La vie est belle! There is just something about this city that captures you. It lures you, makes you want to take a step back and just ENJOY LIFE because life is indeed beautiful.
Our stay in Paris was about 4 days and of course we tried to pack in as much sightseeing as possible. To state the obvious, must visits do include the Eiffel Tour, The Louvre museum, Arc de Triomphe, and Champs Elysees. A couple things to note here, if you want to go to the top of the Eiffel tour the tickets get sold out weeks in advance so be mindful to plan well ahead of your trip. The tickets sold online are for strictly elevator access. We chose to take the scenic route of course – the stairs! We lined up early, about 15-20 mins before the morning opening and got our tickets for the stairs elevator combo. This ticket can only be purchase in person the day of the visit. You take the stairs to the second level (about 116 m or 380 ft) and take the elevator from there to the summit. Personally, it was a great experience to take the stairs as we got to enjoy the views literally every step of the way!
To maximize our time we chose to visit the Eiffel tour in the morning, (this is key to beating the heavy crowds that come in after 11am) and the Louvre museum in the afternoon. We purchased our tickets in advance and opted to have a short guided tour at the Louvre. This museum is massive! There is the main entrance for the museum where the pyramid is located, however you can also enter through the Porte De Richelieu entrance from the side which is a lot faster. Once you get inside there are multiple entrances to different sections of the museum so don’t forget to grab a map and start exploring. At first you will want to figure out what exhibits you are most interested in seeing. Since we had the guided tour it covered a lot of the popular exhibits, but what it didn’t cover was the famous Mona Lisa. It just so happened the day we visited was the first day the renovations started for the room she is usually housed in and she had been relocated. She had been relocated to such a area that the lines spanned a few other exhibits and an entire floor. In the end we waited in line approximately 90 minutes to just catch a mere glimpse of this lovely lady. The sad part is that the art pieces that were on display on the path to see the Mona Lisa were completely ignored. All this to say, plan accordingly!
A lot of the restaurants we visited were researched in advance based on their proximity to our hotel or attraction. However, we do leave a few meals unplanned so we can organically explore the cities we visit. After spending an entire day walking we weren’t up to explore dining options. Luckily we stumbled on this local eatery, it seemed like a great local spot where Lots of locals were enjoying a drink and others their evening meal. Like most European restaurants it had an indoor and patio option. We opted for the spot that was right on the edge of the patio but seated us inside. This is what I call the sweet spot of seating since neither my husband or I are a big fan of smoking so sitting outside in Europe has its downside. Anyway, the restaurant was named Le Café Plume and it was a perfect way to end our day of being on our feet.
To our surprise a lot of artists’ work were not displayed at the Louvre; they were at it’s sister museum: Musee d’Orsay. We decided to spend the following day at this museum. This museum was the complete opposite of the Louvre. There was less crowds, a lot more space inside the museum, and a lot relaxed atmosphere over all. To our surprise the museum also had great restaurant options as well. We had lunch at the Café Campana. They had ample seating so it was not too long of a wait to get a table. They had good food choices and all reasonably priced. It was a great museum dining experience! Compared to the Louvre, we got to experience the full museum in a day and not only that, one could take time to enjoy the art. Isn’t that the point of displaying these amazing works of art?
No trip to Paris is complete without a shopping spree! We decided to spend an entire day exploring the shops, eating and ending with a special souvenir from the flagship Chambon Rue Chanel store. Our experience at the Chanel store was simply amazing! Our assigned Adviser’s name was Audrey (I mean come on!) and she was the sweetest. She answered so many of my questions and guided me to purchase my first Chanel bag. Not only that, she took me to the iconic stairs so I can snap a few shots to make it the best shopping experience ever!
As we were winding down our last moments in Paris, I realized that I hadn’t yet had any Crème brûlée (so cliché I know), but I just had to have it! So of course at 11pm the night before our flight (next day at 10:30am) we went to what became one of favorite restaurants on the trip: Le Suffren.