After leaving Dijon by train, we headed to Paris for a few days of, what I like to call, doing Paris “the wrong way.” 2015 Sara and Kevin were still interested in “trendy” spots and restaurants and didn’t want to have the “cliche” Paris experience. Granted, as you’ll see below, it’s hard to avoid some Paris essentials and, that being said, DON’T AVOID THEM. Having been back to Paris in 2017, I can safely say that you will have the best time by being a total tourist – go to all the overcrowded museums, eat all the bread and roast chicken, take a hundred photos at the Eiffel Tower. We had a much better time when we gave in to Paris.
After disembarking from our train, we easily made our way to the apartment we had rented in the Les Halles neighborhood. It was very centrally located, just north of the Ile de la Cite which is home to Notre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle chapel. The Paris Marathon had taken place the day before so the town was pretty packed with tourists and we actually met several people throughout our stay that had ran it. After a quick lunch by our apartment, we headed to the Sainte-Chapelle to see some amazing 800-year-old stained glass. The Gothic chapel itself is breathtaking, as you can see in the pictures above. After visiting the chapel, I got to visit the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore and we dove into the Parisian lifestyle by sitting outside at a few cafes while people watching. The weather was also beautiful, so that helped.
For dinner, we went to L’Avant Comptoir, a trendy French tapas restaurant that only contains a bar (no tables or chairs) and tons of people crammed in eating and drinking. The menu changes daily and you choose what you want from pictures on the ceiling. The food was delicious and we met a really nice girl from Queens who was visiting Paris by herself and helped recommend some dishes for us. After dinner, we walked through the Latin Quarter and went to a jazz club that I had heard about – La Caveau de la Huchette. The building dates back to the 16th century, but it became a jazz club back in 1946. The dance floor is underground and looks like an old cellar (no, we don’t only go to cellar-like places). They had live music all night and even had a 10 year old boy playing the piano around midnight…..on a Monday. While we danced a little, we were a little self-conscious as we were surrounded by professional jazz dancers. One guy was so good that one woman partner at a time was not enough.
On our second day in Paris, we thought it was time to check out some of these museums everyone is always talking about. While we didn’t want to wait in the enormous line for the Louvre, we did take the obligatory photo ops there. After that, we headed to the Musee d’Orsay, which picks up where the Louvre leaves off and houses mostly French art from the 1840s to the early 1900s. The interior of the museum is pretty incredible – it’s located in an old train station that was about to be torn down until they realized it would be a good place to store all of this classic art. One great piece was a scale model of old Paris that is underneath glass that you can stand on top of. After the museum we again people watched at a cafe before grabbing dinner near the Eiffel Tower. Since we were so close, we felt we had to go over and check the tower out, and right as we approached it, the sparkling lights started blinking on it. The structure is pretty overwhelming and amazing to see up close.
After the museum, we again people watched at a cafe before grabbing dinner near the Eiffel Tower. Since we were so close, we felt we had to go over and check the tower out, and right as we approached it, the sparkling lights started blinking on it. The structure is pretty overwhelming and amazing to see up close.
The next day, we basically just wandered around the city, taking in the beauty and people. We visited the Picasso Museum, which has a great display of his work, but also his own personal collection of Cezanne, Braque and Gauguin paintings. Since I had not had any oysters my entire time in Paris, I really wanted to grab some for an appetizer that evening. We asked at several cafes and they all pointed us to this one restaurant. Unfortunately, this restaurant was a bit on the fancy side and they thought we were complete weirdos for only wanting a small portion of oysters. After a quick dinner, we headed back toward our apartment and stopped off for a nightcap at a bar, where we met and started talking to two young men. One was exactly what you would imagine a Parisian to be, and the other was from Luxembourg and drove regional trains around Paris. When we left, he seemed pretty intoxicated and we were surprised when he said he had to drive a train the next morning at 6 am.
Around dawn the following morning, Rob arrived from Chicago! We got him some espresso and made our way to lunch at the Polidor, a famous restaurant that Ernest Hemingway frequented. In fact, they even had a drawer that held Hemingway’s personal napkins, which were used every time he visited. The restaurant was also featured in the movie Midnight in Paris. After lunch, we made our way to the Catacombs, which was the tourist attraction Kevin was most looking forward to. The Catacombs originally were thousands of miles of abandoned stone mines dating back to the 12th century. However, as Paris began to urbanize in the 16th century, they moved over 6 million bones into the tunnels from the nearby churches, thus making it the largest burial ground in the world. Once you get in, you descend down what seems like a never-ending staircase to a small passageway under the city. You walk through extremely narrow and creepy hallways for several minutes before you are brought to the millions of bones decoratively stacked and labeled by parish and year. There is something very creepy about being down there in that dark, musty space, but to us, a Paris must-see.
After the Catacombs, we headed to an area of the city we hadn’t yet been to – the Canal St. Martin neighborhood. We got a few drinks at Le Comptoir General, a bar and lounge with many different rooms that looked like it was straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. We then went to dinner at Au Passage, a French tapas place that I had made reservations at. The food was delicious and some of the best that I ate in Paris. We called it an early night since we had a train to Bruges the next morning.
Recommendations:
- Sainte-Chappelle. 10 Bd du Palais, 75001 Paris, France. http://www.sainte-chapelle.fr/en/.
- L’Avant Comptoir. 3 Carr de l’Odéon, 75006 Paris, France. https://camdeborde.com/en/restaurants/avant-comptoir-de-la-terre.
- La Caveau de la Huchette. 5 Rue de la Huchette, 75005 Paris, France. http://www.caveaudelahuchette.fr/2/.
- Musee d’Orsay. 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75007 Paris, France. https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en.
- Musée National Picasso-Paris. 5 Rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris, France. https://www.museepicassoparis.fr/en.
- Restaurant Polidor. 41 Rue Monsieur le Prince, 75006 Paris, France. https://www.polidor.com/en/home.
- Catacombs of Paris. 1 Av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris, France. https://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en.
