Paris sightseeing and overnight

Getting to Paris

Today I leave Rennes for Paris, for an overnight there in order to make a morning flight the next day.

My hotel was opposite Rennes station which made the 0748 train a breeze to catch.  The direct service got me to Paris Montparnasse at 0945.

My intention was to explore Paris but I had to store my wheelie bag first.  I had looked up storage at the station but it was going to be EUR5 for 24h, so I decided to bus to the B&B Hotel Paris Italie Porte de Choisy where I was staying for the night.

To my disgust, the hotel only had automated lockers for EUR6 for 24h.  I had spent 40 mins in a bus and a bus fare to get to the hotel thinking that my bag could be store for free.

Actually, if I had stored it at Montparnasse, I would have had to make a special trip there to retrieve it anyway.

To make the most of the situation at the hotel, I used the lobby loo then charged my phone in the lobby area.

Sightseeing

With the stunning day, I thought I’d revisit some iconic sights of Paris, since it had been rather grey during my last visit in autumn 2021.

First up, I used public transport to the Eiffel Tower.  At the time of my last visit, a fence was being erected around the Eiffel Tower greens.  Now, the fence is complete and one has to go through a security check to enter the greens for free just to manage the crowd.  There are separate queues for those holding tickets to go up the tower.

From the tower, I thought I’d go to the Arc de Triomphe.  I bought a ticket for the bus (on the app) only to find that there was a disruption and my ride ended only a couple of stops later.  Damn!  I had to walk the rest of the way.  While it wasn’t a long walk, all the short walks were starting to add up in the heat.

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Notre Dame

On the bus to the hotel earlier, I had managed to snap up a ticket to visit Notre Dame.  It is free of charge but the ticket allows one to skip the queue.  They’re awfully difficult to get and is only available a few hours beforehand.

I got to Notre Dame at 1345, ahead of my 1415 slot.  I decided to give it a go and enter early.

To my surprise, all I had to do was show my barcode.  It wasn’t scanned and my identity wasn’t verified.  I could have used a barcode from last week, that had already been used up or someone else’s.

Once inside, the cathedral felt warm and steamy from the crowd, despite the high ceiling.

The cathedral was burnt in 2019 and a reopened in December 2025 after restoration.  Now, it seems brighter than I remember, with the stone walls being a cleaner, whiter shade from the restoration, I guess.

Everything looked like they had done an amazing job with the restoration.  During my visit, I looked up some old photos from my visit in 2003 and took some identical photos for comparison.

Apart from the identical detail, my conclusion was that a good current phone camera takes better photos than a mid-range good quality camera back in 2003.

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I exited at 1415, the time I was meant to enter.  After a fair bit of wandering around and looking for economical lunch choices in the midst of very touristy areas, I settled for a bad dry sandwich around 1500.

Pre-loved books for sale by the River Seine.

I rested indoors for a while, after the busy morning and grabbed a Cambodian dinner of beef noodle soup near the hotel around 2000.