Paris: A Dream Come True

Back in August we went to Paris for a week. Here’s a recap of the first half of the week. Part two will be coming soon! I have so many photos to go through yet.

Day 1 – The Full City Experience

From the moment I laid eyes on the Eiffel Tower, I knew Paris would be everything that I had dreamt it to be. Our journey to get to Paris came with challenges, so when we first arrived, I was worried I had hyped it up too much. But once we got settled into our AirBnb apartment and figured out how to navigate Le Métro (the subway system), I was able to take in all of the beauty of Paris.

Our first stop after we got settled in, was to look at the Seine, the river that runs through the center of Paris. We took the Metro towards the center of the city to walk along the Seine and take in our surroundings. When we got there, Aaron pointed out that you could just barely see the Eiffel Tower peaking out from behind all of the beautiful Paris buildings. It was breath-taking. That’s when it all hit me and I realized I was finally in Paris! We spent the afternoon walking around the area while I photographed every building that we passed.

In the evening, we went to a park that was close to our apartment that Aaron had read about online. I was surprised to learn that it was 61 acres of park, hidden in the city! After a full day of walking up and down the stairs in the metro and walking around the city center, I was pretty tired so we didn’t stay long or explore too much of the park, but Aaron said he wanted to come back later in the week. I agreed.

Day 2 – Flea market and pizza

I had read about this large flea market online before we left for Paris. It’s only open on the weekends, so if we were going to see it, this had to be the day. I didn’t really know what to expect, but overall it was pretty cool. They have a bunch of buildings that people rent space out of and sell whatever they want. There was everything from old keys, to vintage furniture, to records. I think if I were to go again, I wouldn’t go in August. August is a big holiday season for the French so a lot of the vendors weren’t there. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t take a single photo the entire time we were there! So you’ll just have to use your imagination about what a Paris flea market might look like.

After stopping for an espresso break, we headed over to Jardin du Luxembourg. As one of the biggest gardens in Paris, there was a lot to see and do for being *just* a garden.

Found some shade and a fountain 🌸🌼🌷 #jardinduluxembourg #fountain #reflection

A photo posted by Amber Hanson (@amberhanson) on Aug 7, 2016 at 4:04am PDT

There was a beautiful fountain with chairs set up all around it so you can sit and relax by the fountain. There was another larger fountain, lots of grass, and even a restaurant in the middle!

For dinner that night we went to the one place I was looking forward to the most, Pink Flamingo Pizza. I had read about them online and knew it was relatively close to our apartment so we went over there. Pink Flamingo is really cool because it’s close to the canal where a lot of people like to hang out, so you can order a pizza and they’ll give you a balloon. You can then go hang out on the canal and a guy on a bike will come and find you and your balloon to deliver your pizza. We were going to try that initially but it was so hot out and there wasn’t any space in the shade on the canal so we ate in their restaurant instead. Parisians eat dinner really late so of course we were the only ones in the restaurant at 6pm! I ordered L’Obama (The Obama), which was Canadian bacon and a pineapple chutney. It was the best pizza of my life. Seriously, if you go anywhere in Paris, eat here. They also brew their own beer which was really good too.

That night we decided to go see the Eiffel Tower at night so we could see it lit up.

On our way, we saw L’Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous structures in Paris that marks one end of the Champs-Élysées. It was stunning to see in person.

From there we walked to the Eiffel Tower. Every hour they have a light show where all of the lights on the tower sparkle. It was beautiful. Everything I had ever dreamt about Paris was coming true.

At night, the Eiffel Tower has a light show every hour where all of the lights on it twinkle. It was amazing to see that in person.

Day3 – La Tour Eiffel + a surprise

Obviously since it was my first time in Paris, I wanted to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We decided to go on a weekday in hopes of it being less busy and went right away in the morning when they opened. I’m glad we did because it was still packed. When we got to the top, it was easy to find a spot up against the fence to look out, but it was hard to walk around to see the rest of the view because there were so many people up there! It was truly amazing though. Totally worth it. It’s crazy when you look out because you can see for miles, but everything you can see is city (buildings, etc). It’s like the city goes on forever. On the way back down, there is a middle level you can stop on that has a restaurant and bar and fake grass to hang out at. 

After the Eiffel Tower, we walked over to the Louvre. It was already crazy busy and after being squished in an elevator for a ride up and down the eiffel tower with the most annoying tourists possible, we just didn’t have it in us to wait in another tourist line. Instead we just took some pictures from the outside and went about our day.

We found a Pub nearby that was American themed that served hamburgers and brewed their own beer. It was good food, but I was more appreciative of the fact that our server was a native English speaker. For the last 4 days, all of our restaurant interactions had ranged slightly to extremely awkward so it was nice to feel the normalcy of of someone who understood what we said immediately. Also, their beer was fantastic. Mine reminded me of a local MN beer which was awesome and comforting!

After dinner that evening, Aaron wanted to go back to that park we went to before, Parc de Buttes Chaumont. It was so beautiful the first time, how could I say no? So we walked back to the park and this time headed further in to it. He had a route in mind, so I followed him thinking this park better blow my mind since he was so intent on going again. It did. Our first stop was a big hill type thing that has an overlook towards the city. 

It was so awesome to know you can get such a great view from a lesser known park in Paris. I probably spent 20 min taking photos up there and thought that was the end of our park journey. Aaron said he had one more spot he wanted to see so I reluctantly followed, thinking this part was already pretty cool.

We found a marvelous waterfall that had a little stream flowing through the ground next to the walking path. We had packed a bottle of wine and some picnic snacks so we found this little stone seating spot next to the stream and started to set up our mini-picnic. As we were munching on snacks and taking in the beauty of the park, Aaron proposed! I was in awe for the rest of the night, it felt like a dream.

This was only the first half of our trip! Be sure to subscribe to my email list below to be alerted when I post part 2.

 

As always thanks for reading!

-Amber