Lau On Tour Day 3: Paris

Part 3 of my new series, Lau On Tour. Catch up with yesterday's destination and find out what the series is all about before you join me in today's destination, Paris - just in time for Bastille Day.

Image: Anthony Delanoix/Unsplash

The itinerary

Ma cherie, we begin our tour of Paris at one of the world's most famous landmarks, the Eiffel Tower. For once, we're skipping the queues that form daily at its base and heading straight up to the viewing platform thanks to Google Arts and Culture. It's a treat to see it so empty, offering unobstructed views towards all compass points. The official Eiffel Tower website also offers a chance to explore the structure virtually.

Image: Google Arts and Culture

Next, we're hopping across the Seine to that other famous Parisian queue-causer - The Louvre. The art museum and gallery offers several options for virtual exploration, including a VR experience of its most famous resident, the Mona Lisa, as well as a closer look at other artworks. Despite having been to Paris for real at least four times, I've never actually been in The Louvre, but it's nice to be able to pretend that I have.

The Montmartre Sacre-Couer Basilica is another Parisian landmark which has pivoted very well towards online tourism. The website offers a panoramic virtual tour of the building itself, as well as labelled skyline views across the city, and a video tour of the famously Bohemian area. I'm not really one for churches, but I have to admit, the Basilica is impressive (another landmark I've thus far failed to visit in person). That said, my eyes are mainly drawn to the Parisian skyline, and I could spend longer than is decent gazing out over the city below from those famous steps.

Where I'm staying

Image: Vice Versa Hotel

Unsurprisingly for the City of Love, Paris does hotels very well. Luxury and romance are in abundance, but I've decided to go for something quirky in the form of the Vice Versa Hotel in the 15th Arrondissement. The rooms on each of the seven floors are designed with one of the seven deadly sins in mind. Personally, I love the colour scheme and decor of Gluttony, with macaron-shaped pillows, and Marie Antoinette lording it over you all night, and it now features on my list of places I want to visit for real once things are back to normal.

Image: Vice Versa Hotel

In pop culture

Voulez vous coucher avec moi c'est soir? That's right, I've dragged Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor out for a night on the tiles at the Moulin Rouge. Fun fact: on a school trip to Paris in Year 8, our coach took a route that drove past the famous cabaret theatre. Us students of course had no idea where we were, and our teachers, not wanting the 13 year olds in their care to see anything untoward, told us that they'd lost a 50 Euro note somewhere on the coach, and whoever found it could keep it, in a bid to keep our eyes to the floor as we passed that famous windmill.

On the menu

Not to come across all Blair Waldorf or anything, but no trip to Paris is complete without a trip to Ladurée to stock up on those famous macarons. Yes, I know there are branches in the UK, but there's a special joy to be had in taking your little green box down to Jardin des Tuileries and tucking in. The sugary treats are famously tricky to make, so I've cut corners a bit here (what? I'm on holiday) and purchased a ready-made box of the treats. Sainsbury's finest, until I can get myself to my nearest Ladurée.

Souvenir shopping

It's got to be a model of the Eiffel Tower, hasn't it? Metal, plastic and wooden incarnations of Gustav Eiffel's landmark are sold in every tourist tat shop in the city - I should know, I have at least three versions, in various shapes and sizes. In fact, here's one I prepared earlier...