winter in paris: day one

This past week, I visited Paris with my friend Alyssa. I’ve been to Paris in the spring, summer and fall, all of which were wonderful, so I was a bit hesitant about going in the winter because I didn’t want it to taint my perfect view of Paris. But I can honestly say, thru every season, Paris is always a good idea! It was so beautiful, abet a bit cold, but I was so busy falling in love with Paris again, I didn’t really notice, which is saying a lot for this Californian whose always cold. I took sooo many photos so I’m going to split it up into three days. My trip was only supposed to be two days but because of fun stuff like bad weather and canceled flights, I got a wonderful surprise third day as well!

Our first day in Paris, we got a late start but we eventually made it over to the Eiffel Tower. Under the Eiffel Tower was blocked off and there were fences everywhere. On top of that, there was definitely a down vibe everywhere we went. It put me a bit on edge to be honest but I later learned Johnny Hallyday, a legendary French rockstar, had died and there was a memorial concert and casket processional around Paris, the closures and lingering sadness made more sense. After a lovely meal of Beef Bourgeon (fyi for those who have followed me for a while, I eat meat now because I was found to be very iron deficient and my body doesn’t like iron pills), we went to Laduree and Pierre Herme and did a mini macaron sampling like I posted about a few years back when I was in Paris last. Pierre Herme is still my absolute favorite and I found out, after we bought them from Publicis Drugstore, the world’s fanciest drugstore, that they opened a store on the Champs Elysée! I guess next time I’m in Paris, I’ll buy them from there. After our macaroon adventure, we walked around a lot and visited an adorable Christmas market near Les Halles. The Christmas market on the Champs Elysée is not happening this year because of high terror alerts (felt real good reading that…) but the Les Halles market was cute and intimate. After the Christmas market, we got reservations for Il Etait Un Square, which is known for its 5 star rating on Trip Advisor with 1,500 ratings, which is basically unheard of and amazing burgers! The burger truly was so yummy and I would highly recommend the restaurant, even though it’s a bit out of the way. We sat and chatted until the restaurant closed and eventually found our way home to rest up for an eventful day on Sunday. Stay tuned for my next blog about day two in Paris.