Paris Part 2

I finally made it through all of my Paris photos! It’s hart to pick out my favorites, they all bring back so many great memories.

I’m excited to share the second part of my trip with you. If you haven’t yet, read about the first part of my Paris trip. Without further ado, here we go:

Day 4 – A Clock, A View, and Macarons

Besides the Eiffel Tower, The Museé d’Orsay was at the top of my list. A museum full of impressionism, including Monet, Van Gogh and Degas. While I can appreciate all of those artists thanks to my college intro to Art History class, the photography nerd in me was most interested in getting photos of their iconic clock windows. After scouring the internet for tips, we decided to go on a weekday and get there right as they opened, as to have the best opportunity for less tourists in the shot. If I were to go back, I’d definitely stick to this tactic because we were one of the first 10-20 people inside and it was awesome to have the feeling that we had the entire place to ourselves even if it was just for a few minutes. I found the clock, got my photo and we wandered throughout the museum for the next few hours. I think some of my favorites were lesser known pieces.

For lunch we stumbled into a rugby themed restaurant and I got another awesome sandwich. After lunch, there were a few shops that I had been wanting to check out.

We ended up at a place called BHV. It was really cool. They actually have three buildings, separated by types of shopping (Men’s, houseware, and Women’s) Each of the buildings has 7 levels of shopping to experience, with a variety of price points. The best part by far though, is at the top of the main building, they have a café on the rooftop with stunning views of the city. You can order coffee or a beer and take in the views of the city, including a view of the Eiffel Tower!, on a nice summer day in Paris.

On the way down we stopped at a macaron cafe that was in a corner of the main store. It was my first interaction that was completely in French! This was an accomplishment for me because as soon as I start to feel embarrassed while speaking French or if the person I’m speaking to can’t understand me, I subconsciously switch to English as if that’ll help. My 6 years of studying French is finally paying off! As a bonus they were delicious macarons. We tried three different flavors: Caramel, Chocolate and coffee.

Afterwards we took a metro ride to Sacre Coeur, the famous Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. I couldn’t believe how packed this place was with tourists! We saw two weddings happening, and the stairs up to the church were packed with more tourists sitting and watching a French mime performance. The church was cool to see up close in person, and since it’s up on a hill, it’s yet another great vantage point to take in some stunning views of the beautiful city.

We ended up walking around behind the church and wandered into some of the neighborhood nearby. There was no body on these side streets, which made this more enjoyable for me. As we were walking around this area I started to realize how old some of these buildings must be. We stumbled upon a tiny little garden growing grapes!

Then as we walked towards the nearest Metro stop, Aaron realized that we were at a place that’s featured in Amélie, my all-time favorite French movie. Side note: another reason why he’s my fiancé is that he loves that movie as much as I do 🙂

 

Day 5 – Les Invalides + Musée de L’Armée

After having crêpes for breakfast, we ended up at Musée de l’Armée (The Army Museum) at Les Invalides. If you couldn’t have guessed it, Aaron picked this as a place to go. As you might expect from an army museum they have a lot of different weapons and uniforms, but it’s also the home of Napoleon’s tomb. It was very interesting to see the tomb and to see how detailed and intricate everything was and to learn about the history behind it all. While it wasn’t my first choice of an activity in Paris, I’m glad we went and I really enjoyed myself.

 

After the museum, we wandered around another neighborhood and stumbled across the Wall of Love. It’s a 10 x 4 blue tiled wall on the outside of a building in a tiny park. Created in 2000 by calligraphist Fédéric Baron, it features the phrase “I Love You” 311 times in 250 different languages. It was really beautiful and a lovely park/mural to stumble upon.

 

Day 6 – Living Like a Local

By day 6, we were pretty tired of all of the touristy things so we had a low key day of wandering around the center of Paris. We started at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. 

After buying myself a Sherlock Holmes book, we wandered around the neighborhood, and I took some photos of interesting things.

We stopped for an espresso break at a cafe that had really cute decor.

Then we headed to Paris Plage (Paris Beach). Every summer the city of Paris dumps a bunch of sand and beach chairs along the Seine to make it feel more beach-y. They even set up mini libraries where you can borrow books to read while sitting in your beach chair. We sat around taking in the scenery for a while.

For lunch we came across a lovely mediterranean sandwich shop. Being that it was the middle of the week, most of the customers were Parisian people on their work break. It made me feel like a local, to eat our sandwiches on a little couch that we shared with a French businesswoman and her friend.

After lunch we headed back towards our apartment, and hung out by the canal for the afternoon. For dinner we went to Paname Brewing, a brewery in Paris that I had read good things about online. I initially picked this place because they have a two-tiered deck that overlooks the canal and it was really close to our apartment. After having yet another awkward ‘franglais’ conversation with the bartender which involved me making hand gestures and pointing to things on the menu, I managed to order us some delicious tacos, hummus and falafel. We enjoyed our food and beer on the patio that has wonderful views of the canal. Behind the Pink Flamingo Pizza, it was definitely my second favorite meal in Paris.

Day 7 – Last Day in Paradise

On our last day, we decided to head to the other side of the city to see Bois de Boulogne, the second largest park in Paris. Before going, I had only known of the park by it’s name so I really didn’t know what to expect. At more than 2,000 acres, it’s very quiet and peaceful. When you’re inside the park, you almost forget that you’re in one of the largest cities in the world.

 

At night, we went to our favorite park for one last sunset in Paris. The next morning we headed to the airport.

While I still miss Paris, I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything!

As always, thanks for reading. If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to my emails so you don’t miss a post!