Paris trip in October

A week is too much imo unless you’re super into arts.

But, do a walking tour or bike tour. Search Michelin star restaurants snd pick one.

Consider training to Brussels or Geneva for a few days.

This was our trip to Paris a few years ago:

Day 5:

Travel day. Early BA flight from LHR to CDG - with time change, we got in around 1:00 PM, got to the apartment in short time, then did a quick change as we had a food tour at 4:00 PM.

The entire tour was through the Le Marais area of Paris and featured an eclectic mix of foods from wine and cheese, chocolates, jams, fallafels, ice cream and some Corsican apps. Here is the list of places we visited in order - walked about 5.5 miles on this one:

La Petite ferme d'Inès - Cheese monger. The best part was a cows milk cheese called Tomme. This one had some black truffles blended it and it was spectacular. Washed it down with some wine - not sure where it was from, but it was a red.

Popelini - Little puffy pastries filled with a variety of flavors - think a small circular eclair - I had a chocolate one (this will be a theme) that was great. Would be perfect to grab after a dinner.

La Chambre aux confitures - This place was great. Filled with a wide variety of fruit, chocolate, caramel, and honey spreads - you could spend a while in here tasting things. We picked up a chocolate spread (very similar, but better tasting than Nutella) for our morning croissants.

Maison Brémond 1830 - Mostly stuff for salads - so I was kinda checked out, but the dressings that you could play with were good - a lot of taste testing everything in these places...which is great.

Une Glace à Paris Ice cream...all natural and very good. We had five flavors to tasted off of (no chocolate), but they were all good. The place had a crazy long line, as the guy has apparently won best ice cream in Paris two different times, but our guide was able to crash the line thanks to the tour.

Pierre Heremé - Another award winner - best macarons in Paris - and they were good. Very delicate and soft, sometimes they can be a little chewy.

Edwart Chocolatier - Again, this guy has also won a prestigious award - best chocolate in Paris. They were good, don't get me wrong, but there wasn't anything life changing about them. Edwart was cool, though...

L'As du fallafel - Craziest line of all. So, this part of town is also home to a large Jewish population...and they were all in line. Again, our guide skipped, so that was nice. It was a good fallafel - if you like 'em.

L'Avili - Last stop. Finished with another meat, cheese, bread plate - but this was all on one plate. A piece of salted meat over a toasted slice of bread with a thin later of cheese over the bread - arugula surrounded it all. It ended the meal well, as did the two glasses of Corsican wine.

At this point, the tour was over three hours long and we ate a lot, so well worth the 200 Euro. If you're interested, here is the tour company info - our guide was Ingrid, and she was great:

Paris Original Food Tours

It was a long day, so we're back in the room looking over what is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Santé...


Day 6:

shite ton of walking today. A shade over 10 miles and, thanks to Sacré Coeur, we climber the equivalent of 51 flights of stairs.

We got up late - about 9:00, then headed to the Metro to buy a five day pass (they only come in 1, 2, 3, or 5-day passes) for zones 1-3, which is pretty much everything you will want to see.

We started by heading to Notre Dame - beautiful. We spent some time walking around inside, then walked the grounds. There's a nice little garden area on the backside that has some benches for a nice walking break and to enjoy some beautiful weather. It was about 65 degrees and partly sunny all day. Free entry to the nave.

After that, we enjoyed Le Marais so much yesterday, that we wanted to go back and spend more time there walking around and shopping...so we did. We went back to L'Avili for lunch - I actually had the same thing I ate yesterday as well, just washed it down with a blonde Corsican beer.

After that, we took the Metro over to Sacré Coeur - prepare to climb. As with Notre Dame - entry to the nave is free, but we spent the extra 12 Euros (total for both of us) to have the "honor" of climbing 300 stairs to get to the top of the tower. It's a tight climb but, unlike the 400 stairs at the Duomo - Florence, at least there are separate paths for up and down, as opposed to the Duomo, which was kind of a shite-show with people having to pass each other on the narrow staircase. Once at the top of the Sacré Coeur tower - you have a beautiful 360 degree walk around view of Paris - including the Eiffel Tower.

We grabbed a Nutella crepe after we were done, walked around the little neighborhood and saw the Moulin Rouge, then hopped back on the Metro to head back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was had at La Fontaine de Mars - excellent, excellent food. Apparently, Obama ate here, but I won't hold that against them. We started with the warm goat cheese, handmade brioche and honey dressing, along with the Snails of Burgundy (if you remember the Ruth's Chris escargot, then the same thing - snails covered in melted butter, shallots and garlic) I got the order of 6, and was disappointed I did not get the 12. For our entrees - the wife had the duck confit (which was fantastic) and it came with some potatoes and greens, while I had the duck fillet (cooked medium and was melt in your mouth good - maybe some of the best duck I've ever had) with fries - didn't care about any other sides. We had a carafe of the Brouilly Beaujolais to wash everything down with, and it was more than enough for the both of us. All totaled - it was about $130.

After dinner, we walked over to Amorino for some gelato, then slow-rolled it back to the apartment. We're staying a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower, so we pass it every time we leave, and it's an amazing site to see each time - was surprised by how truly large the structure is. The light show each hour at the top of the hour once it gets dark is pretty cool - goes on for about 5-minutes.

Tomorrow, we take a train to Reims to take a tour of the Mumm Champagne cellar.


Day 7:

Will have back-to-back postings...in case anyone cares anymore. lol

Woke up to some rain on Wednesday, which was nice, as it allowed us to sleep in a little and get a relaxed start to the day.

Once the rain cleared out - it was a pretty nice day. We started by heading over the the Arc de Triomphe. Crowds weren't that bad and you have a great view down the Champs-Elysees, which we then meandered down.

I follow the Tour de France every year, so it was great to see the same roads where the race culminates each year.

From there, we strolled down the Seine for a little while, walked through Tuileries Garden,, and went over the the Joan of Arc statue where the riders come out from the tunnel and head towards the Champs-Elysees.

This took most of the day, so we headed back towards our apartment by the Eiffel Tower - on the way we grabbed a snack, sat in the park overlooking the Tower for a little while, then got ready for dinner.

I wanted pizza - I know...weird, but I like pizza. We went to Casa Pizza. It was very good and the owner/server could not have been better. Offered us a sample of his pizza, which was great -- I wound-up getting a Margherita -- and then gave us some homemade plum moonshine after our Tiramisu.

After that, we had a couple of drinks at Gatsby - again, great staff...good drinks...and I perfect way to close out the night.

Day 9:

Last full day -- we leave early in the AM to head back.

Woke up this AM and headed straight for the Lourve. I did spot the upside down point of the pyramid, where the Holy Grail is...thanks, Tom Hanks!

Anywhoo...a lot of cool stuff here... Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace. You could spend hours here - we stayed for awhile, then headed to...

Musée d'Orsay. Again, you could really kill some time here, but we focused on the Impressionists - Money, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Manet, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, etc...they're all here. Wonderful collection of paintings that look amazing one foot from your face.

After that, we headed back to start getting ready for dinner at L'Atelier. This was fantastic. The menu is in French, but the staff is more than accommodating and willing to explain in English. Started with a Johnnie Walker Black...was gifted an amuse bouche of a fois gras mousse, which was great. We got three starters - the octopus, bone marrow, and the little burgers - all were fantastic - changed to a Pinot Noir for the meal - and then had a nice size ribeye with their mashed potatoes (which are phenomenal). The wife had the spaghetti - she enjoyed it. And we shared the dessert - lime concoction with ice cream and meringue - it was good. All totaled, dinner was about $415.00. It was worth it.

Well, it's basically come to an end. We have a wake-up call for about 4:30, then off to the airport to head back home. I'll post pics and shite once I get back. Thanks for following along.

I've been to Paris twice, it was magical.

My advice, after you have checked off what you want to see, pick a subway stop at random, get off and just wander around, no agenda, no time constraints, just a wonderful way to connect with the city and take in the culture, grab a bite somewhere, wander in and out of the shops.

Also you are there long enough where it would make it worthwile to take a train to London for the day.

One thing that I will say to avoid is a dinner cruise on the Seine. While you do get an amazing view of the Eiffel tower at the end, the river sits so far under the streets that you can hardly see the buildings (and its at night so its dark).