Paris Day 2: Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Selfies, and L'avant Comptoir a 2nd time.

We woke up early and I got some pastries from "Bread and Roses." While I took 3 years of French in HS, I was completely inept at ordering in French at the cafes. But I always said a "Bonjour Madame/ Monsieur" when entering any business. - it's the basic good of being polite that opens doors and creates smiles.

We took the subway to Sacre Coeur and walked up many many stairs. The metro station near this Basilica is a shit show. I kept my purse very close to me.
It was swarming with tourists inside and out. We even walked around inside it which was nice and peaceful.

We re-created some before and after photos on the steps.

And one of me from 2002/2015 standing in a similar spot.

The area around Sacre Coeur reminded me of the market area in São Paulo- but just a little less crazy.

We walked all the way to the arc de Triomphe because it was a super nice day and we needed our quota of steps on Fitbit. Lol

We went to the top because I believe it has the best view in Paris- even better than the Eiffel tower.


We recreated a photo from when I was there in 2002. I am surprised I don't look all that different- minus the blonde hair. Large shiny sunglasses, check! Hair pulled back, check! Holding the gate with the Tower in the background, check!

I really love the view from here. There are almost 10 roads that all intersect at a roundabout that goes around the Arc. It's super fun to watch the traffic merging together.
Spiral staircase up and down.

We walked down the Champs Elysee and were very hungry so we went to cafe Paul. We had what seemed like a Croque Monsieur hot dog sandwich and a lemon tart. I also had an Orangina. Delicious.

We walked hand in hand all the way down the Champs to Place de la Concord and saw the Obelisk.

And the famous fountains.

And kept walking to the Jardin du Tuileries.

And eventually made our way to the Louvre.

And we took some selfies.

And more selfies on self timer.

Then we started walking back towards the hotel and crossed the bridge which has all the locks attached to it. Most of the segments were boarded up to prevent people from locking more locks to the locks on the bridge but there were some exposed parts.

We stopped by the famous Les Deux Maggots cafe for some rose wine. If this place was good enough for Hemingway, it was certainly good enough for us!

We got back to the hotel after a long day, cleaned up and headed back out for dinner.

I really loved just walking around Paris and seeing the narrow streets.


For dinner #2 we went back to L'Avant Comptoir. It was that good. This time we had salami and a nice chunk of stinky soft Camembert- the king of cheeses.

After dinner we walked around and I saw this street vendor. I'm no fan of chocolate, but I absolutely love sour gummies and gummy bears. I got 6 euros worth and we walked back to the hotel.


I really need to map out where we walked to see how far we went!

I love Paris.

Paris day 1. Cathedrals, Croque Monsieur, L'Avant Comptoir and La Tour Eiffel

Our flight from ORD-CDG got delayed almost 2 hours for no good reason but luckily we only arrived an hour late into Paris. We sat in the exit row near the window and it was the worst experience ever- we were freezing our asses off the entire flight! We made it a point for the return trip to not sit in that location again.

After 8 hours we saw the French countryside.

Since our flight landed at 8am, we couldn't check into our hotel, but we were able to leave our luggage behind and start exploring.


We walked through the quiet streets of Paris in the 6th arrondissement and saw "the Senat."

We then continued walking over to cathedral Sainte Chappelle because I knew L would love this church and its gorgeous stained glass windows.

After taking many photos, we continued walking around the left bank.

We stopped for some selfies on the river.

We walked past Notre Dame Cathedral and snapped a few photos. It was a complete zoo of tourists. There was also a very strong military police presence which (while they were there to protect us) made me feel a bit uneasy. A week prior French police arrested a guy who had planned to shoot up some churches-and was only caught because he had shot himself first by accident.
By now we were hungry so we found a local cafe to get some delicious lunch.

L got a ham and cheese sandwich and I got the obligatory "croque monsieur" and it was delicious. We also had a creme brûlée for desert while we were standing in the square.

Our first meal in Paris was perfect.

We keep walking around and saw the Pantheon.

In the early afternoon our room at the Hotel Apostrophe was ready and we checked in. Each room is decorated differently. It is in a quiet neighborhood away from the touristy and busy champs élysées. We took a quick nap and then it was time for dinner!

We walked through the Jardin du Luxemborg on our way to dinner. Google told us to and we didn't question it! The restaurant we were headed to made it onto both of our lists of "must eats" in Paris.

We went to L'avant Comptior for dinner in the 6th. It is a wine and tapas bar and has excellent food and a very relaxed atmosphere.

We ordered a buffalo mozzarella, cod fish croquettes, a Parmesan crumble and some cured ham with horseradish. Everything was out of this world delicious and fresh.

This place is tiny, and there are no seats. You stand at either the counter against the wall or the bar. The menu is on the ceiling. You brush shoulders with the people next to you. It is quite an experience.

After dinner and several glasses of wine, we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower.

By now it was after 8:30pm but still a little light out. (Sun doesn't set until after 9pm!) we were lucky to see the tower sparkle for 5 minutes at 9pm.

I was so happy to be in Paris with L. F#CK jet lag. We hit the ground running and were having an amazing first evening in the city of light.

After taking many photos and video of the Eiffel tower, we went to one of the top rated beer bars in Paris, La Fine Mousse. It was a nice chill no frills bar that had a great tap list- my only complaint was it had mostly Italian beers. I was hoping to try more French beer since we don't see any in the USA. After a couple of beers we took an uber back to our hotel. Pro tip: if you can't speak the language where you are, use uber so you can put the directions into the order so you can avoid trying to pronounce where you are going and consequently avoid have a super awkward exchange.

It was an amazing first day in Paris.

-Xaarlin