At the end of March, I went on a trip to Paris, France and documented how I had the best French vacation. Follow along on my day-to-day adventures in Paris!
Dear Adventure Avenue,
Yesterday, we decided that today was the day to go to the Louvre as early as possible because who would want to go to the Louvre at 9am after you just lost an hour of sleep? The answer: Us and 10 other people. Turns out this is the best time to go to the Louvre! But first, let me rewind a bit.
Louvre
After getting up at 7:30 (by our alarm – We were still tired apparently), we headed over to the nearby boulangerie, Eric Kayser for pain au chocolats. We ate our pain au chocolats on the way to the Louvre which was conveniently located a block away.
We had gotten tickets yesterday (and you can only pre order tickets) so when we arrived, there were only 10 other people waiting there. By 8:58 more people were trickling in, but we were given a head start to see the Mona Lisa.
When we got to Miss Mona, there were only 15 people in line in front of us, and we were able to get multiple good photos with her.
After that I told my mom I’d like to see the English and American paintings, Napoleon’s apartment, and a painting of Francois I. On our way to the Anglo paintings, we stumbled upon a wonderful exhibit with Crown Jewels and Yves Saint Lauren jackets from past fashion shows. I love the tiaras!
After we finished with the paintings on the second floor (really the third but the French consider the first floor to be zero), we circled back around to see Napoleon’s apartment. Fortuitously, we took the longer path there and stumbled upon a Marie Antoinette exhibit which as you may know, I love the history behind Marie Antoinette. (She’s not well understood by most people – I highly recommend this biography to learn more about her – affiliate link).
Then we arrived at Napoleon’s apartment which was quite grand if I do say so myself. I’ll let the pictures speak louder than words.
What I liked about this section/wing of the museum was that most of it still had some of the original walls and ceiling. In Napoleon’s apartment, we exited out what I believe would’ve been the servants’ hallway as evidenced by a spiral staircase and less ornate wall coverings. (I don’t think I snapped pictures of this).
Then we went up to the third floor to find the painting of Francois I before making our way out of the museum. We ended up staying about 2.5 hours and saw everything I wanted to see.
Lunch
We made our way back to the hotel and went to Mere’s room before deciding to go to lunch at Le Royal – just down the street from our hotel. I had the escargot, my mom had the onion soup, and my grand-Mere had croque campagnard which was very similar to croque monsieur. My escargot would’ve been better with some garlic but with the butter and bread, it was good.
After lunch, we took the metro over to the Notre Dame area (île de la Cité) and walked around the shops there)
I very much liked this flower shop and cheese shop. (Though the cheese had many flies on it 😬).
Then we walked over to see Notre Dame, and it was so sad to see just how much damage there was to it and how much work it needs.
Bouquinistes of Paris
After mourning the devastation of the cathédrale, we walked along the Seine visiting the green book boxes. I saw a French Star Wars poster and knew I had to have it! I paid the vendor 8 euro for it.
We took the Metro back to the hotel but went to Cafe Saint Honore for some refreshing drinks. My mom and I both got the fantastic virgin mojitos there.
Dinner
That night, the four of us rejoined and went to Bistro Vivienne. We walked through this park that’s tree lined and has black and white striped pillars set at a slight incline.
As a starter, my mom had a Caesar salad and my grand-mère had fish stew. For dinner, I ate a lamb dish which wasn’t what I was expecting as it was shredded lamb between mashed potatoes. My mom and grand-mere split the steak and our friend had the duck.
We finished dinner and started walking back to the hotel the same way we came only to realize the park we had walked through was closed. Luckily there was a pathway of shops on the side that we were able to go out.
We ended the night at the hotel bar. I started our hot chocolate taste testing out there. (We’re going to be trying hot chocolate at different places!)
Until tomorrow,
A
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