Weddingbee Blog

Bonjour mes amies! The Hot Wings finally went on our honeymoon. Sure, it’s seven months after our wedding, but a honeymoon can never be too late. We dorky academics planned our wedding based on our work/school schedule. Right after the wedding, we both had to fly home and start our new jobs. So, for spring break, we went to Paris!

We rented a small condo in the 4th district: Le Marais. It was a nice experience to live on a residential street and feel at home. The only difficulty we had was with making restaurant reservations. We ended up not making any because my French isn’t strong enough to have phone conversations. It might have been nice to have hotel staff to make reservations for us.

When we discussed what we wanted to do in Paris, we realized that we both had different styles of vacationing.

Mr. Hot Wings wanted to see more of the sights than I did. Granted, I had been to Paris before. I wanted to relax and spend more time enjoying the food and drinks of Paris. When you bring these two styles together, you get a pretty awesome trip.

His Honeymoon Plans:

(1) Eiffel Tower

We made this trip a picnic by buying sandwiches and Oranginas from a local bakery.

(2) Notre Dame

(3) Sacre Coeur

(4) Louve Museum

We saw the Mona Lisa. Clearly, Mr. Hot Wings was not as impressed as I was.

Next is my evidence that I thought of all of you: the royal jewels!

(4) Drink lots of Belgium Beers. We went to Au Trappiste and Horse’s Tavern.

Her Honeymoon Plans:

For me, going to Paris meant having romantic moments over food and wine at small cafes and restaurants. It meant having slow moments where we talked about us and our future over wine at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. So, here is what we did that entailed the Mrs. side of our honeymoon.

(1) Macaron Competition. Yeah, I made up the competition myself, but that’s beside the point. The point is that I created moments for my macaron eating. After discovering macarons during our wedding planning and even blogging about my first macaron tasting experience, I knew I had to continue the taste testing in its birthplace. I had macarons from Laduree, Girard Mulot, and Lenotre.

Don’t worry, we stopped by the Laduree shop and had uber expensive drinks and a couple macarons. It was our honeymoon, after all.

Laduree looks just like the box! Their decor and branding is so awesomely consistent

(2) Espressos and cappuccinos every morning AND afternoon while we people watched.

(3) Wine in the park looking like fancy Parisians. We talked about how crazy it has been since getting married. We noted that this was the perfect first trip as a married couple and toasted to the many many more trips to come. We even managed not to bring up work a single time. We didn’t even have to promise to keep work out of it.

(3) A.Lot.Of.Eating! My favorite dining experiences included Chez Janou where they let me struggle through my French, falafels at L’As du Falafel, Bonne Soeur for brunch, and La Cordonnerie where I felt like I was dining in someone’s kitchen. The key to dining at small, gourmet, non-touristy restaurants in Paris is to dine late. At both Chez Janou and La Cordonnerie, we showed up at a bit past 9PM to see if they could seat us. It worked out perfectly!

Blended Agenda: His & Hers Combined

(1) Champagne with Macarons. The owner of our condo left a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator as a gift for our honeymoon. We thought it would go nicely with some macarons. And you know it went together perfectly!

(2) Macarons at the Arc de Triump. For this photo, I had to show you that it wasn’t my first time visiting the Arc. I had visited the Arc for the first time in 2003 with Hottie of Honor. We commemorated our college graduation with a big backpacking through Europe trip. Who would have guessed that eight years later, I would land at the same spot commemorating another big moment in my life.

It felt good to recreate this moment in a new era of my life with another bestie. It’s a sacred spot! If I’m lucky, maybe one day I’ll visit this spot in another chapter of my life.

That’s a Paris honeymoon in a nutshell, hive. I thought of you a lot while abroad. Can you tell with all my macaron adventures?