THE ULTIMATE PARIS GUIDE

Sep 24

Ahhhh…. the City of Lights... Welcome to Paris (or Pahh-Ree as they say)! What a magical place. When you arrive you want to slip into a babydoll dress and some Chanel dad sandals, grab a French loaf and immediately start shooting content! This city is the perfect backdrop for any photo. Or if you’re not the pretentious type and just here for history, the majestic architecture and gardens, I got some of that for you too! We came to Paris as a party of six: My mother, cousin, husband, two little ones & myself. Follow along with me as I show you how we crammed sightseeing, eating, shopping and shooting content inside of four days in this beautiful city.

WHERE I STAYED: HOTEL DU LOUVRE

Location

The Hotel du Louvre is centrally located in the city. The hotel is a few minutes walking distance from the Louvre Museum, Palais Royal, Paris Eye, and Opera Garnier. It’s also directly across the street from a cab stand where there are taxis (at least four at all times) lined up and ready to go.

TIP: There are two fountains in front of the hotel that serve as parking lots for electric scooters, in case you wanted to scoot your way through the city.

Accommodations

The hotel is really beautiful inside and out.

The Hotel du Louvre

The first thing you notice upon walking in is the beautiful staircase inside the lobby. (*Instagram moment*)

We booked with American Express and received a promotion that included breakfast each morning in the hotel restaurant. (huge must if you’re traveling with little ones)

The hotel has an indoor courtyard cocktail lounge which is to die for!

The staff was extremely friendly and accommodating. They sent up an extra twin bed for the kids so everyone could all sleep comfortably.

The only drawback was that we did not book a room with a terrace. (maybe next time)

We did have floor to ceiling windows in the living room and bedroom however, they were julienne balconies that opened up to the outside courtyard. Not quite the insta material on my Pinterest board.

DAY 1

SIGHTSEEING: OPERA GRANIER

The Opera Granier dead ends at the opposite end of the street facing the hotel; so it was only right that we make this our first sight seeing adventure. Tickets were 14 euros and free for children 12 and under. Proof of vaccination is required for entry. This is the majestic home of the masterpiece Phantom of the Opera. The opera house is 146 years old, it has 2,531 doors, 7,593 keys and six miles of underground tunnels. There were four different levels that we had access to; including a view of the grand ballroom and outdoor terrace. Even though photos could N E V E R do this place justice, I’ll let these pictures do the rest of the talking :

SIGHTSEEING: THE EIFFEL TOWER

Cobblestone Street near Cafe Castel — Cobblestone Street near ***Cafe Castel***

The Eiffel Tower is a landmark you can enjoy multiples times throughout your visit in Paris. You can purchase tickets to go inside of the tower and view the first floor, second floor, and the restaurant at the very top.

We first embarked on the tower during the big bus tour and got close up views on the roundabout drive.

We came back again at night to see it light up which is absolutely beautiful. The lights come on about 8pm and they do a sparkle light show at about 11:15pm. Although the area is a little sketchy at night, people were stretched out on the lawn listening to music and having a great time. There were food trucks and vendors hustling light up tower keychains and knock off Louis Vuitton bags! It was def a vibe!

We also took a late morning walk along the Sienne River and the tower looks stunning across the bank. After our walk we had lunch with a view of the tower nearby.

The best areas for taking content with the tower :

TRACADERO staircase
The SIENNE RIVER BRIDGE
Cobblestone side street near CAFE CASTEL

There’s also a vintage carousel directly across from the tower by the entrance to the Sienne River.

Photo Tip

For some reason the photos of the tower came out better when it was raining or almost about to rain. When the weather was sunny and dry the the tower was very light against the sky making it look misty in photos and out of focus. On rainy days the tower came out tack sharp. *just my opinion*

DAY 2

SIGHTSEEING: VERSAILLES

Our second day in Paris we took a day trip to the Palace of Versailles. Versailles opens every day at 9am and is about a 45 minute drive outside of Paris. There are so many horror stories about the dreaded long lines to get in, so we reserved our entry time slots online. To get a head start, we woke up at 7am and got on the road about 8:15. We spent about 4 1/2 hours on the grounds of the palace. There are so many different gardens, halls, and chateaus that it deserves a separate blog post just to cover all the intricate details.

Blog post on visiting Versailles

Visting Versailles

ATTRACTION: DISNEYLAND PARIS

We hit Disney at 4pm in the afternoon. It also is about a 45 minute drive outside of Paris. We had to show proof of vaccination for entry. This is one of the few places that offered rapid covid tests for tourists. The majority of locations that offered rapid tests required you to have a French Social Security Number, so we had to scramble to find pharmacies or other locations that would accept tourists.

Disney was magical as always. The kids loved the Buzz Light Year ride and Space Mountain (I almost died!). I didn’t get many photos due to my camera battery dying, but we did see Mickey and I was happy with that!

DAY 3

SIGHTSEEING: PALAIS ROYAL PARIS

THIS PLACE IS INSANE!!!! I had this place on my Paris mood board for some time now and couldn’t wait to come and shoot content. With this being a hot spot that attracts tons of people every day I have to admit I did have a little anxiety of how I was going to edit people out of my photos in the background. Nevertheless, I still wanted to go and take in the beauty and grab whatever photos I could.

Once we arrived the gates were closed! They were shooting a popular French TV Show and they said the grounds wouldn’t open until 8am the next day. Bummed we peered into the gates trying to try to see some of the filming. Some of the actors alternating between sets did come by and speak to us, and I heard one of them mention they were about to wrap up this location. YES!!!!! Guys, that’s exactly what happened! After about 30 minutes one of the set managers motioned me over and said I could go inside after everyone cleared out and take photos for only 10-15 minutes IN SOLIDARITY! The anxiety I had about everyone being in my shot - GONE! I now had the entire area to myself… even if it was for only 15 minutes the Parisian Gods were definitely on my side!

SIGHTSEEING: THE LOUVRE MUSEUM

Home to the infamous Mona Lisa, this by far is one of the top museums in the world. So great and so grand that we didn’t even bother to go lol! We visited the Palace of Versailles the day before and ended up spending about 4 hours there. Afterward, we high tailed it to Disneyland and you know how the long lines go, That being said, we were way too tired to cram in another museum the very next day. The kids are used to our rinky dink museums in the states that consists of a few gallery halls, a cafeteria and souvenir shop. These 3 mile long museums with no kids clubs were taking them OWT! The complaints and bathroom breaks were endless. I have been to the Louvre before when I visited back in 2008 so I wasn’t tripping. We did however spend sunset outside the Louvre watching the Ferris wheel in the far distance and admiring the pretty pyramid.

There’s a courtyard and lots of restaurants right along the perimeter of the museum that have a direct view to the pyramid. There are also fountains on each side of the pyramid, which is the perfect place to sit and spend time with someone or just people watch. The vibe at sunset is amazing, and reminds me of New York. There’s people from all walks of life, some playing music, others riding scooters, and vendors selling trinkets. ( I ended up getting a couple key chains and a mini Eiffel Tower that lights up for my youngins.)

E A T I N G I N P A R I S

I did a more in depth blog post of all the restaurants I visited in Paris… but in the meantime here are some highlights:

CAFE LE BREBANT Great vibes and food. Perfect place to people watch
BEL -AMI Huge fan of the drinks. Steps away from Moulin Rouge (we came back twice)
CAFE DE LA PRIX Very popular cafe, perfect for brunch. Directly next to the Opera
CAFE CASTEL Situated on a cobblestone street with the Eiffel Tower peaking over the trees
CAFE de la COMEDIE Coffee, Cheeseburgers, & Crepes lol!

Blog post below on everywhere we ate in Paris

Eating in Paris

SHOPPING IN PARIS

All the shopping we did was in walking distance from our hotel. My cousin who was traveling with us wanted to hit OFF-WHITE and SUPREME. The Off White women’s boutique which was about a 6 min walk from our hotel. We were unable to film inside but managed to get a few photos. The Supreme store in Paris is closed on Mondays, so Tuesday she made a day of it to get there as soon as they opened. Upon arriving there was a huge line of people who already had reservations to shop. Needless to say, Supreme didn’t happen this trip :(

There was other great shopping at the Galeries Lafayette & another shopping mall called Les 4 Temps (La Défense).

DAY 4

FREESTYLING IN PARIS

Our last day in Paris we spent with no itinerary. In preparation for our travel back to the UK we had to secure covid tests 72 hrs before travel. We grabbed the kids and hopped on some scooters and weaved between the Paris streets looking for pharmacies to take our tests. We also came across a cool spot to grab boba tea called The Alley.

I was also able to get some personal time with my camera and shoot streetstyle fashion for about an hour meeting some very nice stylish friends:

My mother is a huge fan of the show Bon Fire of Destiny on Netflix. With it being based on a true story in Paris she couldn’t wait to go and see the monument of the building where all those women lost their lives. Seeing the memorial of Princess Diana’s death was also on her bucket list but we only drove past it.

(pictured below: my mother at the Bazar De La Caharité)

LEAVING PARIS

We took a cab from our hotel to the Gare du Nord train station to return to the UK. I do recommend asking the hotel to book transportation for you if possible when leaving the city. We used a random cab driver that took a longer than usual route and then demanded that we pay him in cash. After going back and forth with him that we did not have cash the very frustrated driver pulled out his credit card reader. Up until this point we had no issues ever using our cards in a taxi. Please make sure the cab driver takes your method of payment before getting inside. Some of them can be sketchy.

*Famous 24 hours Hotel right outside the rail station*

We arrived to Paris via the EuroStar from London . The trip was 99euros per person and was only two hours transit time.

eurostar-pininfarina-redesign-criticised-nick-vinson-lisa-armstrong-_dezeen_1568_2.jpg — **The Eurostar**

With UK border forms and Covid tests in hand we finally boarded the Eurostar.
The train was very impressive. The seats were very comfortable and came with outlets underneath for charging. There was also free wifi and a club car with food and drinks. The bathrooms were extremely modern and clean which sends my review over the top ( *there is nothing worse than going to a filthy bathroom with kids)!*
The best part was passing the scenic views of the French countryside .

Well guys our time in Paris is up. I appreciate you taking the time to read this blog post and coming on this journey with us! Please stay tuned for future posts and let me know what you would do while on this trip or if there were any places that I missed.

Although I’m happy with what we could accomplish here inside of four days, I didn’t get to hit all the places on my Paris wishlist. If you happen to go please be sure to try these places out and let me know how they are :)

UNTIL NEXT TIME …. PEACE!

-J.