L - R: Au Vieux Paris cafe, peonies at Parisian flower market, Eiffel Tower overlooking sunset cruise on the Seine
Go to Paris, if only in your imagination. For the most immersive experience, listen to our curated Spotify playlist, smell the Weekend in Paris discovery set as you read, and maybe get yourself a little treat from your local bakery.
Day One
Au Vieux Paris
Morning in a Small Cafe
You start your morning with a walk through the ancient cobblestoned streets of Île de la Cité, a Roman settlement that was the birthplace of what became the City of Light. Admiring the gothic towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral reaching into the soft gray clouds above, you duck into a cozy cafe to escape the patter of spring raindrops that are leaping down from the heavens as if they, too, wanted to explore Paris.
With a wistful look at the bedewed outdoor seating, you slip onto a velvet couch that allows you a view of the cathedral as you sip your coffee. The interior of the cafe is charmingly romantic. Figured wallpaper and exposed 16th century stonework as the background for the antique portraits and angels who wryly observe your petit-déjeuner in a decidedly unimpressed Parisian fashion.
The smells of rich, roasted coffee and buttery pastries mingle with the underlying notes of old stone and wood.For a moment, you can almost smell the cathedral incense and imagine that you’ve traveled back in time a few decades or even centuries. Any sense of hurry you felt about your time in Paris melts away, and you just enjoy the moment. The magic of Paris is already taking effect.
Marché aux Fleurs
A Flower Market after the rain
When you step outside, the air is freshly scrubbed by the quick burst of a passing spring shower.
The architecture gives you a little thrill, reminding you that you’re in Paris! This isn’t a dream! You peek into a few tempting boutiques and make a mental note of which ice cream shop you’ll visit on a sunnier day in the future. You already know this won’t be your last trip to the city that has won your heart.
The sky above is resolving itself into an impossible blue, with puffy white clouds punctuating its expanse. When you round the next corner, you see a crowd of flowers, frilly petals ruffled in the breeze, green stems sparkling with diamond droplets. You've stumbled upon the oldest flower market in Paris; you remember reading about it in the guidebook, but the serendipity of the encounter only endears it to you more. You stroll through the market, picturing yourself in a Breton striped shirt with a basket of flowers under your arm.The flowers sway on their stems, seeming to say “bonjour, bonjour mon amie.”
La Vie En Rose
Sunset Cruise on the Seine
After an afternoon of museums, while crossing the Pont Alexandre III bridge, you take a moment to admire the Eiffel Tower at its most romantic in the golden hour glow. You’ve decided to embrace being a tourist and enjoy a sunset cruise of the Seine. The boat is more like a tiny floating bistro, complete with small cafe tables and moody lighting. The coral pink of the setting sun spreads across the water as you embark. As dusk falls, tiny Champagne bubbles rise and twinkle in your glass as though communicating in time with the amber lights that are twinkling on the waters. The City of Love continues to tease all your senses: you bite into a crisp, juicy slice of chilled pear while an accordion softly plays La Vie En Rose from the stern of the boat, and you feel as though you are in a beautiful dream. It's the ending of your perfect first day in Paris.
L - R: Rue Saint-Honoré, Ladurée confection shop, Montmartre neighborhood
Day Two
Rue Saint-Honoré
Luxury shopping + pastry
After an early morning walk through the Tuileries Gardens, you continue your day on one of Paris’s chicest streets, Rue Saint-Honoré. Lined with elegant Haussmann-style mansions, it has seen centuries and now houses some of the most luxe boutiques in the city. Luxury brands may not be your thing, but you want to take a peek. And while you’re strolling up the street, you stop at Pharmacie Saint Honoré, which once supplied cosmetics to Marie Antoinette. (Get yourself a little treat, because if it was good enough for Marie…)
The scent of carefully curated luxury stores and their rarefied atmosphere has you feeling like royalty yourself, or like a fancy Fin de Siècle pedestrian being captured by an Impressionist painter as you climb into your gleaming horse drawn carriage while someone else takes care of a large pile of purchases, wrapped in elegant paper and tied with satin ribbons.
The afternoon tea you have planned feels ever so far away, and there’s the leisurely walk between here and there -- you might as well have a bite of Gâteau St-Honoré. You slip into a posh cafe with floor-to-ceiling windows and invitingly plump chairs, where you are swiftly served an artistic pastry constructed of caramel and crispy tuiles then garnished with mascarpone and vanilla chantilly cream. A modern interpretation of the classic dessert. Life is sweet in Paris, no matter the century.
Champs Elysées
Afternoon tea at Maison Ladurée
The gold-rimmed saucers in shades of Ladurée green and palest pink, pastel rows of macarons, glittering chandeliers. It could only feel more Parisian if it were perched atop the Eiffel Tower. You carefully select a few impossibly perfect macarons (already making a mental list of which flavors you’ll purchase to take with you) and order the Marie Antoinette tea blend you’ve been dreaming of trying since you first read the description: “a delicious marriage of Chinese and Indian black teas combined with rose petals, citrus fruit and honey.”
While you wait for the delicacies to come, you sink into a velvet cushion to people-watch and admire your surroundings. Branches garlanded with dainty cherry blossoms seem to grow from the black and white marble floors, the pink flowers mirrored in the delicately crafted desserts and sumptuous cascades of pink roses. The tea cup placed silently on your table calls for your attention as the steam rises before you, the aroma blooming in its own kind of beauty, invisible but intoxicating. The macaron is all at once delicate and soft with a perfect and chewy almondy center.
Although you leave this enchanted establishment with some regret, the sunny avenue beckons, and you are, after all, carrying a small, pale green box whose light weight belies the bijou jewels within. You stroll up the Champs Elysées, and every time you see a branch bewreathed in candy-spun blossoms peeping out of a private garden, it feels like a little signal from the city that you’re in exactly the right place.
Montmartre
A sunny afternoon stroll
After a stop at the Arc de Triomphe, you head to the famed 18th arrondissement, Montmartre. The neon windmill on the roof of the Moulin Rouge marks its rural roots; there are no processional avenues here, just steep and winding cobblestone streets. The character that made this place an inexpensive haven for artists, writers, and other bohemians is what now draws you here. Montmartre has a fabled history for art lovers, and you want to see it with your own eyes. The Moulin Rouge dancers as sketched by Toulouse-Lautrec, Le Chat Noir its iconic advertisement, the dreamy modernism of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies. And, of course, Amélie Poulain, whose quirky fringe and magical approach to life made you fall in love with Paris and wish to ride a motorbike through its streets.
As you wend your way towards Sacre Coeur, the shining white monument with its unique view of Paris, you stop to explore the more intriguing shops and peak at the art exhibits in the Halle St-Pierre. Each doorway seems full of possibility. You don’t linger for long, however. This is your last afternoon in Paris, and you’re eager to take in the city from the overlook at the top of the hill. The day is sunny and bright, and you feel charged with your sense of aliveness as you continue towards your goal. Once up there, you’ll take it all in, soaking in the city’s vibrancy, that joie de vivre that has made it a lodestone for romantics of all sorts. You'll carry it with you when you go home.
And you know for certain this won’t be your last weekend in Paris.
