Six Days in Paris (2024)
Bonjour! We spent just under 6 days in Paris in February 2024, taking the kids and my sister for their first time, along with my 79 year-old mother (who was last there in 1965!). Despite the fact that this is my 7th time in Paris, our focus here was many of the touristy classics every first timer should see.
Day 1: Flew in to Paris
Arrival: While I loathe red-eyes because I’m terrible at sleeping on planes, on our last few vacations we’ve budgeted for a luxurious “extra,” that is booking our hotel or apartment one night early so we have a place to crash when we stumble off the plane. [We stayed here, and it was exactly as roomy and nice as pictured.]
However, we were actually hungry for breakfast and went to a cafe [Brasserie Vaudeville] in the neighborhood, chosen simply because it was open and close. A formule breakfast had freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate, some baguette with butter and jam, a chocolate croissant, plus some yogurt and muesli and we thought we’d died and gone to heaven. It was, of course, way too much food but it was so much fun to start the trip with a taste of some classics. Then, we napped. [Always set an alarm for 2 or so hours later max, or you will lose your first day and make the time adjustment much more difficult.]
Bateaux Mouches Seine River “Cruise” I highly recommend an activity like this for the first groggy evening; you get to see a lot and acclimate to the sights around you but there’s no real mental or physical exertion involved. I did a ridiculous amount of research into boat options from different companies (with wine! or dinner! a musician?) and went, as I always do, with the simplest and least expensive. While you don’t need to book tickets in advance, I did. The tickets are good for two years, aren’t timed, and boats run all day. The ride is 70 minutes and we aimed for one with a sunset near the end, when the Eiffel Tower lights up. [There are 5-minute light shows every hour, on the hour, after sunset so we didn’t see that but you can adjust your schedule later if that’s what you want to see, but then it might be too dark to see much otherwise.]
Chez Omar: We hadn’t been since 2008, so this was long overdue. This is a classic Algerian and French brasserie with couscous and more. The owner, Omar Guerda, is still there most nights and a delight to chat with. It opened in the 70s and was long a destination for artists and fashionable types. They don’t take reservations (but they now take credit card!) so go early. It totally hit the spot. Always ask for the baklava for dessert; it comes out on a platter and you pick the kind you want.
Day 2:
Alex and I zipped out to Du Pain des Ideas for croissants (we also went in 2019, but the line was much shorter) and picked up fruit from a stand and brought it back to the zombies in our apartment.
Centre Pompidou: I bought tickets in advance which saved us a long wait in line. This was a Monday and while most museums (and many bakeries) are closed Mondays, CP is not. We enjoyed it for a couple hours before seeking lunch nearby. Note: Centre Pompidou will be closing in the summer of 2025 for a 5-year renovation. Go now!
L’as du Falafel: I’m sorry but everyone on earth will tell you to get falafel here and I’ve now been twice and have been underwhelmed and while this is, of course, completely subjective — my sister loved it — it’s just not what I want in falafel. [This, however, is.]
Maison Aleph is nearby and we picked up a few treats to eat later and each of them was unbelievably good and I will never stop dreaming about the deep crunch of each filo tart shell and their housemade rochers (which are Ferrero Rocher-like but even better). I will be going back every trip from now on.
We walked over to Notre Dame, which hasn’t reopened yet after the devastating fire but there are still steps for viewing it, so you don’t need to skip it entirely. From here you can walk around the Île de la Cité, Île Saint-Louis, and more.
We went to Aux Bons Crus for a classic bistro dinner where my mother could get the escargot she’d been asking for and we had a most spectacular crème brûlée for dessert.
Day 3
We tried to go to Aurélie Ribay Boulangère for croissants for breakfast because Casey Elsass told me those were his favorites, but they were closed for vacation. We went to Leonie Bakery instead and they were excellent. We’d seriously overslept and had only a little time before a 12pm lunch reservation.
Pink Mamma, with breezy Italian dishes in a gorgeous space — ask for a table on the top floor — was excellent. Definitely reserve in advance or be prepared to wait on quite a line that had formed by the time we’d left.
We walked around the front of the Louvre and then back again by the Seine before going to the Musée d’Orsay, which I’d just bought tickets for the night before. There is currently a Van Gogh exhibit and I’ve never seen it so mobbed, making it hard to take in the art without someone walking in front of you. If you’re there for something similarly popular, I’d go at the earliest hour instead.
After some more walking around, we grabbed dinner for the kids and grandma and headed out to meet the one and only David Lebovitz at Marie Celeste, a cocktail bar with very famous deviled eggs you shouldn’t miss. We had dinner after at a new-to-me Lebanese restaurant Kubri, and it was fantastic, easily our favorite meal of the trip. Do not miss it.
Day 4
This was supposed to be Eiffel Tower Day and we were all so excited. I’d scored (check early, earlier than you think you’ll need to) sunset elevator tickets to the top and had planned our afternoon around it — a carousel ride, hot chocolate from Carette (who could resist!), and more. But, there was a strike and it was closed; our tickets refunded the next day. Back to the drawing board!
Plan B was to go to Musée des Arts Forains, which had had lots of availability two days earlier but none that day. Plan C was the Sainte-Chapelle windows, but these tickets, which had also been available days earlier, were also sold out. Grumpy!
We had brunch/lunch at 21 Martorell Crêperie, which I’d spotted across the street from Pink Mamma the day before and had a hunch we’d love it. (We did.) These were perfectly sized so you could enjoy a savory galette for lunch (ham, cheese, and egg, please) and a sweet crêpe (butter and sugar for me, forever) for dessert, plus a glass of apple cider. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
[By the way, this meal (or another crêperie) would actually be my recommendation for your first full day in town. Since it feels kind of brunchy, it’s perfect for a day you’ll probably not get out of bed early enough to require breakfast and lunch.]
After that, we walked around Luxembourg Gardens and spotted the mini Statue of Liberty, rode the very old carousel, and paid for the kids to use the playground in the cold rain (fortunately there’s a covered bench for parents). From there, we wandered over to Marie Daâge so I could gaze at the hand-painted porcelain dishes I’ll buy one day, then Franck Kestener, trying some macaron and picking up some “tablet” chocolate bars for gifts.
We were wildly indecisive about dinner, nixing our first plan to go to Pompette (didn’t seem kid-friendly) and then sending Alex on a wild goose chase to secure a Chez Janou reservation (they only take them in person, but were all booked up regardless; we first went here on our 2008 trip). We ended up at a brasserie in the neighborhood (Sacré Frenchy!) and had onion soup and wine and everyone was happy.
Day 5
Zipped out with the kids to the charming Rue Montorgueil, where we sat down for a proper coffee and orange juice and hot chocolate for the kids. How I love, love, love that in Paris (and also when we’ve been in Spain and Italy) that almost every place has machines for freshly-squeezed orange juice and it’s relatively inexpensive.
We picked up croissants from Stohrer, the oldest bakery in Paris, but kicked ourselves for forgetting to also get baba au rhum, which was invented there. The croissants are a dream; we also brought back kouign-amann for the family.
Then we did a little shopping. Went to G. Detou, a small, recently renovated shop of well-chosen French ingredients, and picked up some salted butter caramels (great for gifts), a jar of praline, some Dijon I hadn’t seen before and a bag of inexpensive fleur de sel. They have excellent vanilla beans there, too should you need. E. Dehillerin is nearby and sells cookware, but I’d just spent an hour there in 2023, gazing at everything, so I skipped it this time.
La Trésorerie is a fun place to shop for tableware, and I bought a new serving plate and napkin rings. Next time, I’ll get to Jamini across the street too, but my family was getting impatient. By the way, in case the shopping has made you hungry, there’s a little cafe on the street called Georgia that I know nothing about aside from the fact that it looked cute and seemed to be well-reviewed.
We, however, got lunch from the walk-up window (so rare in Paris) of Clark’s Hot Dogs, because I’d been influenced by this article, and indeed, they were excellent hot dogs. Unfortunately, we had to eat them hovered under awnings in the sheeting rain, as there’s nowhere to sit down. From here, we all split off.
My husband and son went to the Arc de Triomphe and to the Eiffel Tower to take pictures, as it would be tragic to miss. My mother and I decided to try our luck to see Sainte-Chapelle windows despite having read conflicting information that you did/did not need tickets in advance (which were sold out) but that they were/were not free (ours were not) — i.e. please confirm for yourself, as I was and remain confused — but then snuck onto a line and got in and the windows were absolutely stunning and I’m so glad we got to see them. I hear if you ever get a chance to see a concert here, you should not miss it.
We had one final bistro dinner, this time at Le Bon Georges, and had deviled egg-like oeufs mayonnaise (i.e. not traditional but excellent), a great salad, steak, frites, and a chocolate mousse the whole table shares, ooh la la.
Day 6
We had just a few hours in the morning to do some final things. I went to a pharmacy to get skincare products. I picked up some good butter to bring home. We grabbed croissants and a couple tarts from Le Pain Retrouvé we enjoyed that night back in NYC. And then I frenetically packed and we headed home, just as the sun came out.
A few etceteras:
- More restaurants: The restaurants that we intend to get to each time we go to Paris but never do for one reason or another: Clamato, Septime, Mokonuts, Verjus, La Buvette, Avant Comptoir de la Mer, Au Passage, and Le Petit Pontoise, Thus, this is not a recommendation per se, as I cannot vet where I haven’t been, but definitely worth looking into as they’re quite beloved.
- More museums and places to see: Again, we did what made sense to our group in the time we had, but these places were also at the top of my interest list: Petite Palais (influenced!), Belvédère de Belleville, Musée des Arts Forains, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Bourse de Commerce, Musée Rodin, Musée Marmottan Monet (if you’ve got a Monet lover in your group), Musée de l’Orangerie, and of course, the Louvre, but I went in high school and will save a return for a longer trip or when my kids have longer attention spans, but nevertheless, you will find “How To See The Louvre in Under 3 Hours” in my search history as I did consider it!
- A bus and subway thing: Despite being a seasoned, multi-decade NYC subway rider, I routinely get felled by the subways in other cities. These days, I almost never use a subway card in NYC, just contactless payment at the turnstiles, and I can pay for as many people as I need to at once. Paris doesn’t have contactless payment, so we started with a 10-ride card, only to learn that you cannot use it for more than one ride in a certain period of time (which honestly makes no sense, who cares if you use them one or a few at a time, but I’m just a passenger on this ship!). Which is to say, unless you want to get an unlimited card per person, I’d just buy a stack of individual rides and get more as needed. You also use the tickets on buses. Buses were a fun way for us to get around as tourists because we could see more of the city. As we do at home, we just used Google Maps to tell us where to pick up which buses and trains and where they went.
- A taxi thing: As I mentioned, we were traveling as a group of six, one of us is nearly 80 years old, and it rained every day, so we used taxis here and there. We were delighted to find the Uber van option to have exactly six cozy seats, often came fairly fast (note: we were there in the off-season), and the price was often less than $20. I wanted to mention this in case you’re in a similar situation.
48 Hours in Paris (2023)
I spent literally 48 hours in Paris last fall, and technically one of those days outside of Paris as part of a cool project I’ll get to tell you about soon. Briefly, here are the places I went while running around in the rain:
Breizh Café
E. Dehillerin
Merci — don’t miss it
Brasserie Thoumieux (I missed this dinner but the group gushed about it; we’d stayed at the cute hotel upstairs)
A Long Weekend in Paris (2019)
My husband surprised me with a long weekend in Paris for my birthday in June 2019 and I realize I never shared with you where we went and what we did. We were kid-free and the weather was warm so we walked and pastry-ed and walked some more!
Day 1
Frenchie To Go: It has since closed but we did enjoy the Rueben and a beer shortly after getting off the plane.
Du Pain et des Idées: Be warned: This was a very pastry and croissant-themed trip and these were the first we tried. The chocolatine and raspberry escargot were excellent. They’re more famous for their pistachio escargot, but after trying it in 2024, I still choose the raspberry first.
Musée Chasse et Nature: This museum of hunting and nature is quirky and small, full of taxidermy and other whimsy.
Poulette for dinner where we had a perfect French 75, a rhubarb tart I still think about, and some other updated bistro classics.
Eiffel Tower: We always visit, as this is where we got engaged in 2004, but only at night when the lights are twinkly.
Day 2
Blé Sucré: Our first two croissants of the day were excellent, but I still cannot stop thinking about the mega-madeleines we didn’t try. Are they good or are they Instagram food? I’ll find out one day!
Coulée Verte René-Dumont: This is Paris’s version of the High Line — elevated linear park built on top of obsolete railway infrastructure — and it’s wonderful on a nice day.
Atelier des Lumières: Yes, I know Van Gogh shows are everywhere these days, but this was new at the time and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
L’as du Falafel: See the 2024 trip for my opinion.
Boulangerie Utopie: Our “afternoon snack” was a pain au chocolate and a tarte au citron, both excellent.
Combat: We hung out with the one and only David Lebovitz who took us to this bar on a hot evening where they were serving slushie gin-and-tonics I’ve dreamed about since. It’s also where I was introduced to Suze and tonics.
La Cave de Belleville: We had dinner at this wine bar with tables among the crates. It was excellent.
Marie Celeste We had a nightcap at this cocktail bar and also tried their deviled eggs for the first time. So good!
P.S. This was the summer equinox and the sun set so delightfully late in Paris!
Day 3
Tuileries Gardens: Started our day with a walk in the gardens.
Des Gâteaux et du Pain: A pain au chocolate, of course.
Le Babylone: There are a million places to get an omelet for lunch in Paris, but this was the one closest to us when the craving struck and it totally hit the spot.
Jacques Genin: A very good chocolate shop that also has excellent caramels and (my favorite) pâtes de fruits. We brought some back with us but they didn’t travel as well as I’d hoped they would; I blame the summer weather.
Poilâne: I can never resist going, or bringing home a bag of the Punitions for the kids and friends.
Pierre Hermé: I’m not hugely into macarons, but I do like the innovative flavors here, so we swung by for a snack. They’re very good!
Les Bouquinistes de la Seine: Always check out the booksellers on a nice day. My next two trips to Paris were on rainy, cold days and the experience is just not the same.
Stohrer: We had an excellent Pains aux raisins, which could turn you, too, into someone who likes raisins in their baked goods.
Angelina Paris: Got some tinned cookies for the kids, although I’d say they were fairly unspecial, despite the cute packaging. [These are also readily available in NYC these days.]
Ellsworth: For dinner on our last night.
Danico: A seemingly random cocktail bar we stumbled into for a nightcap but it was actually really cute.
Day 4
Holybelly: We had an Australian breakfast/brunch on our last morning and it was excellent and hit the spot. Go early or you’ll have a very long wait.
The French Bastards: Our last pastry run of the trip… or so we thought!
Marché Richard Lenoir: One of the biggest markets in Paris, it’s open Sunday and Thursday each week and it’s a delight to walk (and eat) your way through. I try to go every time.
Maison Landemaine: I bet you didn’t think we could fit in yet one more pastry run in 3.5 days, but we did. I am still obsessed with their focaccias and wish I’d tried more. We picked up ham and cheese sandwiches for the plane as well and headed back home to NYC, well-buttered and happy.