In less than three weeks, my husband, son, and I will begin our 10-day Paris to Lille to Brussels vacation. Our daughter is studying abroad in Lille for the summer, and she will join us in Paris for the first weekend of our trip.
I’ve never been to Paris. I didn’t realize how badly I want to go until we started making plans for the summer. We talked about several travel options — US trips to the Pacific northwest, the redwoods, or Montana; a split trip between England and Belgium to be near our daughter in Lille; Paris and Brussels for the same reason. A few weeks ago, we saw a French swing artist, Tatiana Eva Marie, play, and as an introduction to one of her songs, she spoke about the eerie quiet of Paris during the pandemic. She said, it was all wrong. The streets of Paris are meant to be filled with life and laughter and lovers. I thought, that sounds like my kind of place. I need to be there.
Of all the travel options we talked about, Paris was the one that made my heart zing. This surprised me. I didn’t know I cared so much. The excitement I feel is — I don’t know how to describe it. It is fresh and boundless. Unlike any other travels I’ve done in recent years, I find myself researching where I want to go and what I want to do — gardens, art, food — and wanting to immerse myself in the place before I even get there. I’m studying maps and trying to learn at least a little bit of French.
And of course, I’m reading. I checked out Julia Childs’ My Life in France. She made me want to pick up and move right away. I told my husband, once we visit, I’m pretty sure I’m going to want to live there. I read Janice MacLeod’s Paris Letters, which also convinced me I’m going to want to spend considerable time in Paris, more on the scale of weeks or months than the 3 days we’ll be there. I re-read Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast and Dan Browns Da Vinci Code, and I’m considering re-reading The Paris Wife and The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I don’t think I’d ever realized how many of my favorite books were set in Paris. I’m looking for more if you have any recommendations.
Do you know Paris? Have you been? We’ll be staying in the Montmartre district. The thing I don’t know where to begin on is food. I want to eat good food and drink good wine. And see beautiful gardens. And art. And maybe even hear some live music, if you know any good jazz clubs.
Butterfly Mind 
7 responses to “Preparing for Paris”
Sounds like a wonderful trip! I hear Montmartre is a good arrondissement to stay in. I’ve never been to Paris, but a friend spent a month there a couple of years ago. I started planning a trip there, so she curated a list of recommendations for me. I’ll see if I can find it and share it here for you.
That would be wonderful, thank you!
No problem! I went back to the list and she had shared it in a Google Doc, so this comment is going to be a long copy + paste, but maybe there’ll be something useful in there 🙂
Recommendations for Le Marais:
Restaurant: Vins Des Pyrénees – indulgent, kinda expensive French food. Really good. The gnocchi (veggie): I still think about her.
Drinks: Le P’tit Bourg – delicious €6.50 classic cocktails during happy hour. The Mojito and Moscow Mule were amazing.
Cafe: La Cafeotheque de Paris – right near Pont Marie. Don’t bother with the patisserie, but they have a bunch of different loose leaf teas and coffees, all available hot or cold. The first nice bit of café culture (in the British/American sense) that I’d found the whole time I’d been in Paris. Cute inside—important for autumn—with several rooms/seating variations and lots of plants.
Cafe: Peleton Cafe – American-run I think. They do great, very leisurely neighbourhood bike tours, which you can book on Viator, and like giving tourists Paris recommendations. The tours are 3-4 hours long, which seems like a lot of your weekend, but I actually can’t recommend enough. The hidden neighbourhoods tour is the one I did in November last year. I learned so much interesting stuff about the city and you cover a huge amount of ground.
Street food: King Falafel Palace – big pita full to the brim with falafel, aubergine, tzatziki etc. Just in case you want something on the go.
Brunch: Kafkaf – I didn’t actually get to go but they have a queue down the street late sunday mornings, so presumably worth shouting about. Maybe look into booking/going early. Pause Cafe on the corner of the same block is where we went when we couldn’t get in, and their brunch is 23EUR for: best granola + yoghurt I’ve ever had, somehow; BIG plate of avocado on toast with poached eggs and coleslaw; freshly squeezed orange juice; any hot drink….. I feel like there was a third beverage but that may have been the tap water. This is obviously not that reasonable, price-wise, but for Paris it’s pretty standard.
Recommendations for the centre:
Restaurant: La Bucherie – a couple places along from Shakespeare and Co. Big, reasonably-priced plates of pizza and pasta. Think they had burgers too but didn’t check if there was a veggie burger. Great for a casual lunch when you’ve worked up an appetite.
Gallery: Musee d’Orsay – 1840-1920ish painting, sculpture, interior decor; converted from a main line train station that opened in 1900 so just a gorgeous space. Loads to see but limited; you can feel like you’ve seen a good chunk in one visit, unlike the Louvre.
Gallery: Centre Pompidou – for more Modern and Contemporary art, including like an audiovisual exhibition?? I only went to the special exhibition on the top floor, but such a cool space. Kind of like a hamster cage. The artwork was really brilliantly organised/displayed, so that I remembered a lot of what I’d learnt when I left. And bonus incredible views of the city from the top/as you ride the escalators.
Ice cream: GROM – there are I think 3 of these depending where you are; I went to Rue Montorgrueil, which is lovely in the evenings. Gluten-free ice cream. Don’t get pistachio if you’re not prepared for it to taste like actual pistachios. The salted caramel is ~stunning~. The USP is the texture – super-smooth kind of like tempered chocolate.
Gallery, sort-of?: 59 Rivoli – occupied building converted into 6 floors of artists’ studios, joined by a spiral staircase with an evolving mural going all the way up. You can chat to the artists about their work, and they usually have bits and pieces for sale.
Park: if/when you do Jardin du Luxembourg, make sure you see the Medici Fountain. Tucked away; best bit.
This is fantastic, thank you so much! I appreciate you making the effort to find these recommendations and share them❤️.
Do not miss the Luxembourg Gardens in the 6th.
I spent several years studying in France, so of course I’ve been to Paris. It was frankly not my favourite place, but I think we would be different in that respect 🙂
I would echo what sapel2013 said above; do visit the Luxembourg Gardens, it’s one of the prettiest places there.
As for good food, one thing that I still think very fondly about is this praluline brioche: https://www.chocolats-pralus.com/en/collections/praluline
And if you’re looking for something a little more special, a bit outside of Paris there is this theme park called France Miniature, where you can see miniatures of many towns in France.
https://www.franceminiature.fr/en
Since you mentioned that you are going to Brussels, in the same vein, there is Mini-Europe there: https://www.minieurope.com/en/
(if the miniatures don’t sound interesting to you, then it means we are different in that respect too! 😛 )
Enjoy your trip!
Hi Andrea! I live in Paris 🙂 Happy to connect and help with any recommendations. So excited for your upcoming trip 🙂