Previously, I’ve done a day-by-day holiday recap of my trips, but I thought this time I’d do an overview post and follow up with a couple of themed posts.
This is my third trip to Paris. My first was just a few days as part of a whirlwind tour of Europe with my parents when I was 10. The second was a week in 2018 with G and our younger daughter. You can read recaps of that trip here, here and here. This trip was another full week, most of it spent on my own while G went to Italy and the UK for work. My plan was to see some of the smaller museums and galleries (G doesn’t like too much of this, so I took the opportunity to do so), shop, eat, and go on a couple of day trips. Now to the nitty gritty …
Hotel:
I stayed at the Hotel Saint Andre’s des Arts in the 6th. It is close to the Odeon metro station and convenient for walking to many sites. The hotel is a typical small hotel in Paris. My room was tiny, as expected, but lovely and very clean. We didn’t get breakfast included, but I had the hotel breakfast once—it was OK.
Transport:
Before leaving home, we downloaded the Bonjour RATP app, which allowed us to buy transport tickets and put them in our Apple wallets. We bought our ticket from CDG before we left home. It’s easier after a very long flight than having to fiddle around buying tickets in a foreign country. Just be aware that the app doesn’t allow you to have two types of tickets (i.e. the airport ticket and the normal metro ticket), so buy your ticket to Paris, and then you can buy 1,3,5 or a carnet of metro tickets. I also used the SNCF app to buy longer distance train tickets for my day trips. I generally bought my outbound ticket the day before, then once I’d finished most of my sightseeing I would check the timetable back to Paris and buy a ticket in the app.
Itinerary:
Day 1, Sat 28th September:
Our flight arrived at 7:35, and we were at the hotel by about 9:30 am, which was a pretty quick turnaround. We dropped our bags at the hotel, then went out for a long figure eight walk around Paris. Croissant stop at Odette – along the Seine to the Jardin des Plantes – Rue Monteguille – St Etienne – The Pantheon – cross the Seine near Notre-Dame – The Louvre – Jardin des Tuileries – Eiffel Tower – back to the hotel.
2pm. Check-in. Shower and a nap.
Dinner with our friends at Brasserie Des Prés
Highlight: being in Paris again.
Steps: 31,646
Day 2, Sun 29th September:
Walk to the Marais
10:30 -1:30 Paris by Mouth Food Tour. Vennesoiries, chocolates, cheese, patisserie, baguette and wine. G had to leave just before the end to catch his flight to Italy.
Musée Carnavalet
Wander the streets of the Marais
Musee Picasso
Highlights: chocolates from Les Trois Chocolats
Steps: 21,608
Day 3, Mon 30th September
Day trip Giverny to see Monet’s Garden
I ordered two books for pickup before I left home and received an email that they were ready when I was on the train home from Giverny. There was a queue, but people collecting orders get to skip that and go straight inside—it’s a good trick to skip the line if you plan to buy a book anyway.
Quiet time (the days when I was in Paris by myself, I usually picked a church to go to and have some quiet time): Eglise Saint Sulpice
Dinner: Breizhe cafe
Highlight: seeing the Japanese bridge for real
Steps: 24,485
Day 4, Tues 1st October
Late start, then window shopping
Lunch: Les Enfants du Marche
Catch the metro to Galleries Lafayette. Browse. Walk through as many covered passages as possible.
Quiet time: Saint Eustache.
Highlight: perching on a stool at Les Enfants du Marche counter enjoying fabulous food with a glass of wine.
Steps: 27,052
Day 5, Wed 2nd October
10:30 Paris walks Montmartre Tour
1:30 Lunch at Bouillion Pigalle
3:15 pm Musee Marmotten
Shopping in Saint Germaine.
Highlight: Classic Paris vistas in Montmartre
Steps: 18,630
Day 6, Thursday 3rd October
9 am Meet my friends at their hotel to walk to the catacombs via the Luxembourg Gardens
10:30 am Catacombes
11:30 am Walk to the Emily in Paris Square. Say goodbye to my friends.
12:15 I walked towards the Cluny museum and picked up a baguette for my lunch on the way.
1:15 Cluny Museum
3:00 pm Wander to The Seine. Patisserie stop. Shopping in the Marais. Stroll around Place des Vogues.
Dinner: sandwich from Cosi followed by macaroons from Pierre Herme.
Highlight: the Catacombes, for their macabre beauty and weirdness.
Steps: 30,457
Day 7: Friday 4th October
Chartres Day trip.
4:30pm Arrived back at hotel. G arrives 30mins later from the UK.
Dinner: Garance
10:15 pm Enjoy a last glimpse of the Eiffel Tower lit up before we walk home from dinner
Highlight: walking the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral
Steps: 22,568
Future posts:
Day trip to Chartres
Smaller museums in Paris
Finding signs of the Camino in Paris and Chartres
Do you like (or imagine you’d like) travelling alone? What are you favourite things to do on a big city visit?
Comments
18 responses to “A Week in Paris”
I think I would LOVE traveling alone. My BFF does this sometimes, her son is living in the UK right now, so she’ll go see him, and then go travel around alone for a week, then back to see him, then come back to the US. She spent several days alone in Paris and had the best time, doing things that her family wouldn’t really be interested in doing (ballet, opera, museums). Your pictures are beautiful, and you did so many of the same things that I did on my trip in 2022. I have not yet been to the Musee Marmotten, but it is on my wish list for next time. That and the promenade plantee. I’m feeling wistful, and looking forward to reading your detailed posts!
I haven’t made it to the promanade plantee yet, or Canal Saint Martin, so if I go again I’d like to go to both of these areas.
Yes, I do like traveling alone! I would love a trip to Paris like this. I was in Paris about 25 years ago, so this was a trip down memory lane for me. Your photos are beautiful!
Hopefully you’ll get a trip to Paris at some stage.
I don’t like to travel in general, but if I do travel, I prefer to do it by myself, so I can do whatever I want without having to make anyone else. And I can just eat what I want to eat.
Sometimes I think it’s CRAZY that places like Paris and Rome exist on the same planet where I live. The US is such a young country and there’s just not the same sense of history and PLACE. Our neighborhood is the “historic” district of my town and the oldest buildings are about 100 years old. It’s really not the same in terms of perspective.
We are an even younger country than the US, so the long history, and so many old things, really fascinates me.
I have traveled alone and I love just walking around all day and exploring without too much of a set schedule. This sounds like an amazing time in Paris, especially because you were there for a whole week. That gives you the opportunity to really take in the city and not “rush around”. Love it.
I think it’s much easier to not have a schedule when you’re by yourself. I usually try to plan things out more when it’s G and I because otherwise we get a bit testy with each other when we’re trying to work out what to do.
Mhm… I wonder if I really have traveled alone. I mean when I am on business trips sure and I sometimes fit in a bit of sightseeing but that is probably not what you meant. I don’t think I have. Would be an interesting adventure.
I am looking forward to the Monets Garden Post.
Also these chocolates look so good.
Fitting in a bit of sightseeing when you are travelling for businees still counts and it is probably a good way to test the waters to see if you enjoy it.
I thought the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries were in the Met’s Cloisters in Manhattan, but it makes sense that there is more than one collection.
Your trip in Paris looks wonderful. I travel on my own with some regularity. I manage to find opportunities to travel that my husband isn’t interested in, but that doesn’t stop me. I do love traveling with him though. I wish he loved it a little more but it’s ok. We go on some great trips with less frequency and then I do quick jaunts at other times.
THere is another lot of medieval tapestries called the Unicorn Tapestries in The Met. I’m lucky that my husband has been happy to let me plan most of our travel, and he is pretty good, he will usually just find something else to do or he waits outside once he’s finished in a museum while I finish looking.
I do like to travel alone but I prefer to travel with my family. I like the independence of solo trips but love the shared experience more. Your trip to Paris looks amazing!
Most of my travel is with my husband, but usually I have a few independent days where I do my own thing while hw works. This was the longest stretch so far though and the first one where I have stayed by myself while he travels elsewhere.
Gah what a wonderful week! Paris is my favorite place! I have actually only traveled there by myself. I went there before/after a grad school program in 2008 and then I went there for my 30th bday and again over Thanksgiving a few years later. All of those trips happened before I met my husband. I would love to go to Paris with him but am not keen to do it with young children so it will have to wait until the boys are a bit older/heartier. Because we got married later in life (36) nearly all of our international travel happened before we met because we started a family immediately after getting married!
I can’t wait to hear more about your trip! Most of my trips to Paris were during the cold winter months so I haven’t had a chance to go to Giverny. I’d like to get there on my next trip! I figured seeing it in Nov/Feb was not the greatest time for a visit so saved it for a future trip.
I think Monet’s Garden is only open April to end of October anyway. I agree it’s probably best to wait until the kids are older. It’s a lot of money to spend and not be able to really experience it. We mainly did beach holidays with the kids until they were primary school. When they were in grade 4, 2 and prep we did a big roadtrip around the west of the US for four weeks and that was a good age to do that kind of thing (theme parks and lots of national parks)
Ever since my kids and I went to Paris last spring, I can’t take France out of my mind. So we want to do a month there this coming summer… Including a week in Paris at the end of said month. Isn’t it just gorgeous????
Oh yes, so beautiful. I love the gardens and the little courtyards, the tiny streets and the food. Do you have plans yet for where else you will go?