A room with a view - 10 year wedding anniversary in Paris

I've been pretty quiet on Hive for the past couple of weeks but that's not to say that I haven't been busy!

For one, I've recently left my job and will be starting a new role with a different employer next week. Luckily I had a couple of weeks of annual leave owed to me so I've had a nice gap between roles which coincided with my 10th wedding anniversary and me and the Mrs were able to dump the kids on my parents and head off to Paris for a few days

I've been to Paris a few times before but for my wife, this was her first trip to a city that she had always wanted to visit. I would love to have made it a complete surprise but unfortunately as she needs a visa to enter France, she did at least have a vague idea of when and where we were going.

Still, I did manage to keep one detail from her and that was the exact location of our accommodation which I booked via Airbnb way back in October last year.

Usually when travelling in major cities, I'm quite happy to stay out of the centre so long as there is good public transport available that can get you to the sights you want to see but given the occasion I thought I'd splash out on something that was a bit more special.

It certainly did the trick and my wife was blown away by the views of the Eiffel Tower from our window.

enjoying breakfast in our Airbnb

Eiffel Tower light show from our window

It was pretty tempting to just stay and stare at the view for hours but of course we wanted to get out and see all the usual sights in Paris and generally soak up the Parisian culture.

On the first day we managed to walk 27k steps and visited the likes of Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées

While on the 2nd day we followed the Seine along on both foot (28k steps) and boat to visit the Place de la Concorde, Jardin des Tuileries, the Louvre and Notre-Dame while making time to enjoy some of the cafe culture that the city has to offer.

Of course Norte-Dame is still undergoing a significant amount of work following the fire there and it was a shame that my wife wasn't able to see one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in Western Europe in it's full glory.

On the last day we went into the Louvre itself and spent some time looking at the main attractions including the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and La Liberté guidant le peuple , most of which are located on the Denon side of the museum.

To be honest, it's a bit of a cattle market around that part of the Museum as everyone crowds round to see the famous pieces of artwork and so I was relieved to get out and go to the opposite side (Richelieu) where there were far fewer people and you could take your time in appreciating the artwork.

My personal favourite was The Ray of Light (Le Coup de Soleil) by Jacob van Ruisdael.

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It was a great trip and wonderful way to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Back to life now