Really, does Paris ever get old? My third time in Paris and still, five nights was not enough. I think I could do double the time and easily find ways to fill my days. This time felt even shorter because the days were split between exploring the city and visiting the French Open.
In Paris we reunited with my mum, and eventually my cousin Summer. We stayed at a beautiful Air BnB in the 17 arrondissement, which was a stunning area. We were in a classic French apartment with shutters on the windows and fruit stalls, brasseries and boulangeries flooding the streets below us. I was happy at what a dog friendly city Paris seems to be, and in particular there were lots of golden retrievers <3
Highlights included walking through Moulin Rouge to the Sacre Coeur, climbing the Arc De Triomphe and ambling down the Champs Élysées. We saw what we could of the Notre Dame (the front remains relatively untarnished, but the back is a bit of a mess), wondered why we couldn’t find the lovelock bridge (it has since been removed as the locks were weighing down the bridge) and spent a few hours lazing in the Luxembourg Gardens.
My favourite activity was when we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the Champs de Mars. Our view of the Eiffel Tower was unhampered and our picnic was too (instead we had to make do with bags 😉 but they were full of scrumptious treats from Rue Cler, a market street nearby).
Meals, including escargots, were consumed in Montmartre – my absolute favourite area in all of Paris, at the lovely Canal St Martin, and at the ever-bustling Latin Quarter. The Latin Quarter feels very touristy but it is also incredibly fun; everywhere is cheap and cheerful and it’s basically a matter of seeing which menu (or maître‘d) draws you in the most. We settled on a more expensive one; comparatively, it was still cheaper for a 3 course set menu than most of the other places we ate at in Paris.
Our hands laden with fresh goods from the boulangerie, we boarded an early train to Strasbourg. I’m looking very much to exploring somewhere new and seeing a different part of France. 