Postcards From Paris: Day One













We arrived in Paris, via the overnight train, Sunday morning. While I love the overnight train (hello bunk-bed slumber party), watching two women attempt to do their hair and make up and get dressed in a tiny, moving cabin (with no mirrors might I add) was quite hilarious! But we were determined to arrive in Paris ready to hit the ground running. We grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, which was fabulous.

I can’t say enough great things about our hotel. Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais is a refurbished 18th century residence with 19 quaint little rooms. It is the epitome of Parisian chic with vintage furnishings, floral fabric covered walls, and fresh roses in every room. I always struggle to find great hotels in Paris at a decent price, but I have found my new go-to Paris hotel—charming, clean, and centrally located. The staff was incredibly attentive and helpful, and for the price, you can’t beat it!

Of course, we were too early to check into our hotel, so we hit the streets of Paris. We wanted to walk to the Palais-Royal first, since we had seen lots of great pictures of the outdoor art installation in the courtyard. We had a blast taking a million fun and goofy pictures on the black and white pillars.

Picturing taking can be exhausting and after about an hour we were ready for some food and caffeine. We headed back towards our neighborhood, the Marais, which is full of great places to eat, drink, and shop. It is also home to the new J.Crew, which I was excited to check out. Sadly, I was incredibly disappointed. It was so expensive! I did make one purchase while in Paris, however, a bright kelly-green coat!

As we continued to explore, we may or may not have found an incredible crepe place (Droguerie) that we visited twice daily. We also found an amazing falafel place, supposedly one of the best in Paris, just around the corner of our hotel, which we returned to for dinner later that night. I am also pretty sure that as we explored we passed Danielle of We Wore What. Nicole looked at me as we passed these two very fashionable women carry lots and bags and sighed, “ugh, rich American girls.” To which I responded, “She looks so familiar, I think I know her.” Later that evening I realized it was Paris fashion week and who she was. (Side-note, Nicole was just jealous we don’t know her or her character, I am sure she is lovely!).

We continued to stroll around the Marais, and snap pictures of every brightly colored door we saw, until about mid-afternoon, when we could finally check-in. We quickly spruced ourselves up (much needed) and headed back out to see Notre Dame and my favorite church in Paris, Sainte-Chapelle.

As the sun was setting, we decided to catch the metro across town to the Trocadèro, which is one of the best places to strike a pose with Paris's most famous monument. We fought our way through the tourists only to realize half of the platform was blocked for either construction or an event (we couldn't tell), but we snapped some amazing pictures with the Eiffel Tower anyway and headed back to the Marais for dinner.

After an exhausting day of exploring, we grabbed delicious falafels and returned to our hotel to relax and prep for day two, which was our longest and most packed day! Stay tuned!

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