Au Revoir, Belle Paris

Today, I am wrapping up my coverage on our short stay in Paris. What I loved most about the city is that it's truly a work of art in itself. The architecture, the sculptures, the flowers, the people. It's just all so beautiful everywhere you turn.

The one thing that I regret is not getting to experience the French cuisine while we were there. Like I've mentioned before, we were there at the most inopportune time while festivities raged on all weekend, so most of the restaurants were closed. I did insist on a spur of the moment stop for banana hazelnut crêpes when I smelled them wafting through the air on our way to Notre Dame. This little bowl of crêpes and 2 scoops of ice cream set us back $15 at Haagen Dazs, but let me tell you, it was so worth it!

The only restaurant we could find open at 8pm was Indiana Cafe.  The menu was very Americanized, so we had to settle for salad and BLT sandwiches. Nevertheless, the girls were geeked over eating french fries in France. The food was good, but the service was very slow. I don't know if that's true of all of the restaurants in Paris, but our waitress never did come back to see if we needed anything else after taking our order. We had to get water refills and our check from the bar.

When we ventured out of our hotel at 7am looking for breakfast, again, we couldn't find anything open that early. We stumbled upon this boulangerie selling pastries that looked pretty tempting. Here's the thing about ordering from a bakery or whatnot in Paris. They expect you to know what you want right away. They don't have patience for dilly dallying or being indecisive. Place your order, then move it along without holding up the line. HOWEVER, you can buy yourself a little extra time if you know a little basic french. I've noticed the locals are appreciative and give you leeway if you show you've attempted to at least speak even a tiny bit of the native language. I was ordering for the 4 of us and was able to buy a few extra minutes in the line without drawing ire from either of the workers by using french numbers and telling them c'est tout when we ordered enough. So on to this bakery. It did not have a name that we could find, but if you are in Paris, I INSIST you stop at the boulangerie at 49 rue Linois, 2 blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. You can read the Yelp reviews here. Not only were the croissants the flakiest, crispest, mouthwatering treats I've ever had, we bought a few apple tarts (tarte aux pommes) that I have not been able to stop thinking about ever since my first bite.

I'm seriously not lying when I say a day hasn't gone by since last July that I haven't thought about these apple tarts. Yes, they were that good. If you go to Paris and tell me you didn't stop at this boulangerie, we can't be friends.

The French have a reputation for being rude, so I was a little worried about interacting with the locals. However, I didn't come across a single rude person during our stay. Everyone we spoke to was most kind and helpful, but our Uber driver on our first night in was the best. He insisted on giving us a tour of his favorite stops before taking us to our hotel, showing us some lovely views of Paris lit up at night, where to find his favorite watering hole, and pointing out his house, which was a bit odd, but we just rolled with it lol. He even gave us half a lemon loaf cake to send us off to our room with something to snack on for the evening.

I admit, we haven't seen the Statue of Liberty in New York yet (that's coming this summer since we had to cancel our Cuba trip last week), but we did make a point of seeing the smaller version in Paris before leaving.

While I don't think we got to experience the essence of the true Parisian culture while we were there, since it was such a festive weekend, I truly loved soaking in as much as we could during our 2 day stay.

Even though we aren't big on going to the same place more than once, I do think a return trip to Paris is definitely in order, but when it's calm. Maybe in springtime or when the first snow of the year hits. Plus, I still need to check off going up the Eiffel Tower and the Catacombs off my travel bucket list :)

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What activity or food would you like to experience first in Paris?

Montmartre Is Always A Good Idea

When doing my research on what to do in Paris when you have limited time, I kept reading that you you should skip Montmartre. As luck would have it, our Eiffel Tower tickets got cancelled a few days before we left, so I had about 2 hours to fill back up into the itinerary. At the time, I was super pissed because who wants to go to Paris and not visit the Eiffle Tower? That cancellation turned out to be one of the better things that happened on our vacation because I was able to revisit things to do in Paris, and it seemed that Montmartre had so many cool things to check out. The district is definitely not overrated as some websites tend to suggest, and I think if you skip it on your travels, you'll be missing some of the best spots in Paris.

If you have time, take in a show at Moulin Rouge. If not, at least walk by to check out the iconic building.

We weren't sure if we wanted to go to Sacre Coeur, but our ultra cool Uber driver insisted on driving us over the night we arrived so we could see it all lit up in the dark, it piqued our interest to make the trek over the next day. It's true, you have to climb a massive staircase to reach the top if you are on foot, but if you have a ride, you can get dropped off at the top, right at the bottom of Sacre Coeur. If you are there in July like we were, I would suggest getting an Uber to take you over because those stairs are brutal in the summer heat.

We didn't go in, but it was definitely worth the trek up because it is such a beautiful structure. Plus, you get some spectacular views of Paris from the top too!

I happened upon another blogger talking about her visit to le mur des je t'aime (the wall of love) about a week before we were scheduled to arrive. I had never heard of it before, so I made sure we penciled a stop in also. Here you will find "I Love You" written in every language.

Wander the streets and admire the Parisian architecture. It is lovely! You'll also notice how the old streets are really narrow, but that doesn't stop the cars from flying down at full speed.

There's no shortages of carousels in Paris, but my favorite was the one at the base of Sacre Coeur painted with all of the famous landmarks in Montmartre.

Other iconic landmarks we visited in Montmartre were The Louvre:

Notre Dame Cathedral

And the Arc de Triomphe

While I may not have gotten Eiffel Tower views, I think we managed to make the most of the cancellation, getting to see some of the best Paris had to offer in the Montmartre district. I definitely encourage you to put it on your Paris travel itinerary!

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Would you brave climbing those stairs to Sacre Coeur in the summer, or would you take an Uber?

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

While our Louvre visit was a bust, the total opposite can be said for our stop at Notre Dame Cathedral. It was one of the first things I made sure to map out before we even left the States because I knew if I didn't put it on the itinerary, I was going to be bitter the rest of our trip if I missed it.

Paris in July is hot, and after walking the city all morning I was itching to get inside to shade myself from the sun and cool down for a bit. It was a little after noon when we arrived, so there were already quite a few other tourists standing in line to get in.

The line did look long, but it only took about 15 - 20 minutes of waiting in it before we reached the entrance. Notre Dame is a work of art in itself, so we were able to entertain ourselves by studying the sculptures on its exterior and snapping a few pics before going in.

I thought we'd get a little relief from the heat once we entered, but even though the lighting was dim, it was still quite warm and stuffy inside. However, that did not keep us from walking around, soaking in all of its beauty.

I was happy to see that even though there were quite a few tourists inside, everyone was quiet and respectful, taking care not to touch any of the relics or disturb any of the guests who were in prayer.

To state that Notre Dame is stunning is an understatement. The sculptures inside are just as amazing as the outside. My photos certainly don't do it any justice, so I insist that if you are in the market for a trip to Paris, put a visit to the cathedral on your itinerary. You will not regret it!

We stayed for right around 45 minutes, but you can stay for as long as you like. We were hoping to visit the cat walk to catch a glimpse of the famous gargoyles, but couldn't find anyone to direct us to the staircase to lead us up, so we missed out on that portion of the visit. Notre Dame is free to enter, though they do have a fee to climb the towers, which I believe runs around 8 euros.

You can find a ton of pigeons in the courtyard in the front of Notre Dame. There was a lady that was passing out birdseed for those who wanted to feed them. My girls were delighted to partake on the pigeon feeding, so if you have kids, I bet they'd love to feed them also. Just be sure you have a few euros on hand to tip the birdseed lady and some hand sanitizer for afterwards.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow me on Instagram, where I post travel related photography. I'll have the rest of my Notre Dame photos highlighted in my stories there over the next few weeks, so be sure to stop by and check those out!

Is Notre Dame Cathedral a stop you'd be interested in making on your Parisian getaway?

I Heart Paris

Happy Valentine's Day! Since it's the day of love, I thought today would be a good day to share some of my favorite pics from the City of Love with you. I'll post the rest of our Paris trip next week, since today's post is all about sharing the ♥ L-O-V-E ♥

We had an early flight to catch, so we had to crawl out of bed at around 4:30am to get our bags packed and rush to get a few snaps with the Eiffle Tower in the background before we left at 6:30am. It was hotter than hell the day before, and after walking all over Paris I was not having family pics with us in sweat soaked clothes. We were exhausted and grouchy that morning, but seeing the sunrise over the tower was so worth the loss of sleep. I don't think there's anything more beautiful than a sunrise in Paris.

While strolling through Montmartre, we made a little detour to the Le Mur des Je t'aime (the wall of love) where you will see "I Love You" written out in every language.

Just a little "Come With Me" shot through the Arc de Triomphe.

Hey sister, soul sister. Better get that dough sister with a little detour to Moulin Rouge. Since Paris wasn't initially on our European travel itinerary, we didn't fit in a show. However, I wasn't leaving without stopping by the iconic building for a quick snap.

I took about a billion photos of the Eiffel Tower, but I won't bore you with them all. Just a few of my favorites :)

From my family to yours, wishing you all the love and happiness this Valentine's Day ♥