Until a few weeks before Patrick and I had a rare week off at the same time (WHAT?!), we didn't have anything planned. Lately, when this has happened, we have defaulted to "staycationing" which ends up being anything but a vacation as I insist on packing every appointment, deep cleaning and organizing goal, etc. into not even close to enough hours. I was determined that this time we were going to fill the week with adventure, in an all-out YOLO vacation. We came up with a huge range of options, including Amsterdam (apparently January is not the city's most glorious month), Sundance (I'm a cinema nerd), Barcelona, Costa Rica, and Italy, but ultimately Paris won out.
I embarked on some hardcore researching, and learned a few key points from some great bloggers like Sophie Nadeau. My main takeaways (before and after the trip):
GENERAL
- We opted for The Paris Pass through Go City (the 4-day pass, which includes a pass to all the big museums) which covered basically everything we wanted to do and let us skip some lines.
- I learned that in France it is considered incredibly important to say "bonjour" and "au revoir" to anyone you encounter. This seems obvious, but if you pay attention in America, we actually skip this all the time. Side Note: Pamela Druckerman gets into detail about why this is so important to Parisians in her book Bringing Up Bebe, which is a great read for parents, Paris-bound or not!
- I read up on some of the most common Tourist Scams before we went and it certainly paid off because we encountered almost all of them.
WHEN TO GO
January is not the ideal time to visit Paris if your dream is to sit outside in one of those bistro chairs people watching for hours, or aimlessly stroll down the street, or visit one of their famous gardens expecting to see anything in bloom. However, we encountered almost no lines, anywhere we went, for the entire trip, which was a huge win, and definitely a reason to consider a winter visit.
WHAT TO WEAR
- Paris in January is cold. It's typically around 40s and 50s Fahrenheit, but the week were there it was more like 20s and 30s. A long, warm coat, layers, hats, and gloves are a must. These lined leggings that look like sheer tights were amazing!
- A trip to Paris typically involves a lot of walking, so bring comfortable shoes. Sneakers aren't totally out of the question, but a nice pair of flat boots is what most people were wearing.
- Parisians like to wear clothes that are understated. Lots of neutrals and classic pieces, not a lot of bold colors and patterns. Since I live most of my life in scrubs and yoga pants, I tried out the rental service Nuuly and scored some amazing items, including this coat that I ended up keeping.
- Pickpockets are definitely a thing in Paris, so a crossbody bag that zips was highly recommended. I brought this one which conveniently also fit my camera!
SHOWS/MOVIES TO WATCH BEFORE OR AFTER
I get a huge kick out of seeing places in movies and TV that I've also seen in real life. Here are some popular ones that showcase plenty of the touristy spots:
- The Da Vinci Code (for the Louvre and the Rose Line)
- Lupin (Netflix show in French about a "Gentleman Thief," use the subtitles not the dubbing. Think "Ocean's Eleven" meets "Revenge").
- Marie Antoinette (for Versailles)
- Emily in Paris
- Sex and the City (An American Girl in Paris)
Day One
We arrived in Paris and promptly ran into a scammer as we made our way toward the taxi stand. He asked if we wanted a taxi to Paris, and told us to "come with him," bragging that he had a set rate of 95 Euros. Thanks to my scam research, I was extremely insistent with him that we would go to the official cab line even though he tried to convince me they were going to charge us double because it was the weekend and I was a complete idiot. We made it to the cab line and were happy to find that, as promised, the official airport-to-Paris "set rate" was about half what he was trying to charge.
We checked our bags at the Hotel Relais Bosquet, in the 7th Arrondissement (that's what neighborhoods in Paris are called...the 7th is the one with the Eiffel Tower). Our room wasn't ready yet so we got down to business - finding a cafe for some pastries and coffee. I had read good things about Kozy Kafe right by our hotel, but so had everyone else in Paris apparently because the line was around the corner. And it was January, so I wasn't about to wait. We landed at Cafe Des Officiers and had the most incredible bread and juice I had ever had. The grapefruit juice tasted like someone had actually just squeezed a grapefruit over my glass, go figure.
It was here that we learned that in Paris they don't always have a spot to add tip to your check ("l'addition, s'il vous plaît"), so you need to bring cash with you if you plan on tipping. We also learned that tips are not a big thing in France, but we weren't sure enough about that fact to just get up and leave with no tip at all. So we ended up tipping with the only cash we had on us -- a 20 Euro note. Lesson learned. The server had been very nice and tolerant of our complete lack of French, so at least we felt good about it.
Musee d'Orsay
Our room still wasn't ready after breakfast so we decided to find somewhere warm to hide out while we waited. We decided to try the Musee d'Orsay, and our first trip on the train. When we got down there, we did our best to use our phones and the map to figure out exactly where we needed to go and used the machine to attempt to purchase a ticket. But when we tried to buy a ticket, the route we wanted didn't seem to be an option. We checked over and over on our phones and quickly grew flustered at our complete inability to buy a train ticket. We ended up just giving up and deciding to walk to the Museum. We would later learn that our mistake was we had selected "Paris Region" tickets which are actually tickets for the trains out to the suburbs, not the subway system within Paris.
On arrival to the Musee d'Orsay there was a substantial line for security. We showed our "Paris Pass" using the app on my phone and were immediately brought to the front and let in. However, when we went to the actual entrance to the museum and showed the same thing, they said we needed the Museum Pass. "But we bought the version that has the Museum Pass," we explained, pointing to the ticket information on my phone. Well, it turns out that even though the Paris Pass conveniently comes right to your phone, for some unexplained reason you have to physically pick up the Museum Pass. The pickup spot is near the Louvre Museum, about a 20 minute walk away from where we were (we weren't ready to attempt the subway again!). Sleep-deprived and cold, we decided to just pay the entrance fee. At least we got to skip the line!
The Musee d'Orsay is less famous than the Louvre, but many people will tell you they preferred it. The architecture is interesting because it used to be a train station. Their biggest draw is probably their collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art, including many famous Van Gogh pieces.
Seine Dinner Cruise
After a much-needed nap we walked down to the River Siene by the Eiffel Tower to board our boat for our Bateaux Parisiens dinner cruise. There are river cruises included as part of the Paris Pass, but because we wanted to do a dinner as part of the cruise, we decided to postpone activating our 4-day pass until the next day and pay separately for the cruise.
The Seine Cruise was definitely a highlight of the trip. We had welcome Champagne and a wine pairing with each course. I badgered my notoriously picky husband enough that he tried escargot (aka snails). The food was amazing (of course). We saw Paris all lit up with its beautiful lights. And to top off a perfect evening, right before desert, our server grabbed us and rushed us to the back of the boat so we could catch a picture as we passed by the Eiffel Tower.
Day Two
Some people find bus tours totally lame, and we are not those people. I love the "Hop on, Hop off" style tours, which I've also done in Dublin and London, to get a quick "lay of the land" when I'm visiting somewhere. It's like having a tour guide and an all-day cab pass in one. After getting to Kozy Kafe early enough to beat the crowd and having the fanciest-looking pancakes of my life, we "hopped on" the Big Bus tour bus, officially activating our Paris Pass.
Big Bus Hop-on, Hop-off Tour
The bus took us on an approximately two-hour ride around Paris (if you don't hop off at all), driving by pretty much all of the major tourist spots in Paris, including the Opera Garnier (of "Phantom of the Opera" fame) and the Notre Dame cathedral (sadly still under construction since the 2019 fire), and the Arc de Triomphe. We chose to hop off for a stop at the Arc de Triomphe to stretch our legs on the Champs-Élysées and check out some very fancy stores. We were getting some serious "Pretty Woman" vibes as we had to be let in to Dior by guards at the doors and our every movement was watched as we creepily checked price tags to see just how much someone could charge for a sweatshirt (multiple thousands of Euros, it turns out).
We found a warm café, Bistro des Champs, to stop at and grabbed a snack -- we recognized "cheese sandwich" on the menu and were surprised to see that in France that literally means just cheese between two pieces of bread. Not toasted, not melted, no condiments, just cheese and bread. And somehow it was amazing. How are they doing this?
Eiffel Tower
We rode the bus back to the Eiffel Tower for the next part of our day: our Eiffel Tower climb with ExperienceFirst as part of the Paris Pass. We were fairly intimidated by the idea of climbing to the second tier of the Eiffel Tower mainly because it's just hard to conceptualize what about 700 stairs feels like before you do it. That, and it was about 30 degrees out and this was an outdoor staircase. We met our guide outside the entrance to the tower and got some cool history of the tower including how they are getting it ready to shine for the upcoming Olympics. We followed him up to the first level and I will say I was breathing heavily by the end, but it was nowhere near as difficult as I feared (for reference, I can run a 10 minute mile on a good day and then would be sore for the next two weeks). At the first level, we paused to catch our breath and look around and get more history of the Eiffel Tower, including its important role in World War II. We climbed to the next level and took in some amazing views. Going to the very top of the tower is rarely an option in January because high winds can make it dangerous and its frequently under repair this time of year, but the views from the second level were plenty impressive. There are souvenir shops, cafes, and restaurants at both the first and second levels, so plenty of opportunities to take your time celebrating your big climb. And just for the record, there is also an elevator option!
For dinner that night we went to Le Bistrot d'Henri. The reviews basically gave the impression that this was a wonderful place for locals or experienced Paris visitors, but that without fluent French you would be totally lost. We looked up the menu ahead of time and used Google Translate and Notepad to game plan what we would order. We were pleasantly surprised that they were extremely welcoming in spite of our non-existent French and even had a menu in English. The atmosphere and food did not disappoint, and I tried bone marrow and duck for the first time.
Dinner conversation: I'd never eaten duck before because I had a pet duck named Daisy growing up. Since I've also had pet chickens since that time, and certainly have no intention of giving up eating chicken, I used this logic to justify finally trying duck. With the assistance of a lovely bottle of Cote du Rhone, I took Pat down memory lane through my relationship with Daisy the Duck only to realize, 20 years late, that in her 3 years living in my backyard Daisy had never laid an egg. I think my good friend Daisy was a dude.
Day Three
Place du Trocadéro sunrise
The photographer in me had to try for an epic sunrise shot at Place du Trocadero. If you've seen pictures of people in front of a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower with nothing else in the way, this is probably where they took it. And from all my pre-trip searching, I was convinced that getting up early and trekking over there to see the sun rise over the city would be worth the twenty-minute walk in the freezing cold. We weren't even close to the only people with this idea -- the place was full of tourists, brides and grooms, and "influencers" galore, but sadly the one thing missing was the sun. The sky was so cloudy that we actually had to keep checking the time to determine if sunrise was supposed to have happened yet, and the sky just went from dark gray to a lighter gray. Oh, well. The view of the Eiffel Tower was still pretty cool.
Thanks to the slightly scary capabilities of Photoshop these days, I quickly threw together the photo that I was hoping to get...
Le Marais
After coffee and pain au chocolat at Carette right by the Place du Trocadero (famous for their beautiful tiny pastries), we headed out on a mission to find a very specific falafel place from Yegian family lore, as an excuse to explore the Marais neighborhood. No longer afraid of French people, this time we just went straight to the ticket counter at the subway station for help from a real person, and had no problems at all. Le Marais is a very cool area famous for its shopping and food, and for being a center of LBGTQ culture in Paris. We quickly found L'As du Fallafel and grabbed a "to go" falafel sandwich to share. In any other situation, I would recommend going and sitting inside like a sane person instead of trying to pick apart this overflowing sandwich in the freezing cold with forks, but we had a photo we needed to recreate, so eat in the cold we did. That sandwich turned out to be the most amazing falafel I have ever had from a restaurant (and being married into an Armenian family, you can believe I've had my fair share of falafel).
Side note: After the first few days in Paris I decided that berets are actually a thing people wear there, and felt brave enough to try it out!
SACRE COEUR
After wandering Le Marais for a bit, we found a subway station and headed to Montmartre. Montmartre is a very cool "artsy" village in Paris that has been a hangout for some very famous people like Picasso and Van Gogh. It's also famously the setting of the movies "Moulin Rouge!" and "Amelie." Our subway station was at the bottom of the "hill" (it felt more like a mountain to me!), so as we walked toward the Sacre Coeur we decided to stop partway to catch our breath and warm up with a glass of wine. We made it to the Sacre Coeur just in time to watch the sun set over the city from its front steps.
Montmartre
There were a lot of places to choose from in Montmartre, and some top recommendations from friends and online included:
- La Maison Rose (where Picasso and Van Gogh would hang out, apparently)
- Le Refuge de Fondus (a unique Fondue restaurant experience where the wine is served in baby bottles)
- Pink Mamma (Pizza/Italian)
Based on availability and proximity, we started at Au Cadet de Gascogne just steps from the Sacre Coeur, which offered free champagne and snacks as part of our Paris Pass. It seemed to good to be true as we were immediately seated and served delicious treats and champagne without having to do anything but show my Paris Pass app. From there, we headed toward what would turn out to be our favorite meal of the trip, dinner at Le Potager du Pere Thierry. Like many restaurants in Paris, compared to American restaurants, this place is very compact; it's amazing how they can fit so many guests and a bathroom into the space. The food and wine were absolutely delicious, the atmosphere was super cozy and cute, and the service was perfect. I put the icing on the cake of a lovely dinner by knocking a wine glass off the table next to us as I tried to shimmy out of my seat when we left (did I mention things were VERY compact?).
MOULIN ROUGE
The next stop after dinner was the Moulin Rouge cabaret. This was a dream of mine, as I was a big fan of the Moulin Rouge movie when it came out, and it didn't disappoint. The reviews online were mixed, but we decided to risk it. We waited in line for just a few minutes, then were brought to a table with champagne and watched the show. There was singing, dancing, and some very impressive acrobatic performances. There were also a lot of feathers and almost-naked women. My sense is that many of the negative reviews online came from guests expecting a serious Broadway show, when this was more in the realm of campy fun. With all the red table lamps lighting the patrons' faces from below, the inside definitely reminded me of Toulouse-Lautrec's "At the Moulin Rouge," which was very cool!
Day Four
The Louvre
We started our day by finally picking up the Museum Pass segment of our Paris Pass so that we could visit the Louvre Museum. Miraculously, when we showed up to the Louvre mid-morning there was absolutely no line and we went right in. We made our way to the Mona Lisa to check that off the Bucket List, but we actually both agreed that Winged Victory was our favorite piece that we saw. I made the prediction that, other than the Eiffel Tower, Winged Victory is going to be the most-used "establishing shot" for the Paris Olympics. The Louvre is HUGE and we didn't even make it to all three wings, in fact we actually got lost while we were looking for the Egypt section.
cheese tasting
A short walk from the Louvre was O Chateau, a beautiful wine bar that served a five-cheese tasting with wine pairings as part of the Paris Pass. The cheese was, of course, amazing. And there was more bread, so that was pretty great too. Meanwhile, on the walk we passed a Christian Louboutin store, which might have been more beautiful than the Louvre.
Les Caves du Louvre
As if a wine and cheese tasting wasn't enough, we left O Chateau to make our appointment at our next stop, Les Caves du Louvre, where we were also set to have a wine tasting as part of the Paris Pass. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, but we figured there would be a table and a few other couples and we would be given three or so tastings of wine and educated a little on what they were. We totally underestimated what we were in for. We were brought downstairs into a cave, which we learned used to connect to the Louvre back when the Louvre was a home for the French royals, so Louis XV's sommelier used the caves to establish a wine collection and supply the Palace with wine from them discreetly.
The tour included education about the different wine regions of France, the proper way to taste wine (including a super-fun game wherein you basically shake big pepper shakers that have hidden scents in them and try to guess what you're smelling), wine storage and serving tips, and even full models of types of soil around France to illustrate how the land affects the grapes. We sipped a glass of wine throughout the tour and finished up at a wine bar in the caves where we were able to sample and compare several varietals. We were led by a sommelier-in-training who will actually be moving to California shortly to continue his education. Les Caves du Louvre was unexpectedly one of our favorite parts of the trip.
After a busy day, we decided to stay close to "home" for dinner and the front desk at our hotel recommended Le Central which was just a few doors down. They had plenty of comfort-food options, including a pizza menu.
Day Five
Versailles
To get to the Palace of Versailles, we had to take the RER C regional train (the one we kept accidentally trying to buy tickets for on Day One), which was conveniently located just a few blocks from our hotel. It was about a 40 minute ride and a quick walk to the palace. There is an app that you can download on your phone which has maps of the different areas of the palace and just about every room has an associated audio clip to guide you through (we brought our own headphones). Favorite spots for me were Marie Antoinette's bedroom (including the hidden door she used to escape when the palace was attacked), the Hall of Mirrors, and the room in which French leaders decided to assist the United States in the American Revolution.
Cinémathèque Française
Back in Paris, we visited one more spot on my wish list, as a film nerd, the Cinémathèque Française. I had learned about this place in college as the hangout spot of some of the most famous filmmakers in history (like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard). It was in this cinema they received their education by watching screenings of old films and sharing their ideas. Currently, the Cinémathèque Française still shows old films, and also has a museum dedicated to Georges Méliès, one of the first filmmakers and essentially the grandfather of special effects.
collecting Dinner
Our last dinner in Paris was our least fancy but also probably are most fun. Just one block from our hotel we found a street lined with all kinds of different food shops. We started at a cheese shop where we wandered in looking completely lost and overwhelmed and the man working behind the counter finally just handed us a sample of compte cheese and said, "this is what all the French people eat, this is what you want." And it was. We got a wedge of that as well as some brie, then a fresh baguette at the bakery, then a bottle of wine at a wine shop, a sampling of middle-eastern food from a stand, and finally a jar of pesto at another shop. We went up to our hotel room and had a glorious picnic of all our little treasures (complete with wine out of the hotel coffee mugs). In the morning, it was back to reality!
Next time...
There is definitely far too much to do in Paris to pack it all in to a five-day trip, so here is a list of the things we didn't get around to this time that will give us a great excuse to return:
Sights:
Restaurants:
...au revoir!
