Paris

I've been to Paris a few times over the years. The first with my dad when I was seven, a picky-eater, and refused to eat anything except baguettes with cheese and chocolate croissants. The second with my parents and maternal grandparents, who flew out from Australia to come with us. The third with my friend from high school in Los Angeles who went to university in Scotland while I was in London and proposed we meet in France for the weekend. And the fourth with my classmates for a university weekend-long field trip.

My first tip: Do NOT throw out your metro ticket after you have passed through the barricade even though you don't need it to exit. They have random checks at the exits to make sure you have a ticket and I made the mistake of disposing of my used tickets before I arrived at my destination and got fined.

My second tip: Travel to Paris by plane. Every time someone visited me from abroad, their parents told them to take a quick and cheap train trip to Paris. Times must have changed because every time I compared train tickets to plane tickets there was a steep difference in price.

Things To Do

• Jixiao’s Buns [Order the soup]

• Eiffel Tower [Touristy but you have to see it at night at least once]

• Catacombs [Maybe not if you’re claustrophobic]

• Palace of Versailles [Worth the day trip]

• The Louvre [Museum]

• Ladurée [Restaurant and patisserie, order the macarons. If you walk to the back you can sit immediately in a really cool bar rather than wait in the line to sit at the front and you can still order from the restaurant and patisserie menus]

• Café de Flore [Famous cafe frequented by famous writers back in the day]

• Luxembourg Gardens

• Le Galeries Lafayette [Shopping center with gorgeous domed stained glass ceiling]

Where To Stay

• Hotel Henriette [The cutest little hotel near lots of nice food and public transport. So many Instagrammable angles]