My 3 Days in Paris
April 24 — April 27, 2016
DAY ONE: Arriving in Paris (from Barcelona) was a bit of a culture shock.
It took us a while to figure out how to buy bus tickets and find the right bus (to take us toward our Airbnb), let alone figure out which stop was “our” stop.
*We did not find the locals to be at all helpful…then again, we did not speak/understand French.*
Thankfully, our Airbnb host left very detailed directions in English, which helped us along. And, Gabe had the metro/bus app on his phone to track where we were going (we were VERY thankful we had gotten that SIM card in Spain!)…but it still felt like wherever we got off of the bus was the middle of nowhere!
“Don’t panic. We’re just lost in a huge, foreign city, where people don’t speak our language OR want to help us…AND it’s freaking cold. WTF?! Why didn’t we stay in Barcelona again?!” I was legitimately worried for a minute, especially as we (and our suitcases) trudged through the drizzly cold…
But, as it turned out, we weren’t actually that far from the Airbnb apartment, and our host was super nice and helpful! The apartment was a refuge for us…especially as Gabe subsequently caught a cold and a major case of the grumpies 😉 OKAY, we both did. It was a miserable introduction to Paris.
But after a bit of settling in, we put on all our layers and went out to make the best of it! …also taking along one of our host’s massive umbrellas (a very thoughtful perk of the Airbnb)!
We ended up dining at a warm, busy cafe called Les Philosophes. Like a couple of true tourists, we ordered beef bourguignon and (French) onion soup for the soul! The wait-staff was not super friendly (from the American perspective), but we ate well and successfully paid for our meal (small wins). Next — weary and discouraged — we tracked down a Starbucks. “Two Americanos, please” (that’s what we are, after all). Shameful, I know, but it was nice to have something hot in hand.
Next order of business: find bus #69 for a warm/dry view of the major sites, and convenient transport to the Eiffel Tower. Our first view of the Louvre was from the bus window!
I can’t say we had a great first impression of the Eiffel Tower…it was just so dreary and cold (we’re big babies, I know). I had to twist Gabe’s arm just to walk underneath it and take some pictures (to be fair, he was not feeling well at all). A couple of fake smiles later, and we were back on the metro heading for refuge!
On our walk back to our Airbnb, we stopped at a bakery for a loaf of bread (with raisins and other dried fruits) and at a grocery store for some peanut butter, to make a gourmet dinner of PB&Js. Comfort food at its best! We spent the rest of the night lounging in our beautiful apartment, doing laundry (this was day 10 of our European tour), watching Netflix, and waiting for 10 PM to see the Twinkling Tower out our (8th floor) living room windows! We needed the recharge…and Gabe needed to get feeling better ASAP.
DAY TWO: A quick little breakfast and we were out the door for a full day, starting at Notre-Dame Cathedral. It was still cold out, but pleasant (we were in much better spirits).
The cathedral was striking with its very dark, medieval interior, statues (including headless St. Denis and Joan of Arc), gargoyles, and flying buttresses. We stood on the center of France marker (km zero), studied the very grim Last Judgment over the doors of the cathedral, walked through the low-lit path inside the church, then walked around the side through the pretty garden.
The Last Judgment shows demons torturing sinners and angels escorting saints to paradise. Yikes!
Saint Denis is the patron saint of Paris. After being decapitated, he is said to have picked up his head and walked for 6 km, preaching a sermon all the way until finally collapsing.
Next, per Rick Steves’ audio tour instructions, we walked to the Deportation Memorial, built in memory of the 200,000+ people deported to Nazi concentration camps. It was closed, but we saw what we could.
Then we walked across to the Left Bank book sellers (most of which were also closed).
Next stop on our walking tour was Shakespeare and Co., a historic bookstore which serves as a gathering place for aspiring writers, and honors “the greats” who wrote in cafes around Paris (such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Orwell, and Shakespeare). Also, the adjoining coffee shop provided us with some much needed caffeination!
Next up: the Louvre! We bought the tickets online, but apparently had to print them out before going. So, we searched for an internet cafe within walking distance, like it was 1999. Just, why? I have to assume this policy about printed tickets has been changed by now…?
A quick note on food: Bakeries everywhere serve delicious grab-and-go pastries, quiche, crepes, sandwiches, etc. — an affordable option for any meal of the day! Most full-service restaurants close after lunch and reopen at dinner time (and some are closed on certain days of the week), so if you’re looking to dine somewhere specific, it’s best to plan ahead. Most of our meals were this on-the-go style (“fast food” in the best way!).
After we paid to print our tickets and picked up some snacks, it was time to go through security at the glass pyramid, and start exploring one of the world’s most famous museums!
Side note: Upon entering the Louvre, we were diverted to the “cloakroom,” to place our bag in a locker and our umbrella in a special umbrella holder. The directions for these were very confusing to us…especially the umbrella one. We definitely did not set the pass-code correctly, and therefore could not retrieve the umbrella. We were afraid we would have to leave this really nice umbrella (belonging to our Airbnb host) behind! But, for now, it was safely stowed (stuck)…so we decided to enjoy the museum and worry about it after.
We started in Greek/Roman art (Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace), moving next to French Romanticism (Mona Lisa, Liberty Leading the People), and finished with ancient Mesopotamia & Egyptian art, including the Code of Hammurabi. There is so much to see in the Louvre! We only spent about 3 hours covering the highlights (we followed Rick Steves’ audio tour for most of it, then wandered on our own to find the Code of Hammurabi). My favorite was the Winged Victory of Samothrace, positioned above what can only be called an Epic Staircase. I also was struck by the room of French Romanticism, where we were surrounded — floor to ceiling — by some of the most emotive paintings I’ve ever seen.
Back to the umbrella: When all hope was lost, a lady who worked there came to help us. Somehow, some way, she got the umbrella free (I presume we weren’t the first to make this mistake/require her heroism!). We were so very relieved and thanked her profusely!
Oh, the funny little stresses of travel.
For dinner, we stopped at a creperie, which was not very good (sadly). It wasn’t a place I had picked out in advance, just a place we found along the way. Ohh well, at least I can say I ate a crepe in France (lol).
Our last goal of the day was to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle up close, so we got another Starbucks, and walked briskly to make it on time (so briskly I spilled the coffee on myself). All worth it though, because — we made it! And it actually WAS really magical! =D
After this magical moment (and the coffee), we were feeling energized again! Why not backtrack to the Louvre and the Seine to see what everything else looked like after dark? It was a great idea! So, we ran to catch the metro/tram (just barely made it), only to find out it was going the exact WRONG direction! Nooo! We got off at the next stop (the end of the line), where no train was due for another 30 minutes. Ugh. We pondered walking, tried asking an employee for advice (she either didn’t understand us or had no interest in helping us), and ended up just hanging tight til the next ride — inspiration squelched. Had I not been able to see the hope of the Eiffel Tower nearby, I might have felt a little sketch about being stranded in a lonely Metro at 11 PM. But eventually the train showed up, and we decided we had had enough excitement for one day. Off to bed!
DAY THREE: Our first stop of the day was an Australian-run coffee shop called Cafe Lomi.
This place was in the north (which we found to be noticeably colder than the rest of Paris), near Sacre-Coeur and Montmartre neighborhood. It was kind of out of the way, but we specifically wanted to visit this shop because they were one of the coffee-roasting pioneers in Paris. And it was worth it — not just for the delicious food and coffee, and warm atmosphere, but for the friendly faces!
One unique thing on their menu was a coffee served with a dipping-cheese. I wish we would have ordered this, as I have never seen such a thing anywhere else! What we did order was a couple of black & white coffees: as in, one straight espresso shot + one cortado (espresso with just a little milk). I loved the presentation! We also got a nice, hearty breakfast, and a couple of bags of coffee for home :)
Then (circling back to some things we had missed the day before) we were off to Sainte-Chapelle: a royal chapel within the medieval “Palais de la Cite.” This tiny chapel is quite impressive! It is completely covered in stained glass! The stained glass panes (arranged across 15 windows, each 15 meters high) depict 1,113 scenes, many of which are stories from the Bible.
The chapel was built specifically to house King Louis IX’s collection of relics, particularly the Crown of Thorns, and to serve as a place of worship for the royal family (separate from the “people of the palace” who worshiped in the parish church below). Sainte-Chapelle was definitely a beautiful and unique place to see, but I also found it surprisingly crowded and kinda pricey…
Next door to Sainte-Chapelle is the Conciergerie (former prison). We didn’t go in for a tour, but learned that hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from the Conciergerie to be executed by guillotine, including Marie Antoinette.
Next, we saw Place Dauphine (very cute, hidden plaza), and walked across the Pont Neuf. About this time, it started snowing or sleeting, so we decided it was a good time to hop back on the metro!
We took the metro to the the Arc de Triomphe (huge!) to walk down the Champs Élysées (main shopping drag). Along the way, we picked out some fancy macaroons at La Durée (basically a jewelry store for macaroons, because WOW! expensive little things!)
Then we walked to Place de la Concorde (formerly Place de la Révolution), where King Louis the XVI was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.
Being our last day in Paris, our thoughts were now turning to all the things we might want to go back and see again before it was time to leave — and they all revolved around the River Seine! So, we went back to the Louvre and Ponte des Artes (formerly lock bridge) to take more pictures before dinner. So glad we did too, because there was finally some blue in the sky!
Our dinner plans were at Le Pre Verre. We had tried to go there another time, but got bested by what one might call “tourist timing” (we got hungry at the wrong time of day, when they were not yet open). This time, we waited outside with a little crowd (a good sign) until they opened at 7:30 p.m. This was our fanciest meal in Paris, by far — we got a duck appetizer, two entrees of mahi mahi and lamb, then a brownie with molasses gelato for dessert (+ coffee). We weren’t full-fledged foodies in 2016, so this was much fancier than we were used to (splurge!) and we loved it!
We were flying high after such a nice dinner, and dedicated the rest of our night to “strolling.” This was probably my favorite part of our whole time in Paris. It was a little bit warmer outside, we were finally acclimated to the geography/culture of things, so we were actually able to relax and just soak in the “magic” of the City of Lights! We watched the Eiffel Tower twinkle one last time from the arch at the Louvre — a great note to end on! Then we floated “home” to pack up, tidy the apartment, shower, and sleep, before our next adventure (Venice, Italy).
