PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

And so our trip to Paris started… the city we love, the city that inspires us the most. The city that changed my life after law school, the city i left when we moved to Iowa when we got married.
I had barely slept that night… felt like a third grader going on a field trip.

This time i went with my fellow blogger Isabelle, both of us beyond excited!!!!
We drove to Lille, about 30 minutes from my hometown, had some yummy french “cafe allongee” and took the bullet train to Paris Nord.

First shocker is when you have to use the restroom in Paris, you have to pay 50 cent and it is still not as clean as the public ones in the US.

Oh well it couldn’t kill our vibe… nore did the metro who smells like…hmmm…let’s agree it doesn’t smell like a Voluspa candle.
We were in Paris… always magical in my brain…nothing could stop us.

Hotel de Sevres is located in le septieme arrondissement, in our opinion the best area to stay… very quaint, a million small boutiques, cute little “tabacs”where you can have coffee or a small meal… just easily accessible and not your typical tourist spot.

The weather was hot like Atlanta when we arrived so we went to La Grande Epicerie for a quick water/coffee break. This place is just amazing, the pastries and macarons are to die for and so is the bakery section, the produce, seafood….
There are a few restaurants we haven’t tried out – on the list for next time.

Across the street is Le Bonmarche – a GEM in Paris…Tom Ford, Sandro, Maje, Iro, Isabel Marant, DVF, Victoria Beckham, Saint Laurent, Zadig & Voltaire, B&SH…. not to forget the best accessory section on the main level…. and a beautiful interior – the vibe in Le Bonmarche is just what you need when looking for the perfect outfit.

For lunch we headed to the Ralph’s, Boulevard Saint Germain… It’s a classic. Beautiful outdoor patio… overpriced but well…you’re not in Paris every day – so yes we justified our 30Euro lobster salad. The waiter even sprayed us with a cooling mist every 10 minutes – i’ll take it.
This place is very hard to get it yet when you pretend you’ve made a reservation (shame on us) you’ll get a cute little table within minutes.

Bellies full and on to some shopping in the afternoon… We walked to the 6th District close to the Church St. Sulpice. YSL, Annick Goutal, IRO and hundreds of other boutiques in the cute little cobblestone streets…enough to get inspired..

FYI The Church of St Sulpice in the 6th district of Paris is where a good bit of the Da Vinci Code takes place… It also is the largest Church of Paris, Notre-Dame included.

The great thing about this whole area is that you can walk everywhere – no need to work-out in the morning… you will easily walk 6 miles a day discovering Paris.

The best of our day is yet to come. We headed to the hotel to freshen up – Paris by night baby!

We didn’t make reservations -we rather play it by ear and enjoy the adventures along the way. Going for Monsieur Bleu…one of the coolest spots in Paris, view on the Eiffel Tower. Stopped by Le Palais de Tokyo right next door for some modern art viewing. When we arrived at Monsieur Bleu it was closed for a private event – couldn’t kill our joy – we were now close enough for some beautiful Eiffel Tower pictures, hopped in a taxi to Cafe Marly.
We got a table right away… not only the best view on Le Louvre but also a the full moon right on top of it. We found an excuse to drink champagne – i wish we could have danced on the table right there….it was that kind of magical!

The next day we had an early breakfast in the hotel…stepped outside and saw some bikes in front of the hotel… how tempting! Let’s conquer the city by bike was our immediate thought!

The service is called Velib – Velos en libre-service a Paris. You can basically rent a bike from the city – the procedure is french style / complicated. A friendly lady from the hotel helped us out. We jumped on our bikes and felt free as a bird…. direction… Jardins de Tuileries, Rue St. Honore…. We parked our new friends at Le Printemps and did some damage there…. Shopping done, hungry girls…we picked up 2 bikes, almost got killed on La place de la Concorde (how fabulous would that have been) and had a “people watching and Rose” lunch at L’Avenue, Avenue Montaigne…. If you want to see and be seen in Paris that is the place to be. Beautiful people, gorgeous waitresses and the best bread, salty butter and organic beef tartare in the city.
Oh how tired we were after emptying that bottle…

Time for some digestive bike riding… picking up suitcases at the hotel.

Easy breezy walk from the hotel to Metro Saint-Placide, direct to La gare du Nord – on the bullet train back to Lille….