trip to Paris. If you visit any of the vegan places, or have any other tips to share, reach us on our Instagram page and let us know! I would love to visit Paris again and I welcome any tip you could give – especially vegan restaurants to try!