Girls' Trip to Paris!

In early November, I took a trip to Paris with my friend Danielle! Our hubbies kindly agreed to watch our kiddos so we could enjoy a Friday to Sunday trip. We took the Eurostar from London and got into Paris early afternoon. We walked to our hotel in the 9th arrondissement from the Gare de Nord and got checked in. We then took the metro to the Catacombs of Paris. We were there a bit early, so walked down a couple of nearby streets and enjoyed some very rich hot chocolate at a cafe before walking through a cute market with cheese & wine stalls.

The catacombs were unlike anything I've ever seen before. The limestone tunnels that were quarried out under Paris were rebuilt into ossuaries for the bones as the cemeteries were full. The tunnels are open to visitors and are quite creepy. It is hard to maintain the reality that these are real bones of real people as you walk through the millions of stacked femurs and skulls. It was definitely worth seeing despite the creepy factor. 

That night, we went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel staff, which was just around the corner from our hotel. On our way to and from dinner, we saw a family huddled outside the hotel that appeared to be refugees. We are somewhat sheltered from the refugee crisis here in England as compared to mainland Europe, and it was heartbreaking to see the mother cuddled up with her child outside in the cold under blankets. We were worried for them, but when we went back downstairs to ask the hotel staff if there was a shelter nearby or someone we could call, the family had gone.

The next morning, we got up and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before heading out for our foodie tour of Paris! We were so excited for this, not only to get to try some great foods, but also to enjoy a unique experience that we definitely wouldn't have gotten to do with our kids in tow. We walked around our arrondissement before getting on the metro to head to the Latin Quarter for the tour. 

National Academy of Music

We met up with our tour guide, John Paul, outside of a metro stop in the Latin Quarter. We had to laugh as we found out that he is originally from Webster Groves, Missouri -- a neighborhood of St Louis! He had moved to France to live with his French wife about 8 years ago, and runs this company that we took the tour through. It was well-organized, and we enjoyed getting to know the other people on the tour with us (3 other men, all Americans as it turned out). 

Our first stop was a Basque restaurant, where we ate appetizers and enjoyed our first wine pairings. We had some fantastic bread, cheeses, calamari, and meats there while John Paul taught us about Basque food and culture. 

Restaurant's resident kitten

John Paul leading the tour group outside our first stop

Sights from our walk through the Latin Quarter

Macaron cart on the street

Our second stop was at a restaurant that was packed full for lunch with locals. The menu was full of unique meats -- hare, veal liver, wild boar, and more! I ended up ordering the wild boar and enjoyed it. Of course we enjoyed wine with the meal and other sides as well. 

John Paul settling the bill at the lunch restaurant

Finally, we went to a pastry shop for dessert. The one John Paul selected was called "Carl Marletti" after the pastry chef there. He has been chosen previously as having the best lemon tart (I'm sure it has a fancier French name that I can't recall) in Paris! We tried it and it was delicious, but the salted butter caramel eclair is what won Danielle and me over. It was AMAZING. We ended up purchasing another one to take with us and split later. I honestly would go back to Paris just to have one of those eclairs!! 

Some of the pastries on display at Carl Marietta. The line was out the door!

After that, the tour group split up and Danielle and I headed out to walk some of the major sites of Paris. It wasn't too cold or crowded in November -- not a bad time to visit Paris, really!

Notre Dame

Rear of Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower at night

After seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle, we were ready to find bathrooms so we ducked into a cafe nearby. Even though we weren't very hungry after the food tour, we had a light supper before heading back to the hotel. We managed to hold off for a bit before devouring our eclair :)

View of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel's top floor

The next morning, we had a few hours before we had to head to the train station to go home. We ended up walking down to the Ile de France to visit Sainte-Chappelle, which we were thrilled to find was open and free to visitors that day! It's one of my favorite places in Paris, with amazing blue stained glass dominating the small Gothic chapel. Afterwards, we walked back along the Seine to the Louvre and the Tuileries gardens before turning back for the hotel to check out. We then walked back to the train station -- we were glad we arrived when we did because the security checkpoints were very busy and we were rather close to missing our train (along with everyone else who couldn't get through security). But we made it and got back safely to England! Such a fun getaway!