Greetings from Paris! I was in Paris from September 19th through September 22nd with my mom. We had a wonderful weekend together and I am so happy I got to see her and spend her birthday together in Paris. Thursday: My flight from Milan to Paris was around 1, but it was my first time trying to get to the airport from my apartment in Milan (which is not close), so I woke up early. Getting to the airport was not that difficult and I was surprised by how empty the terminal was. Once arriving in Paris, I took a cab to the hotel to meet my mom. When we went up to the room, there were still suitcases and a backpack inside in addition to a bouquet of flowers and roses and hearts strewn over the bed. We thought it was very odd, so we went back down to the desk to explain the situation. The hotel ended up switching our room and putting us into their best suite, "the dreamcatcher." The room was huge and had a weird dreamcatcher like piece of art in the middle of the room and a giant bathtub in the same room as the bed. Very strange. The amount of space we had was very nice though. While we were in the room, the front desk person brought up the flowers, which is when we realized that the original room with all the flowers was supposed to be for us. We lucked out though! Around 5 o'clock we headed over to the Eiffel tower and relaxed in the Champ de Mars. We bought a really cheap bottle of rose and enjoyed as the sun set. Since it was my mom's birthday, I treated her to a very nice dinner right off the Champ de Mars at a place called Arnaud Nicolas. It was absolutely delicious. After dinner, we watched the Eiffel tower sparkle before heading back to the hotel. Friday: We woke up bright and early on Friday for a full day of touring Paris. Our day started on the Ile de la Cite at the Sainte-Chapelle Church. The stained glass was absolutely beautiful and stood up to our expectations. After Sainte-Chapelle, we walked around the island and got as close as possible to Notre Dame. Staring at the front of the Cathedral its hard to realize that anything happened only a few months ago, but then when you switch angles you can already see the progress they've made on restoring it. If only they made that quick progress on everything. After we tried to go to this cute cafe called Au Vieux Paris, but it was surprisingly closed. We ended up getting crepes at a little side street cafe and they were so tasty. We had a savory one with ham, cheese, and a sunny side up egg and a sweet dulce de leche one. Post breakfast/lunch, we walked over to Shakespeare and Company, the famous book store. Friday happened to be the global climate strike and the bookstore was closing for the afternoon as we got there to participate in the march. We did not get to go in, but it was very nice to see the bookstore care about the march. The juxtaposition of the store underneath the looming Notre Dame on this day was not lost on me either. We left the Ile de la Cite and walked over to the Musee d'Orsay and spent time wandering around the whole impressionist upstairs. I'm not a huge huge art person but impressionism is definitely my favorite. We continued our impressionism afternoon down the road at the Musee de l'Orangerie. The Musee de l'Orangerie houses Monet's famous water lillies and was the most tranquil retreat after walking around the rest of the day. You can't help but feel at peace inside the space admiring these works. Once we soaked in the water lillies enough, we took a cruise around the Seine River. We went on the water taxi because we did not really care about having a tour guide. The set up worked perfectly for us and we got to cruise around the whole River in about an hour and a half. Our day ended up in Montmartre district, watching the sunset on the steps of the Sacre Coeur. The view was breathtaking! We also met up with my friend from Tulane, Dani, who is studying abroad in Paris. It was so nice catching up with her over dinner! Saturday: Our day once again started early as we headed to the Louvre to admire its architecture. The view of the modern pyramid against the historical palace could never get old. After, we walked over to Angelina for breakfast. I finally got to try their famous hot chocolate which definitely held up to expectations! It was like I was drinking melted chocolate and I loved it. We had planned on walking from Angelina up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe but they had blocked up the Champ because of protests. Instead, we walked around what was not blocked off, including seeing the Hotel Ritz. For the afternoon, we switched neighborhoods and explored Le Marais. We totally forgot that it was Saturday so most of the stores were closed for Shabbat, but we still loved exploring all the different streets. We rested in a hidden park for a bit also that had a French memorial for all the children from the area that died during the Holocaust. We stopped for a small Falafel snack after exploring Le Marais to hold us over before a late dinner. At this point in the weekend we were super exhausted so we returned to our hotel to nap before dinner. For dinner we went to Le Relais de L'Entrecote for steak frites. It was a very lovely nice dinner in Paris. Sunday: Our last day in Paris started at the Arc de Triomphe. It was still fairly closed off because of the protests and since we did not want to go up to the top we were limited in what we could do. We walked down the Champ-Elysees which was a very different experience than normal since most of the street was still blocked off by the police. After wondering around for a while, going in to some of the luxury stores, and stumbling upon the flame of liberty and infamous tunnel, we went back towards the hotel in Montparnasse for a last lunch before our car came to take us to the airport. We got crepes again at a cute local Creperie. Best Moments:
I had such a wonderful weekend exploring Paris with my Mom! My second time in Paris did not disappoint and I am so grateful I got to be with my Mom on her birthday and during her first trip to Paris. If I had to choose my favorite places, I would probably say that my favorite view was the sunset at Sacre Coeur, my favorite meal was at Arnaud Nicolas, and my favorite neighborhood to walk around was Le Marais.
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October 2019
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