I’ve been fortunate enough to visit Paris four times in my short life. The first time was with my fifth grade class (I went to a French bilingual elementary school), the second was on summer vacation with my parents, the third time was when I studied abroad during my sophomore year of college, and the fourth time was this spring with my sister. All that is to say that this trip to Paris was still pretty busy, but there was a lot more sitting in parks. I didn’t feel the pressure to plan a ton and there wasn’t anything we had to do, which was a nice break compared to our London trip where everything was new to me.
If you’ve never been to Paris, here is a quick list of the top things I think you absolutely need to do in Paris, but weren’t priorities for this trip since I had already been.
- explore the Musee du Louvre
- explore the Musee D’Orsay
- go inside Notre Dame
- go inside Sainte-Chapelle
- climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe
- watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle
- day trip to le Palais de Versailles
HOW LONG SHOULD YOU STAY IN PARIS?
I feel like you could spend two days in the Louvre alone (I’ve been lost in the Louvre and it takes a while to get out of the museum). Like London, you can get a lot of sightseeing done in a full three days, but in my opinion, everything is bigger and better in Paris, so if you have the time, I’d recommend 4-6 days.
WHERE IN PARIS SHOULD YOU STAY?
I think somewhere near the Louvre or Notre Dame would be a good area if it’s your first time in Paris. If it’s your fourth time, you can stay somewhere that’s closest to the things you want to do. Below is a map of everywhere we went. We only booked the Airbnb a few months in advance, so there weren’t a ton of budget-friendly options in the city center. Our Airbnb was in the 9th arrondissement in the Pigalle neighborhood. Note most Paris apartments do not have elevators or air conditioning, so be sure to read the Airbnb details thoroughly or book a hotel if you can afford to avoid the sweating and stairs.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN PARIS
Like the city in general, the metros and stations feel old. Unlike London, most metro stations do not have escalators, so you will be walking up and down many flights of stairs. They also haven’t set up Apple Pay (as of May 2023). You can get different tourist passes or download an app, but we just bought paper tickets (€2.10 per ticket in May 2023) and used those. You use the paper ticket to get into the station, not to get out. Essentially, each metro ride costs the same amount, unlike in London where you tap in and out of stations and your fare depends on how far you ride the tube. For this reason, we only took the metro when we needed to get somewhere over a 20-minute walk away. There are areas where there aren’t as many metro stations as you’d want, but it does go most places in Paris with stations near the big attractions. I find it pretty easy enough to use, but obviously the signs are in French, so that can be a challenge when the names of places don’t sound familiar.
I feel like people always warn about pickpocketers in Paris. I’ve never encountered/been a victim of them, just pay attention to your stuff like you would in a big city in the US.
AH, TO BE UNDER 26 YEARS OLD IN PARIS
In Paris, many museums and tourist attractions are discounted or free for people younger than 26 years old. My sister was 24 and I turned 26 in early June, so we got to take advantage of this. That said, we still booked all our tickets in advance.
IMPORTANT FRENCH VOCABULARY:
Most Parisians that you will encounter at tourist attractions and touristy restaurants will speak some English. If you’re in a less touristy area outside of Paris, they may not speak very much English.
- Anglais = English language
- La note = the bill at a restaurant
- Le ticket = the receipt at a store
- Les toilettes = the bathroom
- Carte banquaire (abbreviated to C.B.) = credit card, can have a minimum purchase amount to use at small convenience stores, but not usually at bakeries when you’re buying a croissant
- Carafe d’eau = carafe of tap water for the table
- L’eau plat = flat water, non-sparkling
- L’eau gazeuse = sparkling water
DAY 1: TUESDAY 5/30
Taking the Eurostar from London to Paris
We booked tickets for the Eurostar train that goes between London and Paris and goes through the Chunnel, the undersea tunnel between England and France. Ultimately, I think the time and cost of taking the train or flying between London and Paris end up being very similar since it’s a 3-hour train ride, but it would take an hour to get from central London to London Heathrow, another hour for security and boarding, and then a two-hour flight.
Our train was supposed to leave at 6am, so we left our Airbnb around 4:20am to take the tube to the train station. However, when we got to the tube station, the gates were closed and it said the station was closed until like 6am, even though Google Maps said the tube would be running at 4am. Our cellular data plan was not working, but thankfully I was able to connect to the station’s wifi and ordered an Uber. We arrived at the train station with 20 minutes to spare. You have to be in the queue 30 minutes before the train departs, so there’s enough time to go through all security and passport checks, and they are firm on this timing and will cut off the queue.
There is a lot of waiting and checks that happen before you get to your gate. First, you scan your train ticket, then you get in line for airport-type baggage scanning security. Next, you continue in line to passport check #1 where an official runs your passport. If you’re a non-EU citizen, you continue into a line where you scan your passport, get a facial screen/get photo taken, then finally you get to another person who stamps your passport. After all this, you can finally get to the gate and can board your train. The whole process took almost exactly 30mins.
We arrived at Paris Gare du Nord around 9:30am and then we walked to get breakfast at a place called 5 Pailles. Sarah got her first French coffee and we sat and waited until our Airbnb host said we could leave our bags. The nice part about France is how everything is slow and you’re supposed to take your time. Waiters don’t rush you to pay and leave, so you usually have to ask someone to bring the check: “Est ce que on peut avoir la note s’il vous plait?” My knees hurt pretty bad from the previous three days of walking 10+ miles a day in London, the kind of pain you can feel while you’re sitting down. Rolling my suitcase down the narrow cobblestone sidewalks of Paris was one of my least favorite parts of the trip. However, we walked past a pharmacy and I was able to buy a knee brace, somehow remembering the word for knee is “genou” in French.
We walked to the 9th arrondissement and found our way to the Airbnb. It was sadly up five flights of stairs on a spiral staircase, but it’s Paris so that’s just how it is. We changed our clothes and then headed to the Palais Garnier, which is the royal opera house. I love Paris. It’s over the top, it’s fancy, it’s regal. After being in London with all the cold and understated buildings, it was exciting to come to Paris and take photos of ornate halls and mirrors. The theater was gorgeous with a dome ceiling that was painted by Marc Chagall and a massive chandelier. I think it would be incredible to see an opera or ballet there.
Next, we walked across the street to the Musee du Parfum Fragonard. It’s a tiny free museum about perfume on the top floor, and then there’s a shop on the bottom floor. It only took us about 10 minutes to get through. We thought about getting perfume, but it was expensive, maybe one day!
After, we headed to Galeries Lafayette Haussmann and grabbed a juice at Joe and the Juice. There are several shopping centers called “Galeries Lafayette” in Paris and France in general, but this is the one you’ve seen in pictures. We found our way up to the rooftop to get a view of the Eiffel Tower. We were pretty far away from the tower, so the view wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. However, it was not all for naught because the French Open was going on and there was a big screen and beach sling chairs set up so that people could watch. It was the perfect temperature and sunny with a breeze. We sat and watched tennis/dozed off for an hour. Then, we bought a pack of 20 metro tickets and took the metro to a bakery.
Every year, there is a baguette competition and a bakery wins the Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville De Paris. The 2023 wining bakery was out of the way, but we were able to get to the runner-up, called Boulangerie-Patisserie Guyot Geraldine, near the Latin Quarter of Paris. We discovered they sold smaller half-sized baguettes called “demi-baguettes,” so we got one of those, a slice of pear tart, and an Orangina, France’s iconic orange soda. We walked to the park next door and ate them on a bench.
Next, we walked past the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. I had wanted to go in, but there was a long line and I wasn’t actually going to buy any books. There’s a café next door, but I didn’t really need anything from there, either. We looked at the artists vendors along the street near Notre Dame, then walked along the Seine. Next, we sat in the Jardin de Luxembourg and people-watched and discovered a mini Statue of Liberty. It’s nice that there are a ton of chairs all over the park.
For dinner, we went to Café de Flore around 6:30pm and sat outside at one of those Parisian café tables. This is an iconic café, one of the oldest in Paris, where people like Picasso, Albert Camus, and Ernest Hemingway spent the day. It is famous, and so the food is pretty expensive here for Parisian café standards, so we just split a croque monsieur (grilled ham and cheese) and a French onion soup. The other famous café, Les Deux Magots, was across the street. None of the desserts on the menu were speaking to us, so we took the metro back to the Airbnb and stopped at La Brulerie Caumartin near the Galeries Lafayette for a crème caramel for dessert. Then, we got back to our Airbnb around 8:45pm, showered, and went to bed.
DAY 2: WEDNESDAY, MAY 31
Our first stop of the day was at Le Mur de Je T’Aime around 9:30am. I had been to the Montmartre area a couple times, but never went down to this mural. A few people were already there taking photos, but it wasn’t too crowded. Le Consulat café wasn’t open yet, but we just took photos outside.
Then, we walked up to Place de Tertre and got hot chocolate and an almond croissant from Carette. Carette is famous for their hot chocolate and they have a few locations around Paris that are sit-down restaurants, but this was just a storefront. The famous caricature artists had set up their easels, so we watched them at work for a bit. Then, we walked to La Basilique du Sacré Cœur de Montmartre and took photos at the overlook. Montmartre is all cobblestones and very hilly, so not ideal for someone with knee problems. There is a funicular that can take you up to the basilica, but just walking around is kind of steep. We walked down to the park below in Square Louise Michel and sat on a bench for a while.
To kill time before our lunch reservation at La Maison Rose, we walked around the area and sat in the Square Suzanne Buisson and found the Passe-Muraille bronze statue of a man going through a stone wall. it was time for lunch and we had made a reservation at the iconic pink restaurant in Montmartre, La Maison Rose. The service was very friendly and we had a healthy meal of green salad with chicken and Israeli couscous, roasted vegetables and feta. After lunch, we walked to À la Mere de Famille, the oldest chocolaterie in Paris from 1761. It was a small shop, and we chose a few chocolates and brought them to a bench to eat immediately because it was warm outside and we didn’t want them to melt. They were delicious, and fairly cheap for artisanal chocolates, and I do recommend coming here!
Then, we took the metro to a store that I Googled to find knee straps called Decathlon Paris La Madeleine. It ended up being a sporting goods store that had the vibes of an Ikea and REI. I found a knee strap that was on sale and immediately put it on as we walked out of the store and immediately felt better. I will now be bringing my knee straps to all future trips. Decathlon was pretty close to a Ladurée, so we had to go. There are a few locations in Paris, and you definitely know the iconic light green boxes of macarons from Instagram. We picked out several macarons and then walked to a bench in a park along the Champs Elysees and ate them.
We had 4pm tickets for La Galerie Dior. They were pretty strict about timing, so we weren’t able to get in early and had to stand in the 4pm line. This is probably one of my favorite pop-up-type museums I have ever been to. The space was gorgeous and I loved the rainbow-sorted Dior products right by the staircase when you enter. All the dresses in the exhibit were stunning and there was one room with three tiers of dresses that was just breathtaking. It was pretty big and we spent about 40 minutes inside, but if you love fashion or read every plaque, you could probably spend 1.5 hours there. At the end, there was a café, but it was expensive so we skipped it.
We decided to go back to l’Arc de triomphe and stopped by a restaurant that didn’t look too expensive along the Champs Elysees which was advertising happy hour, Volfoni. It was an Italian restaurant that looked good for groups and had cute décor. We got some juices, and the rest of the menu did look good but we weren’t that hungry after all of our treats lol.
We took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower and walked around. I’ve never been up to the top of the Eiffel Tower because I don’t like heights and if you’re on the Eiffel Tower, you don’t get a view of the Eiffel Tower. My favorite view of the city is going to the top of the Arc de triomphe.
Sarah and I went to 228 rue de l’Université, a street with a view of the Eiffel Tower, but it was pretty busy with other tourists. Around 6:45pm, we started feeling hangry and found the closest bakery, Au Levain, and grabbed a ham and butter sandwich and a demi-baguette. We were walking back toward the Eiffel Tower, we saw another bakery which bore the emblem of the best patisserie 2022, so we stopped and grabbed a pain au chocolat and an Orangina. We brought the small haul back to a grassy area in front of the Eiffel Tower. The main park was all barricaded off for some reason, so no one could sit right in front of the Eiffel Tower. After dinner, we took some pics for the gram, then went up to the Trocadero. This has a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower and it’s usually pretty crowded with tourists. We walked to a McDonald’s to try to find a bathroom, but they required a code, so we just walked back to the Trocadero and waited for the Eiffel Tower to sparkle.
The sun doesn’t set until pretty late in Paris, and the lights don’t start until it’s completely dark. In May, the Eiffel Tower didn’t sparkle until 11pm (vs. last time I was there in October and the lights started at 7pm). The lights go off for 5 minutes on the hour every hour until 1am. We were exhausted and ended up with a massive crowd in the metro afterward. It was awful. We missed the first train because it was too crowded, and then we forced ourselves onto the next train. People were squished in together so tightly you could not move. It was horrific, and at every stop, more people would try to get on the train. I’m not a really claustrophobic person, but I had to actively think about controlling my breathing and not feeling anxious.
We finally got home a little after midnight and we were dead.
DAY 3: THURSDAY, JUNE 1
Thankfully, we got to have a late start after the previous long night. Our tickets for the Musée de L’Orangerie were for 11am. The round room with the Water Lilies paintings by Claude Monet was indeed stunning; however, the rest of the museum was very small and kind of unimpressive. I think we spent a total of 20 minutes in the museum and then we left.
We took the metro to our lunch reservation at Breizh Café for some crêpes – finally! We got there early, so we walked around. We saw a farmer’s market nearby with a candy stand and bought a bunch of gummies for later.
Breizh Café has multiple locations, and they all looked pretty cute online. I chose the Odéon location since it worked with the rest of the day’s activities. Sarah got the lunch prix fixe that included a savory crepe with ham and an egg and a butter and sugar crepe for dessert with yuzu butter. I got a savory pastrami crepe and then a strawberry rhubarb crepe for dessert. These were all delicious and we didn’t feel absolutely stuffed, which was nice.
After lunch, it was time to check out some filming locations from the Netflix show, Emily in Paris. We walked past the Panthéon to get to Emily’s apartment building, Terra Nera (location of Gabriel’s restaurant in the show), and Boulangerie Moderne, which we found out was also the home of the second-best croissant in Paris, so obviously we picked one up and ate it in the Jardin des Tuileries.
After, we walked through the park and went to Angelina. I don’t think you can make reservations, so we stood in line for about 15 minutes. We were seated in the small upstairs area, which was hotter and not as cute as the downstairs parlor, but we didn’t care enough to complain to our waitress although the family after us did lol. Angelina is known for their hot chocolate, but it was way too hot, so we got the iced chocolate, which was pretty much just rich chocolate milk. We also got a mango Mont Blanc, which has meringue and chestnut cream, it was all just very sweet and expensive for what it was. I think I would skip Angelina if you’re short on time or are visiting when it’s hot in the summer.
Angelina was close to the Louvre, so we took photos outside because we had been a few times and didn’t feel the need to go again this trip. Then, we headed to the Jardin du Palais Royal, where you can find the striped stumps you have seen on Instagram. It was a great photo place and the garden part was also very pretty. We didn’t stay too long because we had to go pick up dinner.
We wanted something quick, so we grabbed some juices, water, and Orangina from the nearby grocery store Franprix, and then got some food at Pret to bring back to the Airbnb.
Then, we got dressed for the main event of the night…Harry Styles! When we were booking our trip, we were considering different concerts and even the Monaco Grand Prix. Sarah found Harry Styles tickets for like $75 on Stubhub so we watched Harry Styles at the Stade de France with 70,000+ screaming French teens.
The concert was fine, Harry’s French was worse than I thought. I did recognize most of the songs even through I’m not the biggest fan. I do realize Taylor Swift has ruined me because I am just not impressed by anyone who doesn’t have 10 outfit changes and a moving stage.
The worst part was taking the metro after the concert. The crowd control was horrific, as in there was none. There were a ton of police officers, but they did absolutely nothing. We all walked from the stadium back to the metro stop, and the crowd was stopped and did not move for like 20 minutes. There were barricades, so we couldn’t leave or go to a different metro stop. We finally got down to the train and it was basically the Eiffel Tower crowd all over again except it was a bunch of nice girls with feather boas, but we found ourselves packed in again like sardines.
We got home a little after midnight and went to bed.
DAY 4: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
Taking the train from Paris to Lyon
I booked these tickets online in advance on a website called trainline.com, which is like Expedia but for trains. It will show you the different trains available from multiple train companies/TGVs (SNCF, Ouigo, inOui, etc.) throughout the day, so it might be cheaper to book directly through the train company, but this was a convenient way to find a train that fit our schedule.
Taking the train is extremely affordable and convenient in Europe. From my experience while studying abroad in college and during this trip, all trains have been clean, on time, and there has been plenty of space to store luggage. However, do note that sometimes the trains stop when workers go on strike, which is more common than not in France.
We left our Airbnb at 10:40am and arrived at Gare de Lyon around 30 minutes later. We grabbed lunch in the station, there were plenty of good options for baguette sandwiches. Our train was at 12:24pm, but the thing about French trains (if you’re staying within France) is that it doesn’t really matter how early you get there. The trains only arrive at the station only like 15 minutes before their scheduled departure time, so if you get there an hour early, you’re going to just be waiting at the station for a while. Better safe than sorry in my book, but you do you.
When getting on the train, double-check the car # and your seat #. For whatever reason, the train cars were not in numerical order, so we assumed we were getting in car #4 since it was the one after #5, but we were wrong and had to run to the other end of the train when we compared tickets with the people who actually booked the seats we were in. This is a common mistake and we were on the other end of this situation on another train on our trip.
Paris is always lovely and although all the stairs were tough on the knees, I had a great time. A few things that are still on my bucket list: go up the Tour de Montparnasse (it was closed when we were there), go up the Panthéon, go to le Centre Pompidou, do a sunset boat cruise on the Seine, and see a show at Moulin Rouge.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- crêpes at Breizh Café
- Palais Garnier
- La Galerie Dior
- picnic by the Eiffel Tower
- all the baguettes
- Palais Garnier
WHAT I WOULD’VE CHANGED:
- Don’t go to the first sparking of the Eiffel Tower and then try to take the metro
- Skip Angelina, the hot chocolate is good everywhere in Paris
- Go to the Jardin du Palais Royal early in the morning to get photos without people in the background and more even lighting
OTHER EUROPE 2023 BLOG POSTS:
3 Days in London
2 Days in Lyon
2 Days in Marseille
24 Hours in Nice
Pin it: Fourth Timer’s Guide to Paris
