Picturesque Paris: Spring Break with the Johnsons- Part Two
- Katie Johnson
- Apr 14, 2024
- 11 min read
With a few very wet days in Spain behind us, it was finally time to jet off for Paris with Jennifer and Kevin!
April 1: TukTuk Tour, Food Tour & Arc de Triumph
I need to start with another early flight apology. Yes, I did it again. I booked us 6:30 am flights, meaning we were up and moving by 3:30 am... And this time I drug the in-laws into the early morning adventure too. I am sorry.
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport: Aéroport
But hey, they weren't complaining because after a short 2.5-hour flight, we landed at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport! By 10 am we were stuck in a train station because our stupid paper tickets demagnetized during the journey and left Kevin and I stuck behind the ticket barriers, while Bryan and Jennifer argued with a ticket teller. The lady waived them off saying she "didn't speak English," (in perfect English) but we were eventually let through the side gate to exit the train. Whew. Not the best start to our trip!
Hotel Au Pacific
We dropped our luggage at the hotel and then headed out to find a quick bite to eat before our first tour of the day!
Moisan- Fondary Bakery
Jennifer taught us right away that we were only to eat at boulangeries, AKA French bakeries, where they made fresh bread in-house every day! Our first boulangerie was the right way to start the trip: with a baguette and espresso shots!
Bryan and I ordered a quiche and later learned it was a salmon and broccoli quiche...so that quickly became Bryan's quiche since I'm not much for fish. But Jennifer and Kevin were kind enough to let me dig into their fresh baguette!
Then it was time for our TukTuk tour! Our guide picked us up from our hotel and spent 2 hours driving us all over the famous city seeing all the sights! We started with a drive-by of the original Moulin Rouge and the world's largest Louis Vitton store!
Eiffel Tower
Then we stopped by the one and only Eiffel Tower! Built for the 1889 World's Fair showcase in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is the iconic image of the city and definitely a breathtaking view in person!
Palais de Chaillot
Our guide did great by taking us to the Palais de Chaillot for photos of the Eiffel Tower. With the city slowly shutting down areas for the 2024 Olympics, our viewpoint was the perfect spot to avoid the massive crowds and still get great pictures! It may have drizzled while we were posing for photos, but we were happy to meet a fellow tourist to snap our group pic while avoiding all the people trying to sell mini Eiffel Tower statues, keychains, and magnets.
Arc de Triomphe
Our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe. Inspired by Rome's Arch of Constantine and Arch of Titus, which Bryan and I visited back with my parents in January, Napoleon wanted his own impressive Arch to display his military successes in Europe. I would add this arc would have met his expectation for impressiveness since he died before it was completed.
This won't be the only time we visit the Arc today; later this evening we will return to climb the Arc for a stunning view of the city at night!
Pont Alexandre III Bridge
With construction completed in 1900, Pont Alexandre III is widely considered the most ornate bridge in Paris. With Kevin and Bryan's interest in Russian history and politics, this was a cool conversation piece, and it reminded Bryan and I of the Charles Bridge in Prague.
Hôtel des Invalides
Originally built in the 1670s as a military hospital, Hôtel des Invalides is now home to numerous museums and monuments on French military history. This impressive gold-domed building still has a few buildings that serve their original purpose as a hospital and retirement home for French veterans. Most famously though, this complex is home to the tomb of Napoleon.
Palais Bourbon: Assemblée nationale - Palais Bourbon
As we made our way east along the Seine, we came across the Palais Bourbon, a Neoclassical building that currently serves as the meeting place of the National Assembly and the French Parliament. With the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris, this building was decorated with numerous colorful statues posed with various sports equipment for the Olympic events!
Place de la Concorde
Next stop on our TukTuk tour, just due north across the Seine from the Palais Bourbon is the Place de la Concorde, notably known as a place for executions during the French Revolution, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The plaza was temporarily renamed Place de la Revolution during this time.
The plaza is also recognized by its 3,000-year-old Egyptian obelisk. This obelisk was transported from the Luxor Temple in Egypt in the 1830s; its twin obelisk still marks the left-hand side of the portal of the Luxor Temple. This reminded us of all of the obelisks we saw during the trip to Rome with Mom and Dad a few months back.
La Madeleine: Église de la Madeleine
The next stop was La Madeleine, a Neoclassical-style Catholic Church that looked similar to the Pantheon in Rome. Between the Arc de Triomphe, the Obelisk, and all of the Neoclassical architecture, you can tell the French took a lot of influence from the Romans.
The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
Our next stop on our TukTuk tour was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Located on top of the Montmartre hill in Paris, this church is dedicated to the sacred heart of Christ.
We had been told this church was stunning inside, but after touring so many European cathedrals, Bryan and I were happy when the Johnsons didn't show interest in seeing the inside. I think the sentiment was set in stone when we saw the line of people wrapped around the church waiting to enter...whew! Our guide said it would take over 2.5 hours to get inside. Yep, not worth it for us!
Place du Tertre
We had heard from many TikToks and travel guides that the area surrounding the Basilica was perfect for finding street art. Our driver dropped us off to explore the art district and we were really disappointed... the plaza was packed with people, low-quality art, and tons of charcoal portrait artists haggling for a job.
We wandered the artists' booths and were disappointed in the quickly made, poor-quality watercolors and the very overpriced oil and acrylic paintings for sale. We left with empty hands and were just eager to get out of the packed plaza for fear of being pickpocketed.
But we left hoping we could find some other artists around town that would meet our needs. For others traveling to Paris, unless you are eager to climb the hill to visit the church, I wouldn't recommend this area. The Place du Tertre was a big disappointment for us!
Louvre Museum: Musée du Louvre
Speaking of art, we were NOT disappointed when our TukTuk pulled in front of the Louvre! While the Eiffel Tower may be the iconic image of Paris, I would argue the glass pyramids in front of the Louve have to be a close second. Getting the jitters to head inside and see all the art, I am already looking forward to Wednesday morning's tour of the world's most famous museum!
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Currently closed due to the 2019 fire that startled the world, the Notre Dame Cathedral still holds a certain level of serene beauty from a distance. While we weren't able to get very close due to construction and repair efforts, we were all relieved to see the stunning stone entrance still standing. It is set to reopen in December of 2024, but we were just happy to see (and hear) the construction underway in person!
Bryan and I also enjoyed seeing the setting of one of Victor Hugo's famous books: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. If only our Hugo was here to enjoy to sight with us!
This was also the end of our 2-hour TukTuk tour. We all agree that the TukTuk tour was worth it to save our feet from walking all over the city. Paris is very spread out, and we were relieved to have a ride to the top of Montmartre Hill while watching all the other tourists huffing it on foot.
We booked our tour directly through their website and think it was worth it. I would give the tour an 8/10 stars: it was great to have a driver and someone to snap pictures of us, but the guide didn't provide much commentary. Overall though, we did see all the major sights in 2 hours, so that was a huge win!
Y'all also know Bryan and I are a little obsessed with recognizing Mission Impossible filming locations, and Bryan recognized another here in Paris! Compare the bottom two pics above with this one:
Yep, Bryan recognized this area along the Seine River as another filming location from Mission Impossible: Fallout! With all the rain in Paris the last few weeks, the river has risen making it impossible to get down to this area. This makes the fourth country we have found Mission Impossible filming loations: Vienna, Austria; Rome, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic and now Paris, France! Is it an obsession? Maybe. Do we still get giddy recognizing another location? 100% yes!
Mission Impossible may be exciting, but so is finally finding some real street art! As we were walking along the Seine River, we spotted a lady selling watercolors while painting new pieces right in front of our eyes!
Now this was some street art! Priced at €10 per work, this street art was detailed and colorful! Much better than anything we saw in Montmartre! Both Jennifer and I walked away with watercolors of the Eiffel Tower and were happy to find some real talent along the river.
With our afternoon well underway, it was time to meet our next tour guide. Yep, you read that right, our day may have started at 3 am but that wasn't slowing us down! Twelve hours after waking up this morning we were meeting Faye for our Paris By Mouth Food Tour!
Boulangerie du Marais
Faye is a British citizen who moved to Paris as an au pair over 15 years ago. She fell in love with the city and has been here ever since! Having a true "local" teach us about Paris cuisine in English was fantastic!
Our first stop on the tour was Boulangerie du Marais, a pastry and bakery shop. You know a tour is going to be good when it starts with a fresh-baked croissant. Faye taught us that this boulangerie uses AOC butter in their croissants. AOC is a label that identifies a food product as being processed and grown in a certain geographical area in France. AOC products have a special stamp of approval from the French government recognizing small towns or regions that create special products or cuisines.
After devouring our delicious croissants, Faye pulled out another bakery item for us to try: a chouquettes. These tiny air-filled pastries melted in our mouths!
As we headed to our next spot, Faye explained that this food tour takes place across the Le Marais neighborhood of Paris. This area is known for being the Jewish Quarter of Paris, and I enjoyed snapping a picture in front of a Jewish bookstore with signage in both Hebrew and French!
REŸS - Glaces Eternelles
And that next stop on the tour was ice cream! But this ice cream shop was different than any others we have ever tried. The owner had a dream during COVID that he was serving ice cream. After waking up, he booked a flight to Italy and learned how to make gelato from true Italian creamery professionals. He then returned to Paris and opened his shop, REŸS.
REŸS Ice Cream had really unique flavors: Indian Wedding (pistachio, cardamom & rosewater), A Walk in Bangkok (jasmine-scented Thai rice ice cream), and Kiss of the Dragon (Lapsang Souchong Tea, Red Sichuan, and Vietnamese White Dragon Pepper) were a few of the flavors that we enjoyed tasting!
Ultimately, the Johnsons both got the house vanilla as an affogato, while Bryan enjoyed a scoop of A Walk in Bangkok. I got a scoop of their limited-time Mezcal Lemon sorbet, which tasted like a margarita in ice cream form! To say we were all delighted with our choices is an understatement!
Fromagerie Laurent Dubois
Then we were off to a cheese shop. Yep, this AOP cheese shop is famous for its goat, sheep, and cow cheeses! Faye walked us through the shop and pointed out various cheeses. She also bought a few for us to try later in the tour!
Les trois chocolats Paris
Up next: chocolate! Les trois chocolats Paris is a Japanese-inspired chocolate shop that is famous for its unique Japanese flavors. The shop has been in the owners' family for three generations and they had flavors like Yuzu and Sakura (cherry blossom).
Bryan and I were ecstatic to have a taste of our former home! These chocolates were delightful, but I have to say my favorite part was walking inside and hearing the workers speak Japanese!
Caviste Vinosfera - Dégustations - Vins et Champagne
Our final stop was our longest stop of the tour; it also happened to be our favorite stop! It was finally time for our wine-tasting portion of the class! While Faye popped the cork on several bottles of French wine for us to taste, she also unwrapped various cheeses from the previous shop for us to taste. Wine and cheese, yes, please!
During this hour-long portion of our food tour, we tasted three wines and five different types of cheese:
🍷 An acidic, mineral wine from Bourgogne. This white wine was mildly dry, but complemented the first cheese well!
🧀 A goat's cheese that was made from goats that ate fresh lavender and herbs in the French countryside. Then the fresh goat cheese was rolled in the same herbs for the outer coating. This was my second-favorite cheese of the day!
🧀 Corsican cheese was full of fresh herbs and was our favorite of the cheeses! It was nicknamed "the hairy cheese" because it was covered in a furry mold. Yep, we ate that mold and it was delicious!
🍷 A bubbly red wine from Jura, with a fruity taste (cremant du jura.) We all enjoyed this one! It's not every day you get a bubbly red!
🧀 Fresh Brie. This super soft cheese, Brie du meau, melted as it was sliced! We have never had such fresh brie!
🧀 Abbey du Citel from Burgundy, was named after the Abbey where the friars first made it. This cheese was pretty stinky, and I hated it. It had an aftertaste that tasted like, what I imagined, a stinky pig's skin would taste like. Yeah, it was not good.
🧀 Our final cheese was from the center of France. It was a cow cheese with black pepper and garlic and was really tasty!
🍷 Poulsard from Jura region. Bryan and I really liked this red wine!
By the end of the food tour, we had all enjoyed the bites of French food and the lovely tastes of French wines! We would highly recommend this food tour to anyone visiting Paris! It was well worth the price and the small group atmosphere made it that much better!
Arc de Triomphe
But that's not all folks! Our first day in Paris is still not over! Filled with wine and cheese, we took the train back north to the Arc de Triomphe for our timed entry at 7:50 pm.
Back when I was planning our time in Paris, I sent Jennifer three viewpoints of the city: climbing the Eiffel Tower, climbing the Arc, and seeing the city from the Montparnasse Tower. She wanted to see the Eiffel Tower on the skyline, so she requested climbing the last two and skipping the (very overpriced) Eiffel Tower climb. So I made the executive decision to climb one during the day and the other for a night view of the city.
So Day 1 in Paris ended with a sunset climb of the Arc! And when I say a "climb" I mean it. Two hundred and eighty-two stairs. Whew! We did it, but we were all out of breath at the summit! This climb is not for the weary! (They do have an elevator for "those who need it" but we didn't see that option until we were already at the summit.)
Once we made it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, we battled with other tourists for a spot along the railing for photos of the city's famous skyline! Like many others, we were willing to wait until "dusk" for the lights on the Eiffel Tower to come on and sparkle along the skyline! While nobody knew what time exactly the French determined to be "dusk," we were happy to wait with the crowds to see the famous sight!
I mean, just look at the crowd! I was sure to snap a quick picture of all the people as a reminder that we were just one of thousands of tourists wanting the same French experience!
As the sun went down, so did our energy levels! It was finally time to call it quits on our first day in Paris! While I may not be good at rationing time for meals while traveling, I am good at packing a ton of sightseeing experiences in a single day! And I gotta say, the Johnsons hung with us through it all!
au revoir!
--Katie
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