It’s a place that we thought we would never see in our lifetime. Paris, city of romance, many people dream of visiting this place. When we were living in Malaysia, trips to Europe are once in a lifetime experience. My parents joined a tour that took them across multiple european countries in a 3 weeks. This happens after their retirement and seems to be the plan for most people. Our exchange rate to Euro was horrible so trips to Europe are once in a lifetime experience.

Paris for Christmas

We were lucky to move to Ireland, where Paris is just a short flight away. There has been been a plan to visit Paris, not on the top of our places to visit. Then autumn came in 2025, we just settled down in our new house in Ireland. We know winter would be miserable and dark in Ireland so we were looking for a short trip during Christmas. Christmas is usually slow in Dublin where shops are closed, public transport including the airport is closed for Christmas. We were looking for warmer places like Spain or Portugal but the flights were expensive.

Then I noticed that flights to Paris was no more expensive than going to London. I asked a colleague who used to live in Paris and he confirmed that Paris would be mostly open for Christmas. He also recommended a Yooma Urban Lodge a good hotel for family very near Eiffel Tower. It is about 10 mins walk to Eiffel Tower, it is near 2 RER train station and one Metro station. There is a shopping area nearby, where we bought pre-made food from Monoprix and warm it up in the kitchen area in the hotel.

Our Paris Plans

We got ourselves the Navigo Pass at the airport, where we need to buy the train tickets from Charles De Gaulle airport to our hotel. After that, we bought metro tickets to be stored in the Navigo Pass.

This is our itinerary for the trip

1. Day 1: Arrive at CDG, took the RER to the hotel. Went to the christmas market as La Defence
2. Day 2: Palace of Versailles and then to Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
3. Day 3: The Lourve and Christmas eve service at Notre Dame cathedral
4. Day 4: Walk around the city since it’s Christmas and we expect attractions to be closed
5. Day 5: Fly home.