Weddingbee Blog

I am interrupting the Taffy wedding recaps to blog about our first anniversary trip to Paris!

After our wedding last May, Mr. Taffy and I took a minimoon on Lake Michigan, with the intention on going on a more traditional honeymoon for our first anniversary. After some debate, we decided to spend 12 fabulous days in Paris. I hope that these recaps will be helpful to anyone planning a honeymoon or vacation to this beautiful city!

Mr. Taffy and I flew to Paris from Detroit on a Saturday morning. We had a very brief layover in Montreal (where we practiced some of our French!), and arrived in Paris Sunday morning, which was our actual anniversary, at around 6 am. We had several hours to kill before checking into our hotel, so after we dropped our luggage there, we set off to see the city!

We were a bit delirious (we couldn’t sleep on the plane), but were very excited! Without exactly planning where to go, we ended up at the Louvre. We were in awe of the size of the museum, and wondered how we would ever get through it!

After circling the courtyard, we wandered toward the Jardin des Tuileries. We were so happy to be in Paris for the first time!

Mr. Taffy was really excited about the manicured trees.

We ambled toward the River Seine, which was quite lovely so early on a Sunday morning. We passed trees carved with hearts and initials as we walked.

After having breakfast and a bit more exploring, we finally checked in to our hotel and slept for a few hours. Afterward we headed to the Canal St. Martin for a Modern furniture fair. It was the last day of the annual fair, so we didn’t want to miss it! I was thrilled to see a nice selection of vintage clothes as well as furniture.

This fabric was incredible!!!!!!

I kind of regret not buying the dress above or the floral print dress at the front of the rack in the photo below, but I was too sleep deprived to make a deal.

After the fair, we found a charming little cafe for our Anniversary dinner.

It was so exciting to celebrate our first anniversary!

We shared our first creme brulee of the trip. It was delicious!!!

The next morning, we set out to explore the hilly and quaint Montmartre area. We took the metro to the Abbesses stop, which is one of two stations with the original entrance, including the roof.

We made our way up the winding, narrow roads to the Sacre Couer, which is situated at the highest point in Paris. It was such a beautiful sight!

We climbed many, many stairs to the dome, where we admired the amazing views of the city.

This was the first time that we saw the entire Eiffel Tower. The view was spectacular!

We made our way back down, at which point I realized that I have a fear of walking down steps. I was literally frozen with fear about halfway down, and had to be coaxed the rest of the way! Unfortunately this was a recurring theme every time we visited a monument.

The stairs let us off in the crypt, which was pretty creepy!

After touring the crypt, we sat outside of the basilica while Mr. Taffy sketched the exterior. This was the first of many sketches that he created during our vacation. I love to watch Mr. Taffy draw, and it it was always so relaxing to take a nice long break from the bustle of our vacation.

We checked our maps and headed to a very famous little cafe…

Yes, the Cafe des 2 Moulins, from Amelie!

We were so excited to see the interior!

I kept waiting for the stalker character to pop up with a small tape recorder and sit at this table.

The food was really good! The music playing was mostly Motown, however we both laughed to ourselves when they played Jingle Bell Rock, being summer and all. We think there may have been a language barrier, since it doesn’t sound like a typical holiday song.

Before leaving Montmartre, we had to make one more stop to another movie reference… the Moulin Rouge! I would have loved to see this place in the late 1800s!

We took the metro all the way over to the Ile de la Cite, where we saw the St. Michael fountain near the river.

We could not believe how beautiful Notre Dame was in real life. It was astounding how the structure seemed simultaneously massive and elegant!

The interior and Rose windows did not disappoint!

The cathedral was just breathtaking.

Outside, a man was feeding these sweet little birds.

We took a break in the park behind the cathedral, which was surrounded by roses. It seemed like Paris was completely covered in roses! Late May / early to mid June was a wonderful time to visit- seeing thousands upon thousands of roses all over the city was very charming and romantic.

We marveled at the flying buttresses.

Then made our way to the adjacent island, Ile Saint-Louis, to have dinner.

I had my first crepe of the trip, and it turned out to be the best. Crispy and full of Nutella! Mmmm!!!!

Before we crashed, Mr. Taffy took this photo from our hotel window.

Our first two days in France felt absolutely magical.

Our third day in Paris began with chilly, cloudy weather. We left our hotel and headed straight to the pedestrian market street Rue Montorgueil, one of the oldest market streets in the city. This incredibly charming street had everything: bakeries, butchers, flower shops, cheese shops, wine shops, chocolate shops… it was perfect for gathering picnic items for breakfast or dinner! We were thrilled that this area was so close to our hotel; there were not many tourists on this street and the area had a village feel to it. We even had a celebrity spotting there- we saw Ethan Hawke walking toward us on the street early one morning. He was carrying a bag with a life sized plastic goose and some groceries.

We went to the bakeries here almost every day for breakfast. I loved the French pastries!!! I ate as many pastries as I could get my hands on during our trip.

After breakfast, we made our way toward the Champs-Elysees. We began our stroll down this famous avenue at the Place de la Concorde, stopping to admire the fountains in the square, as well as the 3,300 year old Luxor Obelisk which was a gift from Egypt to France in 1829.

Mr. Taffy loved the detail on the pedestal.

We noticed a fashion shoot going on at one of the two fountains in the square.

“That’s nice, but you have to love the fountain!”

There we go. Heee.

As you can see, the Champs-Elysees was very crowded!

We stopped in this small park for a moment to get some air.

The shops on the Champs-Elysees were mostly fancy flagship stores and showrooms, including car showrooms. I was surprised to see that the women working in the car showrooms all had uniforms that resembled a 1960s flight attendant.

The Adidas store was celebrating the French Open, which was going on during our trip. (We went there on the last day- stay tuned!)

After visiting many shops, we finally made it to the Place Charles de Gaulle. The Arc de Triomphe was beautiful and enormous!!! We were a little sad to see that it was under renovation, but by the end of our trip the scaffolding had been taken down on one side at least.

We crossed underground to get a closer look at the arch, and to buy our Paris museum passes, which we planned to start using the following day. Using the Paris museum pass saved us a lot of time and money during our trip!

The Arch was really magnificent!

From the Arch we headed to the Rue Saint-Honore to do some “window licking” (the French term for window shopping!). We enjoyed visiting some French staples…

Then during our somewhat rainy stroll down the Rue Saint-Honore, we had our second celebrity spotting of the trip. Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley from Yo La Tengo walked past us on the street. Mr. Taffy was very excited to see them!!! I did not immediately recognize them, as I was concentrating on raising my umbrella so as not to hit them as they passed.

After visiting Hermes, Prada, and the designer store Colette, we headed back for the night. We were really starting to feel the effect of walking for hours upon hours!!! Alas, our feet had a lot more walking to do before we left France!

The rain in Paris was actually very romantic.

The next morning was also chilly and cloudy. Mr. Taffy and I headed to the Musee d’Orsay. We were very excited to begin using our museum pass! The museum, which is housed inside a gorgeous Beaux-Arts train station, was really impressive. We loved seeing some of the most influential pieces of the nineteenth century, including works by Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas and many more. We stayed at the museum from opening until close, and loved every minute!

When we exited the museum, we were extremely surprised to see that it had turned out to be a really beautiful day! We went to a monoprix to gather food and drinks, then headed to the Jardin du Luxembourg to have our first picnic!

I loved the design of this label! One of our friends later joked that this spring water also contained “the tears of cherubs”.

We were in awe of the beautiful landscaping! The park was surrounded by dozens of sculptures and trees.

The building at the front of the park is the Luxembourg Palace, which is home to the French Senate.

The palace was built for Marie De Medici in 1627.

We left the palace and headed toward the Medici Fountain.

We had our first glimpse of the Pantheon behind this sculpture!

The Medici fountain was built in the style of an Italian grotto. We loved the greenery flanking the sides of the fountain!

We started walking back toward the River Seine, hoping to go back to Notre Dame before the sun went down. The rosy sunlight looked so beautiful on the cathedral!

We continued toward the river, excited to watch our first Parisian sunset.

Seeing the beautiful light reflections on the river made me really understand the hue and intensity of color used in Impressionism! What a beautiful sight.

Next up, Mr. & Mrs. Taffy take on the Louvre!