Weddingbee Blog

Part One - Guidebooks and Hotels
Part Two - Sightseeing Day 1 & 2
Part Three - Sightseeing Day 3

On the morning of Day 4, we walked over to the Rue Cler open markets because it was a couple blocks from our hotel. This is a great place to pick up fresh fruit, bread, cheese and meat if you’d like to have a picnic at the park in front of the Eiffel Tower, which is a short walk away. (click any image to enlarge)

I love figs and they’re available everywhere in Paris.

The smell of cheese is overpowering when you walk by!

Fresh flowers are sold everywhere in Paris - it really is very much like New York, but cleaner and much more charming.

Nothing beats fresh baked bread.

I read in the Rick Steves guidebook that every working person in France receives 5 euros/day for lunch! We saw shopowners close their stores to go to lunch from 1 - 2 pm.

Pasta for lunch - notice the tabasco sauce that I carried with me everywhere.

Almost all the dogs we saw were off leash and so well behaved.

Afterwards we hopped on the metro to tour Notre Dame…

Notre Dame is on Ile de la Cite, one of two adjacent islands on the Seine River. Ile de la Cite is mostly residential, but it has a lot of cute cafes and shops. It’s definitely worth a stroll. I wish we could have spent more time there, but it started raining so we decided to hit the malls.

One of the Galeries Lafayette malls is in the Opera Garnier area. I’d definitely skip it, as most of the stuff they carry is available in the States.

We wanted to have a “Parisian” dinner so we headed to La Coupole, a classic French Brasserie in the Montparnasse area, after a recommendation and reading these reviews.

We split a ginormous steak for 2 with scalloped potatoes on the side. And I must say that everything was delicious!

Day 5: Thursday

It got chilly while we were there and the leaves started changing color.

We toured the Orsay - a can’t miss museum!

Monet’s Poppies. Impressionism is one of my favorite eras in art. There are tons of paintings you’ll recognize from Renoir, van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Pizarro, Manet, Gaugin, and more!

This is the Pompidou Center - a modern art museum in Marais. I so wish I could have visited this museum! The area in front of the museum is the best area to people watch. 

Marais was my favorite neighborhood in Paris as far as energy, architecture, and shopping.  This is a great walking tour of the area, but we deviated from it to visit more shops.

The Little Prince

This was my mom’s favorite place in all of Paris - the Place des Vosges.  She said that she really felt like she was in Paris here. This is also where Victor Hugo once lived - his flat is now a museum devoted to the author.

We came on two separate occasions - once at sunset and once during the day. It was so nice at sunset when we were just about the only people there.  A definite must stop.

You have to eat macaroons while you’re in Paris. They’re simply divine and come in so many scrumptious flavors!!

I think you you rent these bikes and park them in designated stations all throughout the city. How cool!

Overview:

Day 4: Rue Cler, Notre Dame, Ile De La Cite/Ile St. Louis, dinner at La Couple
Day 5: Orsay, Opera House, Le Marais

This is the last installment of pictures so thanks for bearing with me! I have one more post after this of tips on travelling to Paris.