The Eiffel Tower at Night

How to Spend a Few Days in Paris

After visiting Normandy, my cousin and I made our way to Paris. We’ve both been many times before but Paris never gets boring.

For many years, I went to Paris regularly for work but never strayed too far from the Stock Exchange (Bourse Metro Station). These were quick two or three-day business trips that always tended to happen mid-week with no room for a weekend stay. WHY??? WHY??? I was too devoted to my job back in those days.

So it’s nice to go back as a tourist now and stay in different parts of the city and visit new museums and restaurants that I’ve never had the chance to visit before. Again that’s the great thing about Paris. Much like London, there is always something new to explore.

Room at Hotel Monge. Photo credit: Hotel Monge

I booked us into the Hotel Monge in the 6th, which was just a short walk from both Cardinal Lemoine and Place Monge metro stations. This was a GREAT little hotel that I would highly recommend if you’re doing a lot on this side of town. The
rooms were bijou perfection, the wifi was decent, and the shower was so fantastic that one day, my cousin took not one but four showers. (To be fair, it was a very cold and wet day and we were out during the worst of it so I think at least three of those showers are justified.) This is a brand new hotel that I highly recommend. Book Hotel Monge.

Our challenge though, location-wise, was that for some reason, everything we wanted to do was more centrally located or on the other side of town, so we spent a lot of time on the Paris Metro. But again, that’s the great thing about a city like Paris. Public transport is fantastic! (Although not as many escalators as London.)

Here’s what we got up to while we were in town:

Touring Around

Musee de l’Orangerie: Don’t laugh but I’d never been here before! I know. We stared at Monet’s waterlilies — the oblong room setup is honestly perfect — and had a good value breakfast at the compact cafe downstairs. With our Eurostar ticket, we also got half off admission, which was great. Of course you should go here.

The view from Foundation Louis Vuitton

Foundation Louis Vuitton: We made the mistake of 1. walking here from the metro (it’s a long walk) and 2. arriving 35 minutes before it opened and 3. arriving the day after an exhibition had closed so the building was *empty*. It was also pouring rain and freezing cold during our visit which made hanging out on the building’s terraces less appealing. (The terraces are a key selling point on a nice day!) Keep this for a warm day when the sun is out and the building is at its best and there’s an exhibition! We still loved the architecture and took a ton of photos of the building (a Gehry building) from many angles.

Sainte Chapelle in Paris is breathtakingly beautiful

Sainte Chapelle:  Another place I had never been to before! I’ve hit Notre Dame more times than I can recall, but never Sainte Chapelle and it is so stunningly beautiful I could cry. The stained glass! Never have I seen stained glass like this. Amazing. Go.

The Pantheon: I vaguely remember visiting The Pantheon when I was 19 years old but I hadn’t been back since. We were awed by Focoult’s Pendulum (telling the time correctly for years!) and spent time paying our respects to Voltaire, Louis Braille, and Marie Curie. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have gotten the audio guide here so that we knew more about the history of the edifice.

Eating 

I was a little tired of organizing everything at this point so I put my cousin in charge of food for 18 hours. He got to pick our dinner choice one night and lunch the next day. I of course wanted a reservation. He just wanted to “wing it.” “It’s Paris! everything is good here.” Sigh. Luckily, he did well on Friday night even though I was deeply, deeply worried.

Rouge Bis (Opera/Bourse): George  slid us into one of the very few remaining tables at Rouge Bis, across the street from Moulin Rouge. I was SO worried about this. Across the street from a major tourist attraction? It couldn’t possibly be good. But our tough, wisecracking server was awesome and the food was not bad. (I had the steak and chips.) Rouge Bis feels young and hip and it’s very convenient for pre-show at Moulin Rouge. Would I seek it out again? Probably not. But if I found myself in the area again and needed a meal, I would gladly eat here again.

La Creperie, Sorbonne: We popped in here after our visit to The Pantheon as it was very very convenient. It was also very very crowded and my cousin had never experienced French tables before, where they stuff you in like sardines. (Even at Rouge Bis, we had space.) It’s fair to say we were both pretty miserable here and the food was pretty average.

Le Casse Noix: When you are in Paris, you *must* use the wonderful Paris by Mouth website, where Parisian bloggers share their favorite Parisian restaurants. (We London bloggers should do the same.) Paris by Mouth directed us to the very sweet Le Casse Noix, within a 10 minute walk of the Eiffel Tower. Service was friendly and efficient, the place was packed with locals, and I had a rice pudding for dessert that was as big as my head. I probably made a mistake in ordering cod with endive — Why do I always forget that I’m not a huge endive fan? — but I would go back here again and recommend it for a nice, cozy meal close to the Eiffel Tower.

Entertainment

Moulin Rouge: Neither of us had ever done Moulin Rouge before and we were in full tourist mode. In my head, I wasimagining something fairly seedy. I was imagining tightly cramped tables and lots of boobs. And while there were certainly a lot of boobs, they were pretty classy about it. Also, while the lower tables looked a little cramped, they were certainly nowhere near as cramped as what I was imagining. In fact, the whole venue was pretty classy. I had booked us VIP tickets up in the balcony, which included VIP entry, a bottle of champagne, macarons, and some tchotchkes and a souvenier guide. Some of the signing and dancing acts were pretty terrible but the ACROBATS WERE AMAZING. Now that I’ve seen Moulin Rouge once, I don’t think I need to see it again, but this was still fun and a lot better than I expected. Book the VIP package with Champagne here.  There’s also a VIP package with four course meal.

The Verdict

I feel like I crossed a lot of things off my list this trip. Which means my next trips to Paris can be more devoted to eating, drinking, and shopping…

You Might Enjoy My Other Posts

• What to do in Bayeux Normandy
• Celliers Ruinart, Reims
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Paris Tours

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Hotel Les Dames du Pantheon Review

This is a bit of a lost post but 2014 is drawing to a close — what a crazy year, my friends — and I have some free time on my hands for the first time since my 30 days of blissful unemployment in June and July. (Oh but to have those 30 days back!) I was in Paris back in August, my first time back in four or five years. My friends Karen and Bob were in town so I hopped on the Eurostar and met them for a lovely weekend of wandering and wine. They had rented a flat in Paris and the original plan was for me to stay with them at the flat. But the flat had a cat. And cats and Krista don’t get along. So Hotel Les Dames du Pantheon it was.

And I had made a nice choice in my hotel selection. My room had pretty views over the Pantheon and was a leisurely stroll from a few different metro stations. (Truth be told though, after a long day of walking on Day 1, I kinda wished the stroll back to the hotel from the metro wasn’t so leisurely.) The room was spotlessly clean and also gorgeously, decadently decorated. Each floor in Hotel Les Dames du Pantheon is decorated after a famous French woman. My room was a Juliette Greco room. Greco, a singer, was also a member of the Resistance. A bohemian freedom fighter. Love it.

When I arrived at the hotel, it was fairly late at night. So I was tired and disorganized when I made this video. It might make you dizzy. But it should give you a feel for the place just the same, and if you don’t mind a leisurely stroll or three, you’ll like it here very much.

The Verdict: Recommended. But bring your walking shoes.

You Might Enjoy My Other Posts

• How to Spend a Few Days in Paris
• Archive of All My Paris Posts

The post Hotel Les Dames du Pantheon, Paris first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I did not envy my French colleague Denis who had to feed 65 people every night. This, apparently, is not very easy in Paris. Unlike London, where every restaurant is prepared to sell its soul to the evil that is corporate (insert country here), Paris just doesn’t do big groups. Or so I’ve been told. (If you’ve ever had dinner for 65 in Paris, please tell me where and if it was any good. We can always use more tips.)

All that being said, Denis booked us into two very interesting venues and while the food might not have been that sort of “I want to move to France and enroll in cooking school like YESTERDAY” type of experience, it was still pretty French. Which means, in my mind, pretty good.

Le Saut du Loup
107, Rue de Rivoli
Paris, France 75001

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L'Ardoise
28 rue du Mont-Thabor
75001 PARIS

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Victims: Too many to mention.

The Damage: Unknown! Our CFO paid.

The Background: I was excited, of course, to go to Paris for work. But the fact that Craig and his wife Leann would be there at the same time made me look forward to the trip even more. I know I can always count on them for organizing a great evening.

Craig told me about a little restaurant he had been to the night before and how much he and Leann had liked it. So based on his rave reviews, we booked a return trip–this time, for nine people.

The Entrance: We enter and are shown our own private dining room. How great is this? (The only bad part is that our private dining room is on the way to the toilets.) We make ourselves comfortable and proceed to rearrange all the tables.

Ummm…Only to find out that this is not our table. We don't have a private dining room. We've got a table upstairs in the corner. Whoops. Luckily not our fault.

The Ordering: I steer clear of my co-worker from yesterday's lunch at Georgette this time around. Luckily, there are no paper menus, just a large blackboard. There are also no little toothpicks around, so I can't poke anybody's eyes out.

I do agree to share the cuissot de chevreau roti with the same co-worker, however. (And although I don't know what cuissot means–my French colleagues tell me "shin"; Google Translate says "leg"–I do know that chevreau means goat.) I also take our server's suggestion of the prawn starter, which isn't  even listed on the blackboard.

The Starters: We're brought a couple of boards of saucison. Great stuff. And then my prawns arrive, and I haven't stopped thinking about them since. They're served individually, each prawn in its own little pot of red wine, with a great buttery garlicky crouton on top. It was all I could do NOT to drink the remaining red wine in all the pots. Oh to be dining alone! (I did, however, help myself to some bread to sop it all up.)

The Mains: After a while, my colleagues insisted that I stop calling my main "baby goat." But the problem is, that's how my French colleagues first described to me. As I reviewed the menu, I said, "Well, that says goat" and they said, "Well, it more like baby goat. And what's that part of the leg? The lower part? Shin! Shin, yes. It's "baby goat shin." (Kinda like "baby fish mouth"? If you know what I'm talking about.) Well, the goat, baby or not, was delicious.

The Dessert: I'm not normally a huge crème brûlée fan, but again, I went with our server's recommendation. This was billed as a raspberry crème brûlée, which I figured was because of the raspberry sorbet on top. How wrong I was! This was full of plump raspberries. Fantastic.

The Verdict: This was a very happy meal. I left very happy. I would gladly go back here, and I would gladly recommend L'Ardoise to friends. And strangers.

P.S. Should I warn you that you're going to have to put up with a few non-London restaurant reviews in the coming days? Paris first, Madrid next! But I will try to mix up the reviews in between.

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Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Victim: Colleague from Paris office

The Damage: Unknown, he paid.

The Background: Every so often, I learn something new about myself. In hindsight, many of these new things are maybe not surprising. But for me, at the time, they’re revelations.

So it was when my co-worker took me out to lunch in Paris. He took me to the little cafe, Georgette, in the 9th. He had heard good things from his co-workers. And I’d generally agree with those good things. But…

The Entrance: Georgette is sunny and open and colorful. It seems to be run by women and a quick look at Zagats confirms that. We grab a seat and a server promptly arrives at our table. She speaks to both of us, but as I can only ask for the check in French, I have no idea what she’s saying.

My colleague looks at me and looks at the menu (he’s holding two: mine, his) and then he looks back at me. He says, “Do you like prawns?” I say “Well, yes, prawns are okay.” (Knowing in the back of my mind that this is France and they will be prawns served still in their shells, which I just am not good with.)

He hands the menus back to the server and it’s done.

It’s done.

He’s ordered my food for me. I haven’t even had a chance to look at the menu. (And while I can’t speak French, I know enough food nouns to be dangerous.) And really, he hasn’t looked at the menu either!

I am seething.

Seething! I don’t even know what I’m having. I have no idea what just transpired. How did this happen?

I ask my colleague if the prawns are going to be served in their shells, and he says, “Maybe. Probably.” And I watch plate after plate come out of the kitchen and indeed, the prawns are served in their shells.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a person who gets angry–tense, yes, angry no. But the wave of anger I felt rushing over me as I thought of all the delicious things on that menu that I would never get to try…arrggghhh. I wanted to poke somebody’s eyes out with the toothpicks that came with our tiny little olives.

The Food: “It” arrives. And it’s fine. The shells on the prawns have already been prepared so they can be removed easily. It’s a fresh summery dish. But honestly, I can’t concentrate on it because I seriously WANT TO SEE THE MENU.

The Verdict: Georgette was nice. But warning: unless it’s Chinese or tapas, don’t order my food for me. Or I’ll poke your eyes out.

P.S. I know this is a terrible “restaurant review.” I also know that I am a terrible person. Sorry.

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Pierre Hermé
72, Rue Bonaparte
Paris

Date of Last Visit: Friday, April 10th, 2009

The Victim: Dad

The Damage: About 9 euros

The Background: I’m taking dad to Paris and Champagne for Easter. I’ve told him we can do anything he wants. I only have three things I want to do.  Pierre Hermé is one of them.

I forget how many stairs there are in Paris. My 68 year old dad is a trooper. We are on and off metros and up and down stairs and then there we are, at Pierre Hermé. I explain to my father that it’s the place with the long line outside.

Everyone in the line is either American or Japanese. It’s funny. A little.

The Entrance: The line moves rather quickly and I explain to my dad that we’re not here for the pastries. We’re here for the macarons. He says he’s had macarons before, but I know he hasn’t. He’s thinking the coconut and chocolate ones that we’d get a lot back on the Island. (The Long one.)

The Service: Sweet. Attentive. I tell the man it’s his choice and I want just six. He loads me up. I wish I could tell you what flavors I had, but I was given no notes. Nor did I take any. So you will have to live with the photos…

And my little purchase…

The Verdict: These were good. I liked them. But you know–they seemed just a little too soft and fragile. I know macarons don’t travel well, but seriously, these died so much earlier than the ones I’ve purchased from Yauatcha and Ladurée. They demanded to be eaten. Immediately.

And I obliged.

The Verdict: Still a good visit in Paris. Smaller than I expected. And the macarons? Well, just a bit too soft.

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Nearest Metro: Ecole Militaire

7th Arrondissement

Guys, I’m kinda in love with Rue Cler in Paris. If only we had a pedestrian zone of food shops here in London!  I want to go shopping here every day and buy all the things.

Rue Cler Paris Hotels

There are a number of 3-star hotels in the immediate vicinity of Rue Cler — all within a short walk. Here are the hotels nearest Rue Cler in Paris.

• • • Grand Hôtel Lévêque
    • Cler Hotel
    • Hôtel Beaugency
    • Hotel du Cadran
    • Hotel du Champ de Mars
    • Hôtel de La Motte Picquet
    • Hotel Relais Bosquet
    • Hotel Muguet
    • Hotel de L’Empereur

Niceities

Remember to always say hello when you enter a shop! Parisians love their politeness!! Always always say Bonjour Madame or Bonjour Monsieur!

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