Sajal and I went to Paris on the second leg of our honeymoon in early June. On the first leg, we went to an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica and just ate and slept and totally unwinded from our wedding. Paris was a city that I had always dreamed of going to, especially after taking French in middle school and high school. It was such a magical and beautiful city. I absolutely loved my time there and would spend more time if I could.
First Day We flew to Paris on Friday night and arrived on Saturday around noon. We lived in the 2nd arrondissement for the first 3 nights. Paris is sectioned into multiple different districts called arrondissements. Each arrondissement is slightly different and has its own culture. One of my main goals for this trip was to go as many arrondissements as possible. If it's your first time in Paris, I highly recommend staying in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd arrondissements. The 1st and 2nd arrondissements are where most of the touristy things are. It's also unbelievably fun to just walk around in this area. There are all these restaurants and shops and fun little alleyways and little roads. On Saturday we went to our hotel, and immediately just started walking around and exploring. The arrondissements are all very close so we walked through the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd this first day. We found a cute little crepe shop which is where we had our first crepes! We had savory ones and sweet ones and both were so good.
In the evening we also walked around which is when we found this beautiful statue called the Colonne Vendôme and then found this gorgeous little doorway.
My favorite thing about Paris is that you'd be walking and just stumble upon these beautiful pieces of history and art. We incidentally went to our favorite restaurant in Paris that night called Inavoue. Inavoue's food was soooo good that we had to come back to the restaurant again. My favorite there was their truffle pasta. I also learned that I really like truffles in Paris. I've had truffle flavored things in America, but in Europe it was like I finally tasted what truffles were supposed to taste like.
Second Day
On the second day in Paris, we went to the 7th arrondissement which is also where the Eiffel Tower is. Finally seeing this famous structure with my eyes was so magical. In Paris, most of the buildings are very short, so you can see the Eiffel Tower wherever you go. I love how it just stands out and how romantic it is.
We had reservations at the Jules Verne, which is the Michelin Star Restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower. You have a private elevator up to the restaurant and they have a staircase down to the top floor where all of the tourists go. We were up there for about 4 hours and it was breathtaking just spending time up there eating and looking out across Paris. The food was really artful and foamy haha. The chef had a foam theme where every single food item had foam in it.
Afterwards, we explored the 7th arrondissement. Besides the Eiffel Tower, this arrondissement just didn't seem as great to me. All of the buildings seemed taller and newer, it reminded me a little bit more of a D.C. but lost that Parisian charm. I'm convinced that after going to Paris the founding fathers wanted to create another Paris in D.C. However, they missed the mark. Paris is just something else. These pictures we took as we were crossing the Seine River and we just had a beautiful view.
Third Day
On the third day, we were all over the place. In the morning, we walked all the way from the 2nd arrondissement across the 9th arrondissement into the 18th arrondissement where Montemarte and the Sacre Coeur are. I had so much fun on this walk. We were looking at all of the bakeries and food stories. We even stopped for some morning lasagne and it was delicious. Again what makes the walk so amazing is that we would just run into things like this.
We went to the Sacre Coeur first. This is a really big famous church that's on top of a really big hill in Paris. It's another high-up view of all of Paris but of course not as high as the Eiffel Tower. There church is beautiful on the inside as well. There's also a fence where you can put a lock. We bought a lock, I put our names on it, and "locked" Sajal and I in.
A famous thing to do is to walk Montemarte. Montemarte is known as one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Paris. I will say the buildings and quaint town were really beautiful to be in. It also has the wall of I-love-yous which is a wall that says I love you in every language.
We stopped at a cafe for drinks and crepes. Cafe culture in France is just so beautiful. We went to cafes 2-3 times a day and highly recommend you to do so. The food is delicious and it's just so much fun to people watch while you sip your tea.
We then took the train from there all the way to the Arc de Triomphe, which is in the 8th arrondissement. We had a tour that explained the entire history of the Arc and all of the different statues inside of the Arc. Sajal especially enjoyed learning about Napolean and his history. We also went to the top of Arc de Triomphe. Of the three high points in Paris (Eiffel Tower, Sare Coeur, and Arc de Triomphe), this was my favorite. Firstly you're high but not too high so you can still see what's happening on the ground floor. And Secondly, you have this amazing view of the Eiffel Tower.
After that, we walked Champs-Élysées. Champs-Élysées is a big and famous road that connects the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre. It's lined with famous stores such as Louis Vuitton, YSL, and Hermes. Paris truly is the city of fashion. I've never dressed better than when I was there and the outfits I saw on people looked like they were straight off the runway. For dinner, we went to this restaurant which is known for its really good views. I can't remember its name because we got a really bad table where we couldn't see anything, so we left.
Fourth Day
We switched hotels on the fourth day. We went to the 12th arrondissement next to Gare De Lyon which is a really big train station in Paris. This location is really convenient because of all of the trains. Paris' train system is really good. They have many different lines with very frequent trains.
Today we stopped by Notre Dame which is located on Ile de City, an island in the middle of the Seine river. Notre Dame had been burned down in 2019 and is still under reconstruction. This was really sad for me because I really wanted to see inside. We saw Notre Dame from the outside and appreciated it. But I still wanted to get a sense of what being inside the church would have looked like. So I got tickets to Sainte Chapelle, another church on Ile de City.
Unfortunately for me, my plan backfired because Paris was having a protest that day. They closed all of the monuments for protection. Paris is notorious for always having a protest. There was a time when garbage wasn't getting picked up due to a protest haha. What was amazing though was that we got to see the protest firsthand. We sat in a cafe and watched the protestors go by.
After Notre Dame, we walked to Maison d'Isabelle which is across the river in the 5th arrondissement. This bakery is known for having the best croissants in Paris, and my oh my was it the best croissant I have ever had. These golden brown croissants were flakey but soft on the inside and you could see all of the different layers of folding. I highly highly recommend coming here. This bakery was so good that we even came back later in the week even though it was out of the way.
After getting our bakery and cafe fix, we went to the Pantheon (also in the 5th arrondissement). We looked at it from the outside as it was closed due to the protest. Looking at it made me feel like I was right back in Greece.
Right near the Pantheon were some Emily in Paris filming locations. Sajal and I had binged the show when we had decided we were coming to Paris for our honeymoon. We happened across the building that Emily works in and Gabriel's restaurant! We even saw the little park that's near Emily's apartment where she meets up with friends. It was so much fun seeing this and if you're a fan of the show it's really fun to go and see it.
We then walked from the 5th arrondissement to the 6th. The 5th and 6th Arrondissements seemed much more local and less touristy than the other arrondissements. There were many more markets and bigger streets instead of the windy local roads in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd arrondissements.
Finally for dinner, we ate at Le Tren Bleu. This is a restaurant that is literally in the train station by our house. This is a famous Michelin Star restaurant that has been the backdrop for multiple movies as well. The restaurant will even cook some of its items in front of you, like dessert for example. The ceilings are covered in beautiful artworks all framed with gold. I had high expectations for this restaurant and I think it just missed the mark. While the restaurant was gorgeous, the food was likely the worst I had in Paris. We had a lot of fun dressing up and enjoying the atmosphere.
Fifth Day
In the morning we went to La Favorite which is a really pretty cafe filled with these pink flowers. We got some fun drinks and a yummy charcuterie board.
This cafe is located in the Marais, also known as the 4th arrondissement. Marais is known as one of the best neighborhoods in Paris and I agree with this wholeheartedly. The streets are small and filled to the brim with great restaurants, cafes, and fun shops. We made our own Magnum ice cream bars, grabbed some mochi, and saw some amazing cookies. The streets are busy and there's always something going on. If I were to live anywhere in Paris this is where I would live. This is actually where my second cousin and his girl friend live in Paris. We met them for dinner later that night!
We went to the Louvre later that day around 3 pm. The Louvre used to be the King's Castle in France. After France became a democracy, it was converted into a huge museum. I have done my fair share of museums and have loved them, especially all of the ones in D.C., but this museum is really really big. You could spend a week in the Louvre itself. They have everything there from items from Ancient Egypt, the Mona Lisa, amazing artworks, and even parts preserved to what the castle used to look like. It took us about 30 minutes just to leave. The most I got from it was seeing the Mona Lisa. Seeing a painting I had heard about since elementary school was surreal, especially since it's so small! The Louvre is a must go, but unless you're really into museums I wouldn't spend too much time here. A beautiful place to hang out is the Louvre's gardens. It's just this open green park that even has some restaurants inside of it.
Sixth Day
On the sixth day, we got up really early and got on a train to Versailles. Versailles is a castle built by Louis XIV. It is more preserved than the Louvre so you can actually see what the Kings and Queens of France lived like. It's about an hour away by train. The rooms in Versailles were crazy. Each princess would have 3-4 rooms: 1 to entertain, 1 to sleep in, 1 to write letters in, etc. The King had 7 rooms and each had a theme of a Roman God! What's the most famous in Versailles is the hallway of mirrors, as shown in the video below.
Though Versailles the castle is huge, the gardens of Versailles are about 4 times its size! The gardens have multiple fountains, pools, flowers, and hedges. At the very end of it is a large lake as well. Apparently, Louis XIV walked in his gardens every day for an hour and I can see how. Just to walk across the garden one way takes around 15-20 minutes. At the end of his gardens are also 3 houses that were built later, one of which was lived in by Marie Antoinette. We spent the entire day in Versailles and then went back to Paris by Train.
After dinner, something that we had to do was see the Eiffel Tower light up and shimmer. The tower only lights up when it's dark and will shimmer at the top of every hour for 5 minutes. The lights turn off at 11 pm. In the summer, it gets dark around 9:30 pm which means you really only have one chance to see it shimmer. We had missed when we had tried earlier in the week but I was determined to make it that night and we did. Seeing it shimmer and light up was so beautiful. It was truly magical and so romantic. We of course took a ton of videos and pictures. When I think of Paris, this is one of the moments I really remember.
Seventh Day
We woke up really early on the seventh day to go do a croissant class! We made croissants, pain au chocolate, and pain au raison. Croissant dough takes 3 days to make. 1 Day to actually make the dough, 1 day to fold the dough, and 1 day to bake the croissant. When you fold the dough, you fold it with layers of butter and and you fold it so that you have like 20+ layers! It's crazy but you can actually see it. The only downside to this class was that the croissants were probably the worst I had in Paris. We actually gave all of the food we made to a homeless man and bought croissants from La Maison d'Isabelle because it was so good. I mean we only had 1 more day in France and I wasn't going to waste my belly space on bad croissants!
The other really fun thing we did that day was to go see a fashion show. Every Friday, Galleries Layfayette Paris, a huge mall in Paris, will put on a fashion show. The items are from pieces that are sold in their mall. Obviously, this is not a real fashion show with major designers but it was really cool seeing what those shows would be like. The mall is so big that they have two sides completely split up- one for women and one for men. It was so much fun going through all of the stores and seeing Paris fashion.
Eighth Day
On our last day in France, we rented a moped or a miniature bike. We drove all around Paris with it which was really fun. We even drove around the Arc de Triomphe which is known as the worst roundabout in the world. For brunch we went to La Maison Rose, a famous brunch restaurant in Montemarte. This was another filming location for Emily in Paris. It was hard to get these reservations but it was so worth it. The food was absolutely delicious. Mostly we drove around Paris in a moped which is its own fun in itself.
After dinner we decided that we had to go clubbing in Paris. We went to the Aquarium which is a club that's actually hosted in an Aquarium. During the day you can see fish, and at night you can dance with them. This was a super cool and unique club and I really had fun dancing here, as you can see in the video below.
In conclusion, I had the absolute time of my life in Paris. I loved seeing all of the art, experiencing the culture, and seeing all of the great monuments. I truly think that it's one of the best cities in the world. Paris is a city that will forever be in my heart and I know that I will come and visit there again.
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