10 Days in Paris
How To Decide Where To Stay In Paris
We did use the services of a friend who is a travel planner because she has insight into the best hotels, plus great perks, which are very helpful.
But we decided to start in a more neighborhood-focused area, that is still near some great sites, in the Pigalle area. The famous Moulin Rouge was about a quarter mile walk down the road, as well as the Montemarte area, and we could see the top of Sacre Coeur from our room's balcony! Here, we stayed at the Grand Pigalle Experimental, and requested a balcony-level room, of which there are only a few so it was a real treat.
Great Things to Do and See in the Pigalle Area
There are a lot of great reasons to stay here in the 9th arronndissment for part of a Paris trip. One, it is a mixture of great for tourist options as well as great for people to live. A few of the Parisians we spoke to, including some restaurant servers, said they lived in the Pigalle area.
There were lots of shops, grocery stories, smaller brassieries, pharmacies, and a much-needed laundromat. It was in the mid eighties the first three days of the trip, and I sweated through most of my lighter clothes options so we had to do laundry on Sunday after only arriving Thursday!
Even though there are a lot of seedy seeming places in the area, I felt safe walking around. We did not walk around after about 10 p.m. so if you do afterwards, exercise extra caution. It was a colorful area for sure.
Places to Eat In The Pigalle Area
We by no means ate everywhere recommended, but there are amazing options here:
- French Bastards Bakery
- St. George Brasserie
- Frenchie Pigalle
There are a ton of fromageries, boulangeries, butcher shops, and vegetable stands on the Rue Des Martyrs. I wanted to buy and eat it all but I got plenty of window shopping in.
Moving to the 4th Arrondissment
After five nights, we moved to the SO/Paris for our last four nights. We decided to splurge for my birthday and stay somewhere overlooking the Seine, and somewhere a little fancier and more luxurious. And wow, it SO WAS. Walking up, we were awestruck at the sheer chicness.
It is the tallest hotel in the area, so I requested the highest up room available and it was just pure luck that we got a room on the 9th floor (10th in American), out of a possible 16 floors where the top two are a restaurant, then a totally glass walled bar. We had excellent views of the Ile St. Louis in the middle of the Seine. This room was much larger than our last one. I don't even think the bed in this room would have fit in the other room!
What's Walking Distance In The 4th Arrondissment
We were closer to a lot more of the big tourist sites here, including the Latin Quarter, the Marais area, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Bastille, and more. Luckily by this point the weather was in the 60s instead of the 80s, and more overcast, which was perfect for me.
Also! We went to Notre Dame Cathedral around 9:30 a.m. the morning after the new Pope was announced. There was a line of people who had scheduled entry times but we walked and walked through the fence maze and were in within 10 minutes!
And going in the morning has the advantage of the building blocking the sun so you're not standing in hot sun. Pro tip! Your experience on wait times obviously, may vary, but that was our experience on what was likely a very auspicious Catholic day, I guess.
Here's the line one afternoon.
We also walked to the Pantheon because Patrick wanted to show me the big pendulum, and to see Victor Hugo's crypt.
Then we walked literally one block over did my kind of culture, where I showed him the Emily in Paris apartment, park, and restaurant!
Look familiar?
This is what Gabriel's restaurant looks like normally. It's an Italian restaurant!
Helpful Tips For Navigating Paris As A Tourist
I was a little nervous to go to Paris, honestly. It was my first trip to a Major City, I think. We debated on the plane if any of the places I had been before counted, and I don't think so. I read the Reddit forums and was nervous about pick pockets and petition people, but only Patrick was approached by a petition lady outside of the Louvre. I pulled him away. We did not go into the Louvre because I didn't care enough on this trip to spend as much time as would be needed in there.
As for pickpocket worries, I prepared myself and felt like these two items are essential for any woman traveling anywhere. One is this Quince crossbody foldover purse, which I bought three years ago before my first Euro trip to Germany. It folds over, zips, and snaps to conceal the main portion of the purse. I actually use it as my daily purse and have since I bought it.
The second item is this phone hitch from REI. I connected one end of the S shaped carabiners to the metal ring on the purse strap, and the other to the phone. It was helpful to keep from dropping my phone as I leaned over the ponts (bridges) on the Seine or the bus tour we took, to take photos. It's easy to unhook too as needed. Once I got home, I unhooked it from my bag and keep the cord as a wrist loop on the phone now.
And speaking of phones, absolutely take an extra battery charger and cord so you can charge on the go. You WILL use a lot of battery navigating on your map app, and using the Bonjour RATP app for Metro tickets was very simple and the way to go.
Other Favorite Paris Activities
I didn't plan a lot of set activities for this trip because I didn't want to feel like we were constantly shuffling off to a place at a certain time. But one planned activity was croissant making classes! La Maison Fleuret has several small, hands-on baking class options, including croissants, macarons, baguettes, and more. I highly recommend doing this, although towards the beginning of your trip because you bring a lot of items home that you made! I sadly did not get to eat them all.
We also did a dinner cruise with Maxim. It was pretty nice, although at this time of year (spring/summer) I might recommend the later cruise at 8 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. because the sun was right in my eyes at one point, and due to the route where they go up then down the Seine, I think everyone on each side of the boat got a little of that. The sun does not set until after 9 p.m. in Paris beginning in the spring, so that was pretty cool. It was easy to feel safer out later because it didn't get dark until at least 10.
A short train trip to Versailles was the farthest out of the city we went, and we ended up going on a Sunday instead of a preferred weekday. It was very crowded there, and we didn't even go inside the house — only the gardens. There was an unexpected entry fee, so look at their website for any fee schedules. It's absolutely enormous there just in the gardens. If we didn't have to pay the entry fee we might have rented a golf cart to be able to see more of the grounds. In fact, I would go back again and do this for sure.
On our second day (first full day after arriving), we did a Tootbus hop on hop off bus tour to see the major sites. I do recommend doing this even though its so touristy of course. Funnily enough, even with riding the bus this was our most intense walking day of the entire trip. We got off at many of the stops, and saw others from the upper deck of the open air bus.
And that concludes the scheduled things we did! Everything else, we just chose an area and walked around it, which was truly the way to go. There's no shortage of amazing sites, gorgeous architecture, and sublime food to enjoy.
Favorite Unscheduled Places To See In paris
Again, we just walked around certain areas on days and saw things that I wanted to see. Some we accessed with the Tootbus tour, including a must-see stop on the Champs-Elysses. The only stores we bought anything from was the Apple store for a screen protector for Patrick, and he also wanted to show me the Parisian McDonald's. So we did just that, and had lunch there with McMacarons.
The Louis Voiutton store was in the middle of constructing an enormous silver building shaped like their iconic trunk. It was wild to see it just rising up along the street!
We went to the Marais neighborhood twice, once to check out the chicest little tattoo shop where I got myself a little birthday treat!
Dragon Tattoo was the perfect choice for this fine line tattoo, since the shop owner and tattoo artist, Leila, specializes in them. She was so nice, and accommodating, and I just gave her an inspiration photo and let her create this for me and place it. J'adore!
The next day on my birthday, we came back to Marais to explore some more and found the gayborhood.
We walked around a lot, enjoying the shops, and stumbled across Eataly for dinner. They accommodated us with a table for two on the patio very easily, and I brought in my new decade with a delectable pizza and glass of smooth wine.
One area of Paris I really loved was Ile. St. Louis, which is famous for the ice cream shop Berthillion. I did get a scoop of black currant sorbet there, luckily in a moment in time where there was zero line. Other times we walked by there was a line into the street.
The only place we ate twice was Les Fous de L'ile, a little brasserie recommended by the nice guy at the front desk of SO/Paris who checked us in.
It had THE best soup l'oignon I had in Paris, and I had a bowl every day, so I feel like I can give this superlative out.
The Ile also held the Cheese Museum, which funnily enough is the only museum we went to on this trip. It was a fun little diversion, but it's mostly a cheese shop. If you buy a ticket, you get a tasting of 6 cheeses, and to learn about how cheese is made, which I am familiar with, but it was worth the $24 or so. I only got one little piece of cheese to bring back to the hotel, which I ate over the course of 3 days, bite by bite because it was so rich and glorious. You could enjoy it just as well by going to the cheese shop alone.
We walked up ALL of the stairs to the Sacre Couer twice! The first day we went was the day we checked into our first hotel and we figured, okay it's walking distance let's go... but it was also May 1, or European Labor Day and everyone was off work so it was quite crowded. The views were so good, we came back on another day and tried again, much better. The stairs are still quite the workout, so if you do this, I recommend going earlier in the day before you wear your legs out too much. There is a small tram that you can pay to take up as well.
I really wanted to check out the Grande Mosque de Paris and we actually came across it randomly-ish one day. Ladies, you will have to borrow a scarf to cover your shoulders if they are exposed. It was worth the nominal fee to soak in the gardens and the gorgeous tilework. I wanted to eat at the restaurant but we couldn't find it easily and Patrick was nervous about going into prayer rooms.
The Art of FlÂneur
Flâneur in French loosely translates to idling or lounging, and we applied that philosophy to some of our time here, sitting around people watching at places instead of being like, "okay, saw it, on to the next thing!" because you see so much more by soaking it in and not rushing. I enjoyed watching this lady sitting at a brasserie reading her book and having a lil drink.
Clearly this is only a slice of what there is to see in Paris, and it doesn't even cover it all! I will definitely go back to Paris, and maybe I am a little biased by the effects of aging but I would not go back anytime between mid-May and maybe mid-September as I cannot handle the combination of heat, walking 11 miles most days, and the lack of ice and air conditioning. J'adore Paris, but not at 80+ degrees F!
See My Other International Trips
Girls Trip to Edinburgh, Scotland
