My European travels can be summed up in two distinct phases: 1) my late twenties / early thirties where I would head to a new city in a new country with little to no plans and see what nonsense and fun we could find and 2) travels with the Breuer Family where we pick a town off the beaten path to stay for a week and ask the locals what we should do or see. The idea of planning ahead for more than just the basics is not something on my radar.
Apparently, this might not be the normal approach to a European vacation as I found out while coordinating our Paris trip for May. And so began the healthy balance between 1) my fellow travelers’ desires to do and see everything, eat at the trendy, Instagram-worthy restaurants, and drink at the bars designed for fancy drinks and 2) my desire to just see where the days took us without overthinking or over planning it. I suppose my laissez faire attitude could also be because I had already been to Paris twice.
In the end, we did strike the right balance between beautiful photos, wonderful meals and seeing the city highlights and having stories that will stick with me long after the memory of the great food and floral backdrops fade. Let’s compare:
Carefully curated meals: We had a very robust “must do / must see / must eat” list comprised of: Instagram feeds, friend of friend recommendations and relatives who lived part time in Paris. At the top of the list was Pink Mamma, a great Italian restaurant that saves a few tables for those unable to get a reservation but willing to line up, which apparently we were. We got there 40 minutes before they opened for Mother’s Day lunch and were able to snag a table shortly after opening. While I normally refuse to wait in a line for food, it pains me to say that this one was worth it. Also included as an honorable mention on a few lists was Cafe Cassette in St. Germaine which is where we ended up for brunch Saturday morning. The food was good but what really stood out were the walls covered in flowers providing the perfect selfie backdrops.
Carefully curated drinks: The recommendation list also included spots to grab drinks which included Gatsby’s (just around the corner from our house) and Maggie’s Rooftop, a rooftop bar in Hotel Rochechouart. We checked out Gatsby’s on our last night with the full group, getting completely drunk on beautifully crafted cocktails (so drunk that some in the group may have peed in an alley and I might have stopped at a kebab shop to buy a kebab, pizza and 3 sides of fries to share back at our apartment). And then the following night, Ange, Anj and I enjoyed drinks and a light dinner at Maggie’s in the Hotel Rochechouart which also happened to be where we were staying after we checked out of the apartment that morning. Once again, a few too many cocktails and I managed to take an uber the following morning at 3:15am to the wrong airport (CDG) for my 6am flight. Don’t worry, a second uber ride got me to the correct airport (ORY) just in time! I suppose even with the fancy drinks, we still aren’t fancy.
Willfully clueless happy hour: We might not be fancy, but we aren’t trashy either. On our day of shopping on Monday, one of us needed to pee (and it was too light outside for the alleyway) so we found a decent looking bar to grab a drink and use the facilities. We were on a side street with six bars to choose from… we thought we chose well? While sitting outside, we were treated to a homeless woman getting completely naked to get changed in the street and I had my first encounter with soap on a stick in the bathroom (I will let the photo speak for itself on the comedic value). We also were overcharged for terrible drinks. Yes, this makes for a good story, but there is a lesson in here somewhere.
Carefully curated experiences: One of the requests from the group was to take a sunset boat cruise along the Seine. So we hired our own boat, packed our own snacks and drinks and set off for an evening on the water. This one was actually totally worth it for those who haven’t done it. Would I do it again? probably not, but definitely worth doing once.
Willfully clueless shopping: I do love a good flea market and Paris happens to have one of the top 10 flea markets in the world (Saint Ouen flea market), at least according to my National Geographic 1,000 Perfect Weekends Book (okay I might have done a little research but clearly not a lot). Not sure what this would entail and concerned that overpromising a flea market experience was bound to backfire I told the group we didn’t have to do it. But Ange and Anj were willing to humor me on Monday so we grabbed an uber for the 15 minute ride out of the Paris circle and were dropped off under a freeway and next to a homeless camp. Anj was immediately worried about her safety and I was starting to second guess my decision to bring these two along, but we got out of the car and started walking. It took a few blocks, but we eased into the experience, first at a used record stall (where Anj looked for a few records), then an antique furniture stall (where I realized this was the last place Ange, with her anti-clutter aesthetics, would like to be) before finding our nirvana: Chez Sarah. We were walking through a covered alley and kept noticing beautiful designer dresses in the windows of a long narrow shop. We popped inside and were immediately surrounded by Chanel, Dior, Celine. It was so fancy we were asked to put on white gloves before touching anything. We joked that if any of us ever won the lotto we wouldn’t change our lifestyle but we would go back to this shop and each buy an outfit for a night out on the town, Ange chose this one. In the end, I bought a vintage Chanel scarf… it was on my wishlist of things to buy so fair game.
Carefully curated sights: There was of course a request to check out the Louvre. And once again, we did not go inside. We did take a few photos outside of the pyramid and that seemed like enough.
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| Clearly not the Louvre, but one of the many sites we saw |
Willfully clueless spontaneity: After the Louvre we walked through the gardens to grab a drink. As we were finishing up our limoncello spritzers, the wind picked up and you could tell the weather was turning and rain was coming. The entire garden cleared out in a matter of minutes and within a block of leaving the greenery behind I told the girls we had about 10 minutes before the storm hit. We found a restaurant in 5 minutes and were seated just before the heavens opened. We made the best of lockdown with martinis and oysters and the rain eased up just as we were paying the bill. I love the dry summers of California but do sometimes miss a heavy, afternoon summer storm you can only experience in Europe.
Carefully curated traveling: This one is on me. I love the challenge of making my flights enjoyable and this time I really went for it: I packed snack boxes filled with chocolate covered almonds, wasabi peas, crackers and sweets and pre-mixed vermouth with olives to make martinis on the flight.
Willfully chaotic: Just plain overpacking. My rules of traveling with only a carry-on and wearing everything I packed went out the window once I heard others were checking a bag. I did refuse the largest suitcase we had at home but definitely packed more on this five day trip than I did for my three week vacation to Africa with my mom.
Carefully curated wandering: On our last day, we started the morning at the flea market and then made our way to the soccer shop with plans to wander the surrounding neighborhood to check out a new spot. In our wandering we discovered the Centre Pompidou and crossed the bridge to see the scaffolding outside of Notre Dame. We also happened to find ourselves in the vicinity of a highly recommended ice cream shop, Rey’s. I was skeptical, I mean how good can ice cream really be, but this one was good. The flavor combos were very unique and all really delicious.
Willfully clueless exploring: From the ice cream shop we should have continued walking north and we would have found ourselves in the fancy shopping part of the Le Marsais neighborhood. It would have been a great way to end the trip and a spot we would have really liked. Instead we found ourselves back in the other part of Le Marsais (aka home of the naked homeless lady) but also where we stumbled upon a cute record shop and I was able to buy Taylor’s newest album. Anj even grabbed their business card for me so I could tape it to the inside cover and always remember where, when and why I bought it. It is these types of memories I will never find in a guide book and why I try to make time for a little bit of unknowns in my travels.
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