Normally I am all about travel with kids, but this trip was a special anniversary trip, commemorating our 25th! Is there a more romantic place to spend a red letter anniversary than Paris? Here is our itinerary for six days in the City of Lights.
We flew Air France, a great experience, especially after our Norse Air experience in May, into Charles DeGaulle Airport and stayed at the quaint and lovely Hotel Saint Petersbourg near the Opera. We enjoyed a walk through to the amazing Galeries Lafayette Department Store on our way to its beautiful (free) rooftops views.
I am a South Florida girl, so the cold weather (mostly in the 30s F) was difficult for wandering around, but the Christmas decorations were already up in late November and it felt very festive! Paris is a very walkable city, but the subway is fairly easy to use also (except the special ticket to get to the airport). We also used the bus a few times. It was not as simple as a London bus, probably because we do not speak French and it is not tap to pay with a credit card. But once we got the hang of the daily subway passes, it was fairly seamless.
Getting around Paris is not difficult. Just beware the intense climb from the Montmartre subway station up to the street level. You can walk off a few dozen croissants getting there if you choose not to use the elevator. We did not experience the pickpockets and shady characters you are always warned of, but then again nothing was crowded in late November when we were there.
That evening we headed for our evening tour of the Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier). It is a stunning building, inside and out. We booked the evening tour for its Phantom of the Opera theme. There was a bit of that, but not nearly what I had hoped. I am a big fan of both the book and the musical. The tours are large and you have to stick close not to miss what the guide was saying (in English, but with a thick French accent). The earpiece has a very short range.
The reviews I read were rave, so I had high expectations and was a bit disappointed. I would not want to have missed seeing the inside, though. We saw no practice rooms and you do not get to see the phantom’s underground lake, but the story of Garnier finishing his opera house with limited fund, so cleverly is worth hearing. There is an incredible amount of detail that makes this place so stunning.
An exploration of the Montmartre neighborhood was the next day’s activity. We took the adorable little Funicular to the top and explored the views from the steps of the Basilica of Sacré Cœur de Montmartre. This church is one of the prettiest things in Paris, especially at night. There is a little train at the top. The tour was worth the price. We saw the whole neighborhood, down to the Moulin Rouge (a seedy street that I am glad I did not spend much time on) and back up to the church and stayed fairly warm. There are cute shops and Patisseries (pastry shops or bakeries) we found on our walk back down.
We had dinner at La Bouillon Chartier Grands Boulevards Bistro (doesn’t need reservations). You can try all the traditional French foods, for very reasonable prices, here in a old art noveau building. Everything was delicious. There is a long line to get seated, but it went very fast. You may share a table, but that was part of the charm. We found this as a recommendation of Les Frenchies. This is an adorable couple with a YouTube channel full of helpful videos for finding restaurants, using the subway, booking attractions, and finding a great hotel in Paris.
The next amazing meal we had was Pain Vin Fromages for fondue. They do require reservations, which we didn’t have, but they worked us in, with a minimal wait. We had the cheese fondue with potatoes and a baguette for dipping. We were scraping the bottom for every bit of deliciousness. That was a favorite meal for this trip!
That day we had seen the Arc de Triomphe, though we did not pay to go to the top. It was cold! The Arc is one of those must see things where you see it, admire for a few minutes and leave. The Eiffel turned out to be much more impressive in every way. But the Arc large, imposing, and has a sacred element because this is where their tomb of the unknown soldier is buried. I have seen the one in Washington, D.C. several times, the one in Westminster Abbey just this year, and seeing this brought a sort of completeness. It does not have a constant guard, like the U.S. one.
We started to walk down Champs Elysees but it was very much like 5th Avenue in New York and not that exciting. I much prefer boutique and market shopping. It was very cool to see it lit up and night, though. We took a short walk from the other end one of the evenings we were there (until I got too cold and we hopped down the next subway station we came to).
We had booked evening tickets to the Louvre (it’s open in the evening only one day a week) and it was the perfect time to be there. Partly because it was so cold and partly to avoid crowds, we spent the warmest part of the day exploring and the cold evenings wandering indoors whenever possible. The Louvre is set up very nicely, The highlights tour on the phone app was perfect (except that it ate up my phone battery and my phone didn’t make it to scan my electronic tickets for last last wing of the museum). Each wing requires a scan because the museum is huge, with multiple entrances.
The phone tour gave can’t-miss directions and just enough information that you felt like you understood the piece. The crowd in front of the Mona Lisa was not bad. I think late November and the evening hours together was the secret to smaller crowds. Their coffee shop has teas custom made just for them. I loved the blueberry black tea. I found a Bernini sculpture (not on the phone tour) that brought tears to my eyes and my husband was in awe of the Samothrace sculpture.
We were so glad that we did not buy into the “Mona Lisa is not worth the hype” that we kept hearing. Even if you cannot get super close to the Mona Lisa, there are other DaVinci paintings that you can get up close and personal with. DaVinci is without comparison. You must see his work in person to gain a full appreciation. Also, don’t miss Napoleon’s apartments, for the historical aspect.
We did the same thing, an evening tour, with the Musee d’Orsay the very next evening. As a museum, I did not love the set-up. I knew that most of the artists that I wanted to see were on the 5th floor. They closed some of the exhibits early, which was annoying. But the Impressionists are all in one area, so we could move through Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Manet, and Degas fairly quickly. I have a tendency to go to a museum wanting to see something specific and falling in love with something else entirely. Its not a bad thing at all. I wanted to gaze at Reniors. I left fascinated with early Monets, before the fuzzies.
Perhaps I expected to check the Louvre off my list and thoroughly enjoy the Orsay. Instead I am eager to go back and spend an entire day at the Louvre, and feel more like I checked the Orsay off my list. Art is very much that way. Travel is, too. I went to Paris thinking the Louvre and the Eiffel would be too touristy to spend much time at, and they ending up being highlights of the trip. On the other end, maybe I hyped up the Orsay and the Paris Opera House too much in my mind and they could not meet my high expectations. Whether it was me or Paris we both can agree on the next day’s activity, a trip to Versailles, is quite unlike anything I have ever experienced.
A short RER train ride (again, not an easy feat to figure out which train to climb aboard on once you’ve purchased the ticket, though the conductors are fairly helpful) brings you to the outskirts of Paris where the humbly named Chateau d’Versailles towers over this little town. Just walking up to its massive gates is intimidating in this age of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It is easy to picture being summoned up the cobbled walk for some purpose in the days of the Sun King, shaking in your boots, or lack thereof. Versailles is what we all picture when we think of kings and queens. For instance, only once in our tour of London were we as impressed by the wealth and opulence of the royalty of England and that was seeing the crown jewels in the Tower of London complex. Everything about Versailles is over the top luxury for its time.
Versailles was made into a museum in an attempt to appease the people long ago, so much of it contains paintings and sculptures, which was a surprise. I was glad that we got the audio tour so that we understood what we were looking at. The Hall of Mirrors is every bit as lovely as all of the pictures of it. I could not have endured walking through the gardens, to the Trianons in the bitter cold of that day. Fortunately, they have transportation! There is a little tram. We took the other option. We rented the golf cart and had an adventure through the gardens, stopping for hot tea and crepes at a tasty stand along the way. The teas in France are wonderful, even the everyday coffee shop teas.
The Petit Trianon was especially fascinating to walk around. The Grand Trianon gives some idea of what Versailles was like in its heyday. The Gardens were lovely to drive through, even though missing some of their summer splendor in the cold. It was the same with the Tulleries and Luxembourg Gardens in the city. Though not devoid of beauty, they certainly were not what they must be in the other three seasons of the year. There were a few species of tree still dropping autumn leaves, but most had already shed.
My quick tips are: Go to the bathroom when you see one; they are few and far between. Spend a little time at the gift shop. Everything I bought there was lovely: the rose jam, the perfume, the tea, the chocolates. You don’t need the audio tour for the Trianons. They are far more self-explanatory than the palace itself. We did not spend much time in the town of Versailles, though it looked charming, because we had reservations for dinner that night.
Our dinner at Pierre Sang in Oberkampf was a fun experience. We are adventurous eaters, so a French-Korean fusion sounded delicious. There are two dinner seatings. All six courses are chef’s choice. The chef decides what is for dinner based on what is fresh and available, and prepares it right in front of you. The meal was colorful and inventive. It was reasonably priced for such a unique experience.
We were able to see such landmarks as the Gardens, Bridge Alexander III, Place de la Concorde, Place de Voges Square, and the outside of the Pantheon without going much out of our way on our many walks through the city.
We spent the next morning in the Latin Quarter and surrounding areas, starting with tickets to Saint Chapelle at 10:00 a.m. (timed entry for 10:30). The entry line is long because of bag checks. It was as beautiful as the pictures. The audio tour was hard to follow once we got up to the top floor and the narrator was explaining every single story in every single stained glass window. I would have liked a “greatest stained glass window hits” kind of audio tour. But once I got the gist of the story (being more biblically literate than whoever this narrator was) I skipped to the next audio segment and that kept me moving. After that kind of beauty I will admit, Notre Dame is a bit underwhelming. It would make sense to do something different in between, but geographically, these churches are right next to each other, so it is reasonable to see them back to back.
I tried over a dozen times and over the course of four days to get the free timed entry tickets into Notre Dame. I never could get the website to work for me. Fortunately, the unticketed entry line was very short that morning and we got right in. It is very beautiful and newly restored after the big fire. I prefer Westminster or even Yorkminster Abbey, personally. Still, you must visit such an historical place when covering the Paris highlights. And to know that after the French Revolution it fell into use as storage until Victor Hugo brought it back into public favor is very telling about the French people and human nature in general. I was glad we were able to take a look inside.
Our next day’s adventure was one of my favorites. It was a Devour Paris Ultimate Food Tour at 2:30 p.m. It was full of delicious treats, history, and local stories from the Marais neighborhood. We sampled croissants, macarons, wine, cheese, French onion soup, Moroccan wraps, and more, while seeing and hearing the stories behind the merchants, the landmarks, and the buildings. Our guide, a chef, explained how the best croissants are made, what the plaques in the Jewish quarter meant, and why each floor balcony is different in the Haussman architecture. We enjoyed everything we ate, the long walk through the area, and his well informed sound bytes of information. It was a very cold day, but he made sure we had opportunities to duck in out of the wind as often as possible, had opportunities for warm drinks, bathrooms, and buying souvenirs.
Our last full day was our 25th anniversary! We spent the morning at the free Carnavalet Museum. I only wanted to browse the French Revolution exhibit. I didn’t even get all the way through that before we were hungry for lunch. But I saw what I wanted to. I have read mostly English authors on the French Revolution, so it was interesting to read how the French feel about it (spoiler alert: they feel pretty good about the violence, bloodshed, and rebellion against faith, as a sort of necessary purge), and this exhibit was exactly what I was looking for, a broad overview of the whole event from their perspective.
We had tickets to see the Eiffel Tower at 3:45 p.m. It was a pretty simple process to get up there. I did not expect to want to stay up there as long as I did. We had tickets to travel all the way to the top, but that elevator was closed for repair and did not open back up that night. We got the views all the way around that middle floor first, then came back in to warm up and browse the gift shop.
After a bit we went back out to get the sunset views and then came back in for warm drinks. We went back out for the twinkling lights on the hour and pictures at night and then came back in for our champagne and macaron that were supposed to be part of the ticket package for going all the way to the top (they gave us an automatic refund of the price difference for the middle floor and the top a few days later). Finally, we toasted our anniversary overlooking the City of Lights and got in line to wait for the elevator back down (that takes awhile).
Our dinner reservations were for the historic restaurant Procope. I was thrilled to be seated in the Frederic Chopin Salon. It is a very old, fancy restaurant that Napoleon and many other famous Parisians frequented. It was tasty, with wonderful ambience, good food, and reasonable prices, perfect for a nice occasion.
After that we went straight to the famous jazz club in the Latin Quarter: Caveau de la Huchette at 5 Rue de la Huchette. Yes, it is literally in a cave. It is cozy, winding and has so much character. It doesn’t open until 9:00 p.m. The later it got, the more crowded it got. It was a delightful experience. Live jazz usually is. By the time we left at midnight, there was a long line to get in. The Eiffel Tower, Procope, and jazz at Caveau de la Huchette, all made for a magically romantic evening.
With a stop for a carry-on full of baguettes and croissants to bring home, we were on our way back home to warm up and share our anniversary adventure with our dolls. Au revoir!
