5 Days in Paris – Day 1

Last September, Ian and I spent a week in Brussels & Paris for our wedding anniversary trip.  I have been meaning to post about the trip, but life is hectic.  While it is embarrassing that it’s almost 1 year later that I’m writing this report, I bet there are a lot of you itching for the pandemic to be over so you can plan your next adventure, so consider this a little dose of inspiration.  Over the next week, I’ll be sharing snippets of our trip, our general itinerary, and travel tips for a jam-packed trip in the city of lights!

You can also read about how we spent 24 Hours in Brussels, as that was the first leg of our trip.

We arrived in Paris in the early afternoon, so we made Day 1 an easy sightseeing day.  To save money on lodging, we decided to stay right outside of Paris, in the town of Saint-Ouen.  It’s definitely more residential, and you don’t really see a lot of tourists there.  But our Airbnb was right by the metro station, so it only took us 20-30 minutes to train into the city.  Our Airbnb was also 3 blocks away from La Puce, which was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.  But I digress.

For the most part, I planned the trip so that we only need to take the metro once or twice a day.  We would spend a day in one general area and go somewhere else the next day.  We spent the afternoon walking around the 4th and 5th arrondissement.  We started off by walking by the Notre-Dame.  Although we couldn’t go in since it’s still being reconstructed after the fire, but it was still quite breathtaking to see the grandeur of the cathedral.

I’m a dork and I love bookstores.  Despite the fact that Shakespeare & Company isn’t even French and they have a location in Philadelphia, I wanted to visit the Paris location so badly.  It did not disappoint.  It’s located right next to the River Seine and there’s an adjacent cafe so you can sip on a cup of coffee while taking in the breathtaking view.  The best part?  The bookstore has a cute little cat who loves being petted.

After that, we strolled past the Sorbonne and the Pantheon, before stopping by Pierre Hermé for our first of many macarons.  After stuffing my belly, I conquered City-Pharma.  If you’ve never heard of City-Pharma, it’s basically a pharmacy in Paris that has offers discounted prices on a lot of French skincare brands, such as Caudalie, La Roche-Posay, Bioderma, Nuxe, etc.  It was incredibly overwhelming and I’m just glad I lived through it to tell the tale.

We ended the day at Le Jardin du Luxembourg, which was a perfect and relaxing way to end the day of travel.  We strolled through the park with a baguette in hand.  Ahhhh, Paris.

More Paris blog posts:

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Paris Travel Tips