Days 1-2: Paris
After a five-hour delay, we finally arrived in Paris, France at around noon (originally scheduled to land around 7:30 am). Due to jet-lag and exhaustion, we didn’t attempt to try to figure out the rail system to our hotel (although, looking back, this is something I could have easily done ahead of time to save time and money, so now maybe you can learn from my mistake!) Our hotel was only about 30 feet from a metro stop and would have been very accessible from the airport.
Tired but happy at our first lunch spot, Cafe Belloy in Paris. So good we ate there twice!
We stayed at the Raphael Hotel, near the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées. Having been to Paris once before in 2006 and staying in an area not nearly as convenient, I wanted to make sure that this time we were close to all of the activities that we wanted to do in the capital city.
Little pastries left in our room upon checking in at The Raphael Hotel in Paris, France. They did not come with a bite taken out of them - that was all Eddie!
There is a TON to do in Paris. My husband, Eddie, used AI to help plan some of our activities. I would encourage you to do the same or otherwise look up the activities you want to do in advance so that you can plan out your time and certain activities do sell out in advance.
View of the unmistakable Arc de Triomphe from the Champs-Élysées.
That being said, also leave room for the unexpected!
As I mentioned in Part 1, we wish that we would have stayed for three nights instead of two. The museums in Paris require tickets booked in advance with arrival at designated times.
If you miss your thirty-minute window, you forfeit your ticket. There are no special exemptions for flight delays, etc. Believe me, I tried!
Because our flight was five hours delayed, we had to forfeit our tickets to the Palace of Versailles, the destination that was #1 on our list of things to see and do in Paris on this trip. We had planned and purchased entrance passes with a time window of 10:30-11 am. By the time we got to the hotel, it was already 1:00-1:30 pm.
We also had purchased tickets in advance to visit the Musée d'Orsay on Day 2, but because The Palace of Versailles was our first choice, we had to make a decision...
and The Palace won!
In front of the entrance to The Palace of Versailles. The Palace is made up of multiple buildings and the largest gardens I've ever seen in my life.
All other ticket times were sold out for both museums. When we inquired with the concierge at the hotel as to if he knew if there was another easy way to use the paid-for tickets, he confirmed that it was not possible and unfortunately, he could not do anything for us.
However, that’s when he suggested the best idea!
He said that there was an option for a private tour the following morning (Day 2). In retrospect, I’m really glad that it worked out the way it did.
The artwork adorning the ceilings of The Palace of Versailles consists of a vast and sprawling collection of Renaissance art scenes.
Our tour guide was excellent and we learned a lot - way more than we would have just wandering the palace ourselves. Audio guide tours for The Palace of Versailles are available for an additional fee to rent. However, some ticket options or packages might include the audio guide as part of the price. It's best to check the official Palace of Versailles website for the most up-to-date information and call your hotel concierge for private tour information. I highly recommend it and the price was not that much more than the regular entrance fee, relatively speaking.
We ended up not being able to go to the second museum we wanted to visit, but it gave us an excuse to go back again in the future!
Outside of the actual palace, the gardens are sprawling and spectacular. It was hands down the largest and most beautiful garden exhibit I've ever seen. We had scheduled our guided tour at 9 am and we didn't leave the gardens until close to 2 pm! There was so much to see, we could have even stayed longer.
There are areas where you can picnic, and there are also at least two full-service restaurants and a few food and drink carts within the gardens to grab and go. There is one restaurant in the palace that is open for sit-down or takeaway. We grabbed some waters, a coffee and a snack there before heading out to the gardens to explore for hours!!!
The view from above through the palace gardens - the biggest and most beautiful garden I've ever seen. This is only a fraction of it!
We took a taxi cab to the Palace of Versailles but we took the subway back and it was relatively easy.
Plan at least three hours here if doing a guided tour of the palace. The guided tour lasts approximately 90 minutes and then that leaves you another 90 minutes to explore the gardens, but I really think you'll want more!
Dining
The first night, we had dinner plans with my husband’s client who himself is a local Parisian!
We ate at Le Bistro de Paris.
Now, before I go any further regarding food, know a few things. I’m not a food critic. However, I do consider myself a foodie with a diverse and adventurous palate and growing up in one of the food capitals of the world, I've tried many different restaurants and many different cuisines.
That being said, in my experience, the food is just on another level in Europe. The freshness tastes like it was just picked, washed, and served to you. The Europeans use their herbs liberally, and I am so here for it! I didn’t have a bad meal on this trip, and my experience at each restaurant was on a scale of toe-curling pleasure.
Le Bistro de Paris was no less. The food was delicious, plentiful, and the restaurant itself, was a local gem. The service was fantastic, and we enjoyed all of France’s delicacies - escargot, freshly baked bread, roasted bone marrow, deviled eggs, steak with fries, and dessert!
Our delicately prepared escargots were perfectly cooked at Le Bistrot de Paris. A true representation of French cuisine at its finest!
Traveler Tip 1:
It is difficult to hail a cab off the street like in NYC. (Believe me, we tried for a good fifteen minutes!) Plan to have the restaurant or concierge call one for you at the end of your meal or take public transport.
Traveler Tip 2:
As two street-savvy New Jerseyans, we had frequented the streets of New York City our whole lives. Never had we had an issue with scammers there as we thought we knew all the tricks. We never thought we get scammed in Paris, but we did.
We made the mistake of NOT calling for a taxi cab at the restaurant and just assumed we'd be able to flag one down on the street after leaving the restaurant for, what we thought would be a quick 10 minute after dinner stroll. Thirty minutes later, with my feet aching from wearing non-appropriate-for-distance-walking-shoes and the jet-lag hitting hard, we lost our street-savviness. In desperation, we flagged down a bike taxi operator and asked him, "How much?"
He replied quickly "25 euros" and flashed a sign that went in and out of view so quickly my eyes could barely read it. We figured, OK, that isn't terrible. It cost us 25 euros to get to the restaurant in a taxi. We had already been headed back in the direction of our hotel on foot, so we had to have made some progress, right???
Eddie told him our hotel address. The driver appeared to make a mental note of it, nodded and we jumped in. With the wind in our hair and the driver blasting Push It by Salt-N-Pepa, we enjoyed the relief of being off of our feet, giddy, tired and slightly delirious.
A few minutes later, our driver makes an odd U-turn in the middle of a busy intersection and states, matter of factly, "two minutes away.” Confused and disoriented, we asked, "what's two minutes away? Our hotel?" The driver pointed away from the intersection and bike taxi and again said, "two minutes away." Resigned to assuming our understanding was correct due to the language barrier and that we just needed to walk another two minutes to our hotel, we got out of the white pleather-tufted bike carriage.
As we went to pay for the ride we asked, “can you break a fifty (euros)? Because we only have fifty.” The driver's responded, "yes". As Eddie hands him the fifty euro bill, the driver shakes his head and says “No, 25 each!” and whips out yet another sign that he hadn't shown us earlier that does indeed say 25 euros each.
After designingly handing over the 50, we checked Google Maps to see which way we needed to walk the "2 minutes". Turn out, The two-minute walk was actually a 20 minute walk nearly all incline.
Was it a huge amount of money to be taken for? No. We looked at it like a lesson we had to learn. Thankful this was our only one on the trip!
From that night on, we planned how would return in the evenings in advance whether that was public or private transport. And...
Traveler Tip 3:
Just wear the sneakers.
I saw this everywhere throughout the trip and very quickly I embraced the functionality of wearing dresses with sneakers. Or simply carry a bag large enough to have a pair of walking shoes and a pair of dressier shoes. I started doing this night 2!
Us in front of Le Gabriel in Paris, a Michelin-star traditional French restaurant featuring a multi-course tasting menu. You would never know I had my size 10 Oofos flip-flops in my LV bag!
Upon check-in at the hotel, we ended up having a late lunch at an adorable bistro close to the hotel (late for us Americans, that is). I fell in love with the Salad Niçoise and ordered it several times over the course of our entire trip. I ended the meal with a café latte, of course!
Salad Niçoise at Café Belloy in Paris.
The second night, we had our first of the two multi-course dining experiences during the entire trip. We had dinner at the Le Gabriel, which I heard from the concierge was very difficult to get a reservation for.
If you want to make sure you get into a certain restaurant, reserve early!
Of the 4 reservations I made in advance, I made them all 6 weeks in advance. Le Gabriel I was originally waitlisted for but ultimately was able to get a reservation.
Amuse-Bouche from Le Gabriel 's tasting menu.
We had a choice between the 9 course or the 7 course dining experience. We chose the 9 course - when in Paris!
Le Gabriel definitely lived up to it's Michelin rating. The service was, in itself, amazing. The food was creative and a feast for the eyes as much as our palates. However, it was a very serious ambiance and Eddie and I ended up laughing a ton and lightening up the mood.
We had a wonderful time.
Menu featuring our nine-course tasting experience.
It is important to be aware that these fine dining experiences can be time-consuming, often lasting for three hours or more. Our dining experience at Le Gabriel extended to nearly four hours! Just plan accordingly if you want to do anything afterwards. This was our last stop for the evening and we savoured all 4 hours of it!
As we got to bed a little later than expected, we got a late start the next day ("late" to my early bird standards). We headed out at 9 am to grab a metro ride to catch the 10:30 am high speed train to Geneva.
Things we would have done if I had more time...
As I mentioned during Part 1, I wish we had an extra 24 hours in Paris. If we did, we would have loved to gone to Musée d'Orsay on Day 2 as originally planned and, of course, the iconic Louis Vuitton flagship store!
Having been to Paris before in 2006, we had already seen the Eiffel Tower and the famous Louvre Museum, otherwise, those would be on our go-to list as well!
Stay tuned for Part 3 where we hit the road on day 3 for Geneva and check out my IG account for more photos and videos of the trip!
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