Bonjour, and au revoir, Paris!!!
Oui, my mom and I spent 4 days in Paris, France and we had the best time. From shopping to the largest croissant ever, to our beautiful balcony hotel room and to the Moulin Rouge— we did it all and more. I’m going to share my tips and tricks on a quick Parisian getaway to make planning easy.
OUR HOTEL!
We definitely weren’t looking to break the bank with our hotel, but I had dreams of a Parisian balcony to enjoy while getting ready to start our days with a petit café. If you have seen the dreamy balconies I’m talking about, you should know majority of hotels do have the beautiful windows that open onto a little railing, or they do have balcony options as well. Of course, not all hotels, but it isn’t as unique as a U.S. hotel.
We found a reasonable price of ~$800 for the full 5 nights at The New Orient Hotel. Our hotel was in the 8th Arrondissement (kinda like neighborhood), which was not too near the main tourist spots but we were able to learn and navigate the metro system as there was a station about 5 minute walk from The New Orient.
THE METRO!
As mentioned, we had to learn and navigate the metro. Fully recommend! The metro was immensely easier to understand versus New York’s Subway, but a few tips before visiting would have definitely steered us the right way. Also, the metro stations are so cute— each one is unique with different colored chairs + tile patterns or patterns on the inside of the cart, my fav was the rainbow striped car of course.
1 — The Metro works off little paper tickets if you do not have the local pass, so you cannot Apple Pay your entrance every time. Allot time to going to the machine, if you’re like us, to buy a few tickets at a time. Each ticket is about 2 euros.
2 — Hold onto your tickets, because primarily you will need the ticket to submit into the exit gate. The confusing part is keeping the tickets you’ve used seperate from the tickets you haven’t used yet — but also, we found at certain times some tickets could be reused even though we had already used it and exited with it. I suggest to just hold onto these tickets until it won’t let you through, then start anew.
3 — The Metro is based off somewhat bubbles, so if you are only going within the inner bubble of Paris, it is about 2 euros. If you are going outside of the inner bubble, let’s say to Palace of Versailles or the Mall (which both are about an hour of transit time to), then you will need to buy the more expensive ticket. On our last day, we were determined to fit everything we had left on our itinerary in our schedule, so we went to the Mall (~1 hour) and from the Mall to the Palace of Versailles (~1 hour 30min) and then back to Paris. We found our basic 2euro ticket worked to get to the Mall, but upon exiting that station we had to buy a 5euro ticket each to exit. We then had to buy another 5euro ticket each to get back onto the train and only switched trains once on the way to Palace of Versailles. Upon arriving at Palace of Versailles, our ticket didn’t work to exit, and we had to pay a 35euro fee each to an officer to be able to exit. Of course, we were quite confused (as we didn’t read up on the ticket workings beforehand) but after experiencing it all it was because we didn’t buy the more expensive option in the first place (10 euros if I remember correctly). We had to buy a ~10 euro ticket to return to Paris, and that’s where it clicked. But— we made it all around and back to our hotel around 5pm, which was a success in our books.
PRE-PLANNED EVENTS!
The only pre-arrival plans we had planned out was a Pink Mamma reservation and tickets to attend the Moulin Rouge. Pink Mamma was as beautiful as the Instagram pictures show, but I do recommend booking a time to go during the day instead of night. The beautiful staircase is primarily lit by window natural lighting, and was completely dark by our 7pm reservation time. Food was amazing and somewhat affordable compared to other infamous spots. Note, reservations open 1 month in advance.
The Moulin Rouge was one of both me and my mom’s favorite things we did! We attended a 9pm showing, without drinks and purchased a glass of champagne each once there— the main difference is it can be cheaper to just buy 1 drink upon arrival vs. the drinks included which includes a bottle of champagne per 2. We loved the show but also you can just feel the history in the building. When reading up on attending we found people to say the area the Moulin Rouge is in feels very “Vegas-y” and can feel sleezy, we saw the area as definitely very busy but taking the metro worked just fine.
Of course booking dinner reservations prior to your visit is probably best when attending popular spots like La Girafe (a rooftop dinner spot with the view of the Eiffel) or La Maison Rose, another Insta famous spot in the Montmarte similar to Pink Mamma, but I was definitely happy with our prioritized reservations we made.
Along with dinners, museums of course will always be better booked beforehand to prevent standing in long lines. We had read Monday mornings to be the lightest in crowds at The Louvre, and I think everyone else must had read that too as the lines were insane. We didn’t end up going in, but just seeing the outside was worth it to us. I do recommend booking in advance if seeing the Louvre is high on your Paris priorities. A few other recs we read about was the Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie— Musée d’Orsay and The Louvre are free 1st Sundays of every month.
Another spot probably best if booked in advance, but here’s how to do it last minute! The Palace is closed Mondays, and does open 9am in case you want to plan your venture out first thing in the morning — it does take about an hour to get there from Paris. We booked 3:30pm tickets (the last available that day) the night before, so I see where it would definitely be beneficial to book weeks in advance.
We enjoyed the free range feel of being able to walk almost anywhere around and through the halls, especially to the infamous Hall of Mirrors. It was unreal to see the famous halls seen in all the movies, knowing it’s the same walls the royals walked all the years ago.
SHOPPING!
Of course, the star of the show in Paris! Champs Elysées is the it-street for all the shopping, that leads right up to the Arc de Triomphe. While there is a Zara and a few other regular priced retailers, this is where the Louis Vuitton, Channel, Hermes, Van Cleef, and the list goes on and on are located, as well as the beautiful Lauder macaron shop. This visit, I was able to make my first designer bag purchase — a Louis Vuitton limited edition, which was sooo fun to buy in Paris!!!!
The Galeries Lafayette is a famous mall with a few locations, one off Champs Elysées and another off Boulevard Haussmann and Chaussée D’Antin— right around the Palais Garnier (where the Opera and Ballet is held). The location off Boulevard Haussmann is the one with the famous top floor stained glass dome ceiling, with a 9th floor accessible rooftop to see the Paris skyline (& you can see the Eiffel Tower) for free. This location also has a Gourmet specific mall, which reminded me of a fancy food court, across the stress, which had options upon options of food choices to go — even a spice shop where you could fill apothecary little jars to take your custom mixed spices away. This is where I found my XXL Croissant by Philippe Conticini, one of my top fav things I bought for sure. 32 euros for the largest and best croissant I’ve ever had, priceless pics with my massive croissant, and priceless memories of my mom and I tugging around this massive croissant all day long, and the friends we made too that the croissant attracted haha.
Before our last day we thankfully remembered the Paris Outlets— La Vallee Village, and how you can find cheaper designer pieces if you travel out to the outlets. We set out at 8:30am from our hotel to make both the Paris Outlets & Palace of Versailles happen in one day, with enough time to come back for dinner and our show time at Moulin Rouge. Was a very crazy day, but so glad we decided to squeeze it all in starting with the outlets. We didn’t end up buying anything at the designer stores, though I did drool at a few Zimmermann pieces, but we did each find a few things at Stradivarius, a store in the mall connected to the outlets. Fun fact, this mall area is technically in the Paris Disney area, so we were technically at Disney.
A few more shopping spots:
Le Marais (3rd and 4th Arrondisemnts) — chain stores, more affordable brands, Paris name brands as well.
Rue Montorgueil — local scene, beautiful street, famous Patisserie Stohrer used to bake for Louis the 15th in 1730.
Rue Saint-Honoré & Rue de Rivoli — streets leading to the Louvre had great shopping, cute cafes (one I recognized from socials is Café Kitsuné) and notable brands mid-level priced like Vivienne Westwood and Ganni. My mom and I got ourselves matching Vivienne bracelets to commemorate our trip.
SOUVENIRS!
While by the Louvre, it would be good timing to walk down the Seine River and see the Bouquinistes— box-like set ups souvenir sellers open up to show their goods for sale. When we went, there weren’t as many open as we wished, but we had read as there has been city debate to keep these with the 2024 Olympics coming up. I hope they don’t get rid of them as the ones we did see were such a unique shopping experience.
Local art in Montmarte — a whole area of Paris that feels like you’re in a different city that feels very much like Belle’s village in Beauty and the Beast. Montmarte is beautiful to visit, mind you the multiple staircases you will have to take to get to the top of the winding village, but to see the basilica at the top of village and the views from above is just insane. You must visit the Place de Tertre, a square famous for the artists that used to hang out there (Monet, Picasso, van Gogh to name a few) now a spot for caricature artists and local artists alike. We had a caricature made of ourselves, found a few pieces of little Parisian art we loved, had a Carette hot chocolate then wondered to the social media famous Fotoautomat, an old fashioned Photo Booth built into the streets of Montmarte. A vintage Photo Booth is the perfect souvenir from anywhere.
A souvenir we thought about but didn’t end up getting to was custom perfumes from a perfumerie. One we were close to going to was Officine Universelle Buly, where you can get custom perfume, lip balm, and even hair brushes and tooth brushes. Be prepared for a wait as they only let a few shoppers in at a time. There are a few other perfumerie shops, but what I could tell the option was to mix out of 10 or so already premade scents and nothing too “custom” other than your choice out of the 10, for around $200, so we passed. If I get the chance to go back, I would love to do a bit more research and find a truly custom process and maybe budget a bit more money to go through with this Parisian souvenir.
CAFÉS!
Only one of the most important parts of Paris! Our first day we visited the famous Café Carette at the Place de Trocadéro (super close to the Eiffel Tower). Carette doesn’t take reservations, so we did have to wait in line for 10-15 minutes, but the line went super fast. They definitely fit as many people as they can inside, as we felt slightly on top of others, but insanely worth the wait and the packed vibe. The hot chocolate and whipped cream — insane. We got a crepe and a baguette sandwich, I find myself still thinking about the cheese on the sandwich of all things, the ingredients are all just amazing!
We ventured across the Seine while close by and visited another famous café, Café de Flore. Again, insane! The hot chocolate and whipped cream was so, so good. I had scrambled eggs and my mom had an omelette with toast and both were delicious. The presentation from the table mat of map of Paris to the little flags on the hot chocolate pitchers was so cute, even though our waiter slightly snapped at us when we moved things out of his perfect order he placed everything in, haha. Cafe du Flore was so worth it, if I were to get to go to Paris again every day would involve a cafe visit.
DINNER SPOTS!
If you read further up above, we didn’t make many dinner reservations! We wanted to be nimble with our plans as we had so much to do and little days there. Two of our dinner spots happened to be close to our hotel we happened to find just by walking around and made mental notes to check back. If you happen to be in the area, I 100% recommend these spots as they were super cute, super delicious, and fair priced.
Le Wagon Bleu was our dinner spot night number one, after we accidentally took a 3 hour nap with our jet lag. We got spritzes to drink and split a few appetizer dishes for a charcuterie type dinner.
Marcella was one we kept walking by and I kept making note of how cute it was. It was just as good as it looked. We had aeperol spritzes to drink and charcuterie and pesto pasta, all amazing.
Lastly, I had seen an affordable dinner option with Eiffel Tower views on TikTok — le New York Brasserie. Good food, good drinks, not bad prices and all for street side perfect view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower. Crazy to me that not more restaurants aren’t lined up next to this place to market off the great night time view as le New York was standing all by itself on the street, but, with no wait time it was a must to watch the tower sparkle.
All in all, Paris was a dream! My biggest suggestions would be to schedule 4 full days, as the first day flying in you will be jet lagged, enjoy as many croissants and cafes as you can, shop a little, and soak it all in— rain or shine!
