Bonjour! Freshly back from a quick trip to The City of Light… with a totally new perspective. I’ll be honest, I never desired to visit Paris. I’ve constantly been reminded of the stereotype that all Parisians are rude, by many people (& even Parisians themselves!). When Rob & I went to Belgium a couple years back, we did have a bit of trouble with the French-speaking citizens, as they seemed to dislike him for no apparent reason? Needless to say, I was a little weary.

A few weeks back, Nikki & some friends booked cheap flights from NYC to Paris, & I decided to meet them as a birthday treat to myself. While I can’t speak for all Parisians, the people we did encounter were your standard amount of friendly for city-dwellers. Being a former New Yorker, I know that we can also be rude at times (i.e. clipping someone’s shoulder on the street…) & each encounter needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Basically, this stereotype should not ever deter you from visiting!

The stereotype I can fully agree with, however, is that the food & wine were truly INCREDIBLE. Pretty much all we did was eat, drink wine & chat – literally the dream, girls’ trip. While I don’t properly know French, I did take 2 years of honours level in high school – big shoutout to Ms. Brennan for sticking with me on that. This weekend, I totally surprised myself with the ability to read some things! Thank G for Google Translate & iTranslate though, which I used for sentence creation & pronunciation help. DEFINITELY worth the download so you don’t embarrass yourself trying.

Friday night, we had dinner at Boutary Restaurant which was fancy, French & FABULOUS. Just the way us classy women wanted to spend our hard-earned Euros. To start, we shared Boutary’s own, specialty caviar served on a bed of creamy potatoes. I never thought I’d be into caviar, but, woah, now I get the hype. I then had the created-just-for-moi veggie main – chanterelle mushroom ravioli & we shared every dessert on the menu, along with lots of red wine. It was all so incredible that I forgot to take any photos, so you’ll have to take my word for the presentation value as well. Added bonus: The refreshing political, educational & feminist conversation that was flowing was just as captivating!

After dinner, we made our way to la tour Eiffel, as good tourists do! To be honest, it wasn’t really as impressive as I had imagined & people always remark about. (Disclaimer:  left my glasses at home by accident & it was raining, so who really knows…). It was a pretty, glittering monument & we got some lovely pictures of it. Obviously worth seeing, but I appreciated the general architecture of the city just as much – hello, creepy gargoyles of Notre Dame!

Our Airbnb was very centrally located, right by Porte Saint-Martin & in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, which had a very local feel. Traditional boulangeries & pâtisseries (like the one pictured just below) literally filled the air with sweet scents in the morning, & the attendants did not speak very much English. It was cool to get a feel for where Yo Pros like us might live if we were Parisians & every corner cafe looked inviting. The metro system there was pretty easy to manoeuvre, though walking was by far my favourite way to get around (as it is in any city), so not to miss anything.

Saturday morning, we headed to the 4th arrondissement to catch a glimpse of the Notre Dame, which was recently cleaned & looking gorg. It was grand & definitely brought forth Disney-movie memories! Across the Seine there was a cute, little, Christmas market where I got a glass of mulled wine, which was of course delicious & we browsed for souvenirs.

We took a walk to the 6th arrondissement of Paris to see Jardin du Luxembourg. The palace was certainly majestic, though I have been told it’s best to visit in the Spring/Summer when all the flowers have bloomed & the lawns are covered in people eating, drinking & lounging. I imagine you could spend a whole lot of time doing all of the above, especially in Paris in the sun!

We headed to Montmartre to begin a 3.5 hour Secret Food Tour – which was just as awesome as it sounds! With a small group of 9, it was super-intimate. Our guide was young, fun & knew the neighbourhood & its merchants extremely well. Montmartre is the area where a young & poor Picasso spent most of his early days in the studio – painting, drinking & conversing with other artists. Apparently, it was a pretty sketchy area until around 20 years ago, when the city set to clean it up & it became a haven for the arts, food, shopping & nightlife. It also became home to the Wall of Love (which was erected in 2000).

The food tour was very secretive – hence the name – & we weren’t sure of the format we’d be following. Basically, our guide explained that her goal was to teach us to shop like Parisians, so we could take the provided knowledge & never have to step foot in a supermarket there. We stopped by a fromagerie, boucher, boulangerie, chocolat & macaron shop, pâtisserie & crêperie. We sampled items from each locale & our guide grabbed loads more to take with us.

We followed her to a “secret location” which ended up being a beautifully set, wooden table, down spiral stairs, within the arched, brick, basement of a tiny storefront – very cool, cozy & unexpected (sorry for the adjective overload!). She took us through multiple courses of cheeses, meats, different types of baguettes paired with specially chosen wines & produce…we were in heaven! There were so many different tastes, types, scents, etc. etc. we were all SUPER stuffed after about 3 rounds + all the tasting we’d done along the way. Then came more & more & the pastries & a special, raspberry cake for Mel’s birthday – which we all somehow found some more room for. It really was THAT good.

We all stumbled out of there filled to the brim with amazing food, wine & fuzzy feelings. I’d totally recommend this tour to anyone thinking of visiting & will definitely be checking out one of their other neighbourhood food tours when me & Rob visit in the future.

Since Montemarte was really quirky, Christmas-y & cozy, we decided to spend the rest of the evening bar-hopping & revisiting some of the shops we’d stopped at on the tour for edible souvenirs.

After some shopping, more wine, & exploring, we climbed the hill to catch a view of the Eiffel Tour once more, as we heard it was a good one. The picture above doesn’t do it justice, as I was only working with my iPhone at the time. This trip actually inspired me to purchase a mirrorless camera: the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III to be exact. Stay tuned for MUCH better photos from here on out!

We decided we needed some more wine of course (when in Paris…) – so we settled on Restaurant Chez Eugene. I mean, look at those lights! There was live music playing in English & French & we got a cozy corner up on the top floor under the confetti-covered ceiling. We consumed a couple of bottles while sharing dog photos & work stories. It was all great fun & a fab way to round out our quick trip!

For me, the big lesson of this trip was to take country stereotypes with a grain of salt & definitely, definitely go to Paris… if only for the wine, cheese, bread & architecture. It’s 100% worth a side-eyed-look or two.

Au revoir!

xJess