Growing up, Paris is one of those cities that you see all the time in the movies. Movies, shows and social media paint a beautiful image of the city, so it’s pretty surreal when you actually arrive there and see it for yourself. It’s kind of like a first trip to New York City, but on an even greater scale.

I must say that I loved Paris (no surprise there). I love old buildings with gorgeous details and character, Paris is filled with them. When we planned this trip back in June the main thing that my friend Connor and I agreed on was that we wanted to spend most of the week just wandering and finding cool stores, beautiful parks, and to people watch. There are plenty of interesting people to watch in Paris, that’s for sure.

So, I feel as though I need to give you all a bit of background on how this trip ended up happening at all. As you know, I took an unexpected year off before heading to university. My friend Connor, whom I know from high school, took this year off as well. In June we were chatting at a party and he was telling me about his plans to travel to Paris in August before heading to school. Originally he was supposed to go with two of our other friends, but they unfortunately weren’t able to go. When he told me this, I offered to accompany him on the trip if I could get the time off. The morning after this party I woke up and wondered if Connor was serious about me coming along, apparently he was wondering the same thing. He texted me and asked if I was serious about wanting to go with him, to which I responded “of course!”. And that is how this trip came to be.

As soon as my time off was accepted we started booking. This was my first trip without any of my family members (that wasn’t a school trip) or adults. In Scotland I was either with my mom or sister (or both) the entire time I was there.

We budgeted out the trip  and I am happy to report that we were both able to stay within that budget haha. We’ve both worked all year, so this was the perfect time for us to go. By this time next year we will be a couple of broke university kids like most of our friends, so there was really no time like the present!

We considered staying in a hostel in Paris, but in the end opted to rent an Airbnb in the 10th by canal Saint Martin. The place was absolutely adorable! The apartment itself was quite small, but it was all that we needed: a little kitchenette, a bathroom, and a bed. My favourite feature was the courtyard that we shared with only one other apartment. It was absolutely lovely. I’ve linked the listing for the Airbnb that we stayed at here.

Now I’m sure that you are all dying to hear the actual details of the trip, so I won’t keep you waiting any longer 🙂

Day One

Before departing for the airport I loaded up on my favourite bagels in the whole wide world to bring on the flight with me (Gryfe’s bagels are my favourite for those that are curious). Also, I brought a little tub of my favourite dairy free cream cheese to have with said bagels. Of course the guys at security were pretty skeptical about my vegan cream cheese, they actually started cracking jokes about it! I don’t know about you, but I’ve never so much as seen one of those security people smile, so getting a genuine laugh out of them was pretty funny. In the end they had to throw out my cream cheese cause it was over the liquid limit for carry on. I was pretty bummed, but I still got to keep my bagels.

I am famous for never being able to fall asleep on planes. I don’t much like flying, so that’s probably why. When I flew overnight to England in the spring I popped a few melatonin pills to help me sleep, but of course I was wired the entire flight and did not sleep a single wink! The flight to Paris was more of the same. Once again, it was an overnight flight, but unlike last time, I popped a couple drowsy Gravols to help me sleep instead of melatonin. Unfortunately they had the same outcome. I did not sleep a wink.

I would like to make a PSA that the Charles de Gualle Airport is hands down one of the most inefficiently designed public buildings I have ever been in. For those of you that have never been, it is essentially a massive circle and it takes forever to get from one end to the other. The train that we had to catch to get into the city left from the complete opposite end of the airport from where our flight arrived. That was awesome.

Once we had gotten on our train it was easy enough to get into the city and to locate our Airbnb. We took a well deserved rest once we got to our rental and did a bit of unpacking and research about the area. We found a nice pizzeria called Allegra for lunch. The pizzas were absolutely delicious! We sat out on the patio and enjoyed our meal whilst people watching. We both noticed how empty the streets were. By the end of our trip we realized that this was due to the fact that August is the month where most Parisians take off for their annual summer holiday, leaving the city quite empty of its actual residents. After lunch we enjoyed a very laid back afternoon. We were both pretty wiped from all the travelling we had done in the last 24 hours, so we went back to the Airbnb and had a rest before dinner.

We stayed close to home for dinner. L’Atmosphere was right down the street from where we were staying and the food was pretty good. I ordered the house salad for dinner, which consisted of mixed greens, feta, tomato, pomegranate, quinoa, grapefruit, and a house-made vinaigrette. After our main meal we shared tiramisu for dessert, which was also delicious.

To get in to our Airbnb there were three gates that you had to get through before reaching the front door. First, there was the huge wooden door that served as the entrance from the street to the courtyard shared by the entire apartment complex. Second, there was a tall iron gate into our section of the complex, which only had three other apartments. This is where we got stuck. For whatever reason we could not get our key to work. We were standing there like idiots trying to figure it out for at least 15 minutes. It was pretty late, so we didn’t want to buzz one of the neighbours to let us in. Eventually a woman that lived in the apartment across from the gate came out and helped us get in. Phew! After the iron gate there was a big iron door that separated our courtyard from the other apartments, we never had any problems with that one.

Day Two

I’m proud to say that I powered through the entire first day without a nap. By the time I had gotten ready for bed I was exhausted! I slept for a straight 13 and a half hours! Obviously I needed it! To save a bit of money on the trip we opted to have breakfast at home for the most part. On this fine morning I enjoyed a Gryfe’s bagel, honestly could not think of a better way to start the day.

Following breakfast we walked to the nearby Marais district to check out some spots that had been recommended to us. One of which was the Kilo Shop, recommended to me by my little brother. The store has a pretty cool concept. Basically how it works is that you pick out clothing that you like, take it to the counter where they then proceed to weigh it, and then pay accordingly. I bought a couple pairs of 501 Levis, but I am sad to report that they  do not fit 🙁 The Kilo Store is missing one very key thing, a change room. When I inquired about one the lady directed me to a mirror in the middle of the store and told me to try on the pants there. I wasn’t about to strip in the middle of the store for the sake of a couple pairs of jeans, so I just picked out the same size and style as the Levis that I already own. Unfortunately, that strategy was not a success. So now I just have two gorgeous pairs of vintage Levis folded up on a chair in my room. Oh well, what can you do?

We spent most of our day walking along the Seine and in the Jardins de Tuileries across from the Louvre. While we were there, Paris was in the midst of an epic heatwave and I was terribly dressed for the weather. I was wearing a pair of jeans, mind you they were ripped, so not as bad as regular jeans, but still! It was 30+ degrees almost every day that we were there. The shade from the trees in the Jardins de Tuileries served us nicely. We spent about an hour just sitting under the trees and watching the goings-on of the park.

Pro tip for anyone hoping to see the sights in Paris, but also looking to save a little cash: BUY A MUSEUM  PASS . The museum pass gives you access to 55 different attractions for two days, four days, or six days depending on which pass you buy. Honestly, this was an awesome thing for us to have. Since August is a big time for tourists in Paris, it was really nice to have the pass because in a lot of cases it allows you to skip the lines, which is amazing! You can buy the pass at most attractions, the only thing is that you have to wait in the never ending lines in order to gain access to the attraction and therefore to buy the pass. To remedy this kink in the system, Connor and I bought our passes at the Musée des Arts Decoratif, because it was not busy at all and it is conveniently located right near the Louvre. Win!

We decided to save the actual touring of the inside of the Louvre for another day and instead decided to head back to the Marais for lunch before touring the Musée d’Orsay around dinner hour. Our lunch was very simple, but absolutely delicious. It was honestly one of my favourite meals that we had the entire time we were there. The restaurant was called Le Reinitas and it was located in the heart of the Marais district. I had a salad with warm goat’s cheese, tomatoes, whole wheat bread, walnuts, and what I think is the best vinaigrette that I have ever had, no joke! The server that we had was one of the very few nice people that we met in Paris. Parisians tend not to be too accommodating for the most part. Overall the lunch was lovely, except that Connor’s food was continuously attacked by aggressive wasps. It was kind of funny if I’m being completely honest.

Before Musée d’Orsay we shopped around a little bit and I got a delicious cone of gelato. I got three flavours: mango, pan cotta strawberry, and cherry in a waffle cone. I am a complete sucker for gelato and the ridiculous heat of the day made it perfect for a big cone!

D’Orsay stays open late on Thursdays, which is awesome if you want to beat the tourist traffic during the day. If you are unfamiliar which Musée d’Orsay, I’ll give you a brief little bit of history. The museum is an old Beaux-Arts train station, formally know as Gare d’Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine. They had a wonderful exhibit on Van Gogh while we were visiting. Van Gogh is my all time favourite artist, so I was quite thrilled. Also, as far as I know, photography was allowed in the exhibit, so I was able to photograph some of my favourite pieces! At the end of our rendezvous around the museum we stopped in at the gift shop to purchase some prints and post cards to take home with us. I bought two Van Gogh and a Monet, which are now all up on my wall at school.

Day Three

If I’m being honest, we never really did get on Paris time. Everyday we would sleep until around 11, leave the house by 1 and have dinner around 10pm or later. It was a little disorganized, but it worked just fine for us. Day three was no exception to this. We both slept in and had a relaxing breakfast at the apartment.

We were all over the map on day three. Our day began with us seeking out the perfect croissant. We found said croissant at a nearby boulangerie. I order two croissants, which we ate while we walked to the nearest metro station, and I picked up a loaf of fresh bread. We made a rough plan for the day that started with L’Arc de Triomphe. L’Arc de Triomphe was one of the attractions on our museum passes and prior to this trip I had no clue that you could climb all the way to the top. The stairs were narrow and quite exhausting, but the view was well worth the trek. We could see the Eiffel tower and straight down Champs d’Elysées, which was our next destination of the day. We toured around some of the boujeest shops on the Champs d’Elysée and purchased a box of assorted macaroons from Angelina’s near the Louvre. We basked in the French sunlight and tasted some of the macaroons in Jardins de Tuileries before touring the exhibits of the Louvre for a few hours.

The Louvre is one of the most stunning buildings that I saw on the trip. The exhibits are all beautiful and very interesting, but the building itself is the true masterpiece in my eyes. Since the building is quite old and was packed to the brim with tourists, it was almost sickeningly hot inside. Around where the Mona Lisa is located it was especially crowded. There were so many people crowded around the tiny painting , all just trying to get a decent picture. People kept tripping the alarm for getting too close to the painting. I would hate to be a security guard at the Louvre!

August in Paris is a funny time because of several different reasons, the main two being that: 1. there are more tourists than there are Parisians in the city and 2. about 80% of the small businesses are closed for vacation (this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you would be shocked by how many are actually not open). Connor and I had a few run-ins with closed businesses while we were there, one of those instances being on day three. At the end of another long day of walking and sight seeing, we decided that we were in the mood for some authentic French crêpes. What could be better? I did a bit of research and found a place in the Marais that looked good online and had good ratings. We followed Google Maps’ instructions and found the place, but, much to our dismay, it was closed for holiday. So, I did a bit more research and found a place a little closer to home. It was closed as well. After wandering the streets for quite some time we settled on a lovely restaurant called Les Chouettes and had an absolutely delicious meal. The whole place was very upscale and the food was unique and pretty boujee I must admit. We ordered crushed tomato and sorbet to start and I had pomme dalphin and roasted vegetables as my main. A little note for all those French travellers out there, French cocktails are much stronger than North American ones. Connor and I both decided to indulge and order a cocktail each. The restaurant had some really interesting sounding ones, so it took a little time to make up our minds. Unfortunately for us, the cocktails did not taste like any of the flavourful ingredients listed on the menu, they just tasted like straight booze. I mean if I has wanted a glass of whiskey I would have just ordered one, you know what I mean? So the cocktails didn’t go over too well, but the rest of the meal was outstanding. If you ever happen to find yourself in Paris and are in need of some delicious indulgence, then I definitely recommend Les Chouettes. It was really phenomenal.

Day Four

Day four might have been our latest start of the entire trip. We were both exhausted and a bit sore from all the walking that we had done over the past few days, so we decided to have a more relaxed morning. After a bit of down time we were out the door and on our way to see Notre Dame. On our way over we picked up some more croissants from our favourite boulangerie, Tout Autour du Pain. I bought an almond and a pistachio + chocolate croissant for the walk. Both were 10/10.

As with most of the sights we’d seen over the past few day, Notre Dame had a pretty significant lineup to get in. Luckily for us it moved quite quickly and we only ended up waiting for about five minutes. I think that I can speak for both of us when I say that Notre Dame blew us away! We walked around the inside for a bit and then just sat in a pew and stared up at the intricate ceiling and marvelled at its beauty. It took over 200 years to complete the construction of Notre Dame and when you see it it is obvious why. I loved it.

After Notre Dame we walked to another famous church nearby called Saint Chapelle. That morning I had packed us some pasta salad to have for lunch or dinner and I had brought forks from our rental to eat with. Well, the security guy at Saint Chapelle was not a fan of my forks and would not let me bring them in. Since they weren’t really my forks (they belonged to the rental) I didn’t know what to do with them. I didn’t want to just throw them outside, so we ended up not going in. In retrospect I probably could have just left them outside and collected them later. Oh well.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking down to Champs des Mars to see the Eiffel Tower. It took so long to walk all the way down there! I would definitely recommend taking the metro instead of literally walking across the city. When we finally arrived it was so busy! If I’m being quite honest, I was pretty underwhelmed by the Champs des Mars. The grass was patchy, dry, and strewn with bottle caps. Plus there were people constantly bothering you and trying to sell you cheap wine and beer. The tower itself is beautiful and interesting to look at, but the park is not nice. We didn’t spend too much time there. We were both tired and a bit irritated from all the walking and the heat. We left the park and found a nice restaurant with a patio to sit down at and have a snack. Chez Francis had a nice patio and it was close by, so we stopped there. We each got a fruit salad and some water to tie us over for the rest of the walk back. After sitting for a while we felt so much better. The sun was starting to set and the temperature was dropping to a much more comfortable degree.

We continued to walk home slowly, stopping to take photographs and eat our pasta salad with the forbidden forks outside of the Louvre. We had to take a detour on our route home because there was an apartment fire that closed off a whole block of our usual route. In the end it only added a few extra minutes to our walk.

Day Five

Versailles! Day five was our last day to use our museum passes and we decided to save the best for last. We left the apartment early in the morning and hopped on a train to Versailles. The palace was swarming with tourists and we had to wait two hours just to get in to security. There was no shade in the line and it was another brutally hot and sunny day. Surprisingly, I only got mildly sunburnt, but I did get a wicked teva tan!

The palace was absolutely stunning. It was probably my favourite place that we went the entire trip. I just wish that it hadn’t been so busy. It was a bit difficult to capture the true beauty of the palace with so many people crammed inside of its walls. I did my best though. I would have liked to spend more time inside the actually palace, but we were constantly being pushed along by the never-ending mob of tourists.

Once we had seen most of the palace we went out to the gardens and strolled around for a couple hours. The gardens are stunning and I highly recommend paying the extra fee to see them if you ever visit Versailles. There was a whole citrus orchard and dozens of fountains throughout the garden. There were obvious signs of construction and maintenance in some places, but for the most part the gardens were very well kept.

Upon our return to the city we went straight from the metro station to Lulu la nantaise Crêperie. You know how we were having so much trouble locating a crêperie that was actually open the night before? Well, I found this one right down the street from where we were staying… You live and you learn.

We had an excellent meal at Lulu la nantaise. The service, the atmosphere and the crêpes were all fantastic. I love both savoury and sweet crêpes, so I always have a hard time deciding what to get when I go out to crêperies. I ended up ordering a savoury crêpe with goat’s cheese, mushrooms, spinach, apricot compote, rosemary, and flaked almonds. It was a good decision.

Day Six

After all the walking that we had been doing over the past several days, we were both desperately in need of a more relaxed day. It was overcast outside, but so humid. We spent most of the day relaxing at the apartment, then headed out in the late afternoon to see some sights. We walked to see the famous Moulin Rouge. It was funny because the entire street was packed with tourist, including many families with little kids, and almost every store on the street was a sex shop. It was pretty funny. We took some photos of the Moulin Rouge and bought some nice handmade chocolates at a chocolatier called Rèaute Chocolat to bring home as gifts.

A neighbourhood called Montmartre is located up behind the street the Moulin Rouge is on, so we headed up there to check it out. I bought some lovely smelling perfume at Fragonard, which is super adorable and very reasonably priced. I could have bought the whole store. Sacré-Cœur is in Montmartre as well and it has a beautiful panoramic view of the city from its front steps. We climbed up the steps to see the view and got scammed by a bunch of African guys making crappy string bracelets. I was not pleased about that. We tried to walk by them, but one grabbed my arm and started making a bracelet on it, so I didn’t really know what to do. It ended up costing me €4!

Our good friend Katie had a simple request for us before we left on our trip. She wanted us to find chocolate covered Oreos because apparently they only sell them in Europe. We had gone into several stores trying to find them and had had no luck, but on this particular day we were able to find them in a store in Montmartre. She was pretty happy when we gave them to her.

Dessert crêpes at Lulu’s were on the menu for dinner that night. After our wonderful experience there the previous night we decided to go back and test out the sweet crêpes. My crêpe had rhubarb compote, whipped cream, strawberries, pistachios, and homemade cinnamon ice-cream. Then we shared a lemon and sugar crêpe for “dessert”.

Day Seven 

Galeries Lafyette was on the agenda for day seven. It’s essentially the French version of London’s Harrods. The clothing section was incredible, but I was most interested in the food hall. The main building of the store has a multi-storey vaulted ceiling in the centre with beautiful stained glass. From every storey you can look out and see the store from top to bottom. It’s spectacular!

The food hall is located in its own building and is equally as spectacular. After wandering around a bit I ended up purchasing a brand of tea that I had in Scotland and quite liked, and a kilogram bag of sel de geuraude. My mom recommended that I buy sel de geuraude while I was there because it is from France and is world renowned by chefs. I must say, after cooking with it for the past five months, that it is very good salt. Before leaving the store I got some falafels, grilled veg, and a samosa from Mavrommátis in the food hall to take with me. Connor stopped at McDonald’s because he wanted to compare Canadian and French McDonald’s. I was surprised by how different the actual designs of the French McDonalds’ are from Canadian ones. According to Connor McDonald’s is better in Canada. I’ll take his word for it.

Along the Saint Martin Canal there is a cool little art and print store called Artazart. We each bought a print there to bring home. There were so many that I liked, it was hard to chose just one. This is a great store to visit if you are interested in art and design. They have a wonderful selection of books, prints, notebooks, cards, and much more.

For dinner we went to Le Café Pierre. I ordered a delicious bowl of linguini with basil cream sauce and Connor got the classic steak frites. The food was very good and the location was ideal because it was close to where we were staying. We finished off the meal with some dessert, I ordered chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream. Everything was amazing, but very rich!

Day Eight

This was our last full day in Paris. After eating a quiet breakfast at home we spent most of the day travelling around picking up goodies from some of our favourites places to bring home with us.

First, we picked up croissants at Tout Autour du Pain. I got three almond and two regular, they were unfortunately out of raisin (my favourite). Next we went to Angelina’s where I purchased an assortment of macrons for my mom. Our last stop was at the Louvre. This time we went into the mall, not the museum. We found the cutest store called Nature & Découvertes. They stock tons of great products ranging from camping supplies to essential oils to teas and cute mugs. Connor and I were both in heaven! I bought a nice mug with cacti on it and Connor bought a new backpack for school and a cactus-shaped defuser. As you can tell, cacti were a big theme for us. If you ever come across one of these store GO CHECK IT OUT. You won’t regret it.

After we had gotten our fill of French shopping we started to head back home to get ready for dinner. On the way we stumbled upon a soap shop called The Marseille Soap House, which I had been trying to find all day. I got some lovely smelling soap to bring home with me.

Connor made reservations for us to have dinner aboard le Calife on the Seine. It was one of the nicest and fanciest meals that I have ever had. We both got dressed up for the occasion. We took the metro to get to the launch, but my feet still died from the walk between home and the metro station (I was in heels). The food was incredible and the sights from the boat were stunning. We got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It was beautiful. The candle on our table kept blowing out and I felt terrible for the server who had to keep coming over and re-lighting it. He must have re-lit it at least twenty times throughout the evening. This meal and the experience that came with it was the perfect ending to our trip.

Once we were off the boat we took the metro back home. I had such terrible blisters on my feet from the walk earlier in the evening and my feet were in so much pain that I ended up removing my shoes and walking barefoot through the streets of Paris, which I do not recommend. As you can imagine the streets of Paris are not very clean.

Day Nine

We had to leave the house at 6:30am to get to the train station to get to the airport on time. It was a long day of travel. We had to walk to the train station with all of our luggage, then we had to haul all our stuff around the incredibly confusing Charles de Gaulle airport trying to find the check-in. While we were waiting to board our flight I noticed a man a little ways in front of us wearing a full-on winter jacket and I had to try so hard not to laugh. All I could think was “buddy, it’s not that cold in Canada!”. The entire time we were in Paris it was about 35 degrees and it was no cooler back home.

When our flight touched down in Toronto we were both eager to head home, so we opted out of spending a night in the city and just drove home right away. It’s always funny coming home because no matter how long you’ve been gone or how far you’ve gone it always feels like you never left at all. At least that’s how it is for me.

Thank you all for following along!

xx

Ashley

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