February is celebrated as a month filled with love and romance, but because I’m somewhat ambivalent about Valentine’s Day itself, I’ve decided to skip it here and write about Paris instead.
If there’s a more romantic city in the world, I haven’t seen it yet.
I’ve visited Paris a handful of times since my first trip for my 20th birthday while studying abroad. Now, I keep an ongoing list of spots I want to seek out on my next trip and follow a handful of expat bloggers who live in the city. At the slightest provocation, I could be convinced to return.
Paris has been showing up a lot lately in my life, especially in my reading, and at some point, I realized that I had never shared my favorite spots in Paris here or even any pictures from my last trip.
So without further ado, here are some of my favorite spots in and around the City of Light:
Ladurée, 21 Rue Bonaparte. Patisserie and beautiful breakfast spot.
Kouign Amman at Ladurée.
Les Deux Margot, 6 place Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris
Pastries at Pierre Hermé, 72 Rue Bonaparte.
Place de Vosges
Outdoor seating at Ma Bourgogne.
Happy hour at La Palette, 43 Rue de Seine.
Musée National Eugène Delacroix, 6 Rue de Furstenberg.
Aisles and aisles of gourmet food at La Grande Épicerie de Paris.
Jardin du Luxembourg
Little Breizh, 11 Rue Grégoire de Tours. Specialties from Normandy.
Buckwheat crepes with goat cheese and ham, great when paired with hard cider.
Marche Raspail, rue du Cherche-Midi and rue de Rennes. Tuesday, Friday morning.
Le Petit Machon, 158 Rue Saint Honoré. Specialties from Lyon.
Saint Marcellin Cremeux
Day trip to Champagne
Moët & Chandon.
Zimmerlin Flamant. Mutigny, Champagne.
Musée de l’Orangerie, home of Claude Monet’s Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies).
Rue Bonaparte
As you can see, I’m not at all ambivalent about Paris. The rhythm of the city, the winding side streets, the beautiful architecture, and incredible food; for me, it’s romance endures.
~
P.S. – Do you know why Paris is called the City of Light? I didn’t. Not only did the nickname stem from the city’s role as a center of education and culture during the Enlightenment, but it was also among the first cities in Europe to embrace gas street lighting in the 1860s.
