A few weeks ago Taverious and I went to Paris, France for the very first time and we had an amazing trip. This was truly a bucket list dream come true. See, we were supposed to travel to Paris and Greece for our honeymoon in October 2020 but something called, “Covid-19” had other plans. Have you heard of it? Welllll, life finally worked its way out and we were able to check this off of our bucket list. 10/10 I’ll be planning to return one day. It’s definitely gone down as one of my favorite trips – right up there with Martha’s Vineyard. Let’s talk about it!
STAY
We stayed at the Le Tsuba Hotel in a sweet but quaint room that overlooked a little side street. The hotel was in the perfect location and we could walk to so many restaurants, shopping areas and my favorite – macaron shops. On top of that, we were literally STEPS from Arc De Triumph. It was such a treat to be able to walk a few steps and see this breathtaking and iconic architecture.
The hotel staff was also really nice and very accommodating. When we arrived, we were lucky enough to check in early. They also offered us a drink from the cafe which was much needed after a long red-eye flight from Atlanta. Once we checked in we went up to our room. The room was on the smaller side of what we are used to but was really cute. My disclaimer here is that our bathroom wasn’t as clean as it should’ve been but I bought sanitizer spray and wipes and decided to wipe it down. I was truly too tired to call down and wait for someone to reclean it. Besides this, we didn’t have any issues with the hotel and I would stay again in the future. Although our room was small, it had a few places (like cabinets and wardrobes) where we could store our belongings which opened up some space for us. Since we were staying 7 days, we unpacked our bags and hung our items in the wardrobe storage to get comfortable.
DO
We knew that this trip to Paris would be one where we did ALL THE THINGS. Shop, Walk, Sightsee, Eat, etc… We worked on our itinerary months before the trip to make sure we could make a plan for seeing all that we wanted to see and experience. Typically during our trips, I’ll plan the travel and book hotels, flights, etc. and Taverious and I will work on the itinerary together. This trip was no different – we took turns planning the different aspects of the day to make sure we both had an itinerary that we would enjoy. Logistically speaking, we simultaneously shared the details of everything with a shared Apple note. This makes it so easy for us to jot down what we are thinking and keep the other person up-to-date. If you don’t have an iPhone, you can do this in Google Drive which I do pretty often myself. Here are a few of the things that we did on the trip:
- Guided audio tour at The Palace of Versailles
- Effiel Tower Photoshoot with Yuliia @sya.visions on IG
- Dinner cruise around the Seine River – Booked with my mom’s travel agency
- Shopping – THE BEST shopping I’ve ever experienced in my life
- Fully guided tour at the Louvre
- Champagne and Show at the Moulin Rouge
- The “I love you” Wall (Inspired by Emily in Paris)
- Tons of sightseeing and exploring
We had more planned but we didn’t get to do everything that we wanted to. We’d definitely need more days in Paris to make it all happen. A few things that we considered: Hop On Hop Off Tour around the city, Paris Flea Market, and the Luxembourg Gardens.
EAT
Both my hubby and I are foodies. We love exploring the best places to eat wherever we go. Taverious is actually very good at finding these places. He usually looks for them with Instagram hashtags and most recently Google and Apple maps. I usually pick out a few places to eat on our trips and let him handle the rest because he does not miss. Where we ate:
- Mojo – So delicious. We ate here twice.
- Beef Bar – Super chic place for dinner or drinks.
- Inform Cafe – Our favorite breakfast spot in Paris. We ate here 3 times during our trip. Everything that we ate was amazing but the hashbrowns and pancakes changed my life.
- Carette Cafe – An iconic spot for hot chocolate and pastries in Paris. It was very busy but worth the wait for me. I loved the hot chocolate and pastries that we had here.
- Azur Cafe – This is a beautiful Turkish restaurant. It’s very small inside but the food makes up for it. We ate here twice, once for brunch and once for lattes and a burger.
- Montbleu – We ate this cuisine called Raclette which is hot cheese over slices of meat and potatoes. Quite an experience and very delicious!
- Gabylou – Such a cute little restaurant that serves some of the best food that we ate that week. You can tell it was made with love. I had an eggplant dish that made me think I could do alright being a vegetarian!
- Macarons – We went to both Laduree and Pierre Herme for macarons. These little things are expensive but so addictive!
- Several pastry shops – They were all good! We ate our weight in pastries, everything is so delicious and decadent. You can tell they put love and real butter in their desserts.
- Honorable mention – McDonalds! Can you believe they have vegetable fries, macarons and chicken+goat cheese wraps on the menu!? We had to check it out and grab a snack from there.
What we wanted to try but didn’t get to:
- Jah Jah
- Pink Mamma
- Kozy
- Immersion
- Mokonuts
- Early June
- Falafels L’As de Fallafel
WHAT I WORE
My goal for clothing was to merge stylish and comfortable because I knew we’d be doing a lot of walking. Some days we clocked 17k steps. So I brought a lot of beautiful pants and tops and often wore them during the day with casual white or black sneakers. During the evening I would wear heels and dress up a little more.
In terms of clothing, I would suggest packing lightly. I fully packed a check-in bag and a carry-on bag and quickly realized when we touched down in Paris that I had done way too much. One, because I didn’t wear all my outfits. Two because I shopped so much while I was there and wanted to do more shopping but my bags were full! I suggest being strategic about outfits by mixing and matching bottoms with different tops and blazers throughout the week. Also, be mindful of shoes because they weigh your bag down. Find a great pair of stylish and comfortable shoes that you can wear during the day and a versatile heel for the evening. But alas, I slayed the fits if I do say so myself. Take a look.
Next Thursday I’ll drop Part II of this post where I will share where we shopped, tips for future travel to Paris, the different sayings and phrases we encountered the most, tax-free shopping and travel must-haves for a comfortable trip. PART II IS NOW LIVE!
OUR EIFFEL TOWER PHOTOSHOOT
Photographer: Yuliia @sya.visions on IG