a weekend in paris

A couple months back me and my boyfriend decided to book ourselves a little weekend away to celebrate our 4 year anniversary! After long thoughts we decided on Paris - a city neither us had ever been to but were eager to explore! And let’s be real, the ‘city of love’ seemed like the only obvious choice!

Friday 1st February

After a painfully early 3:30am start we headed down to the airport through the snow! Luckily our flight wasn’t cancelled but we ended up being sat on the runway delayed for the best of 2 hours - our flight to Paris was only an hour!!!

After what felt like a lifetime we finally made it to Paris, hungry and so glad to be off the plane! We got an Uber to the hotel, by the time we arrived it was 1pm so what else would you do in Paris than order deliver burger king to the hotel?!

Once we had eaten and got changed we headed out to explore what Paris had to offer, and google maps was definitely our life saver on this trip! We walked into the centre, which felt like the ‘Oxford Circus’ of Paris, with a massive Sephora on one corner and Galleries Lafayette on the other! We didn’t do any shopping today but we headed towards the river where we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!

Tired out from travelling in the morning this is as much as we got up to today, and retreated back to the hotel for yet another deliveroo, but its safe to say we were worn out and both fast asleep by 7:30pm!

Saturday 2nd February

Our first full day in Paris! We got up bright and early ready to explore the city, the first place we headed to was 228, Rue de l’Université - possibly the most ‘instagrammable’ street in ever! We then headed up to the Eiffel Tower and obviously took some pictures of it!

Then we took a wonder round the area, found a cute little cafe and stopped to have a drink! All the cafes and restaurants have seating out the front with little heaters for the winter and it was really nice to just sit here and take in the atmosphere and people watch!

After this we headed back over the river, down Avenue Montaigne past all the luxury fashion houses! I absolutely love going in these stores, I love the interiors and feel like each is a piece of art in their own way. I really appreciate how important visual merchandising is in all of these stores and the store windows so I love spending my time appreciating their aesthetics (hoping one day I’ll be going in there to actually buy something for myself!).

After a wonder round we then headed to the nearest Starbucks for a refuel!

We then headed up towards Printemps and Gallaries Lafayette, two incredibly huge department stores!

We then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before we went out for a meal! A couple weeks before we came to Paris I was on the hunt for a really nice restaurant to come to, whilst watching someones vlog I came across Les Ombrés, a modern French restaurant on the fifth floor of a building with a fully glass roof which revealed the most spectacular view of the Eiffel tower!

We both opted for ‘Filet de bœuf au sautoir, ”Grecque” de champignons du moment, polenta moelleuse et bresaola croustillant ‘ in english basically a steak dish with mash potato. The food was really really nice, but I definitely feel like you’re paying for the view rather than the quality of the food! When the Eiffel tower sparkled (for 5 minutes on the hour during darkness) it really was such a magical moment and we were in absolute awe! It is definitely a sight you need to see once in your life!

Sunday 3rd February

Our last full day! We started the morning by walking to the Louvre! To our surprise this felt a lot more touristy then the Eiffel Tower did! We had a wonder round, and felt quite amazed that this was a place that a lot of people have on their bucket list to see and we had done it!

After this we headed once again down one of the luxury shopping streets, popping into the likes of Louis Vuitton and Fendi.

One thing we weren’t too prepared for was the prices of things in Paris, particularly the food! We stopped at a little cafe on the corner for some food! We both opted for the ham and cheese toast with fries and the bill came to £44! We didn’t even eat half of it as the French cheese was not to our liking!

We then headed back to Galleries Lafayette for a last browse to make some final purchases! We then took some macrons back to the hotel with us, something wed not tried and we were both pleasantly surprised at how nice they were! (we hoped for when they were £15 for 6!!)|

That evening we went to the Hard Rock cafe for a meal, neither of us had ever been to a Hard Rock before and didn’t really understand the hype, but we were actually surprised and really enjoyed it! I think this has fuelled an (expensive) tradition of going to the Hard Rock cafe in all the cities we explore in the future! We then spent the evening wondering round the little local shops in the area round our hotel, which was really lovely and I was quite upset that we hadn’t discovered that area earlier on on our trip!

Monday 4th February

We had quite a chilled morning before a quick little stroll around Paris to take in the last of the city before we headed to the airport and back home!

This trip has also taught me that I need to do more research and plan before going on a trip to find some really interesting places to go! Overall, I have to admit that I wasn’t in love with Paris as I thought I was going to be! I definitely preferred Amsterdam over Paris, but never the less I had an amazing time and made some lovely memories, and it has made our 4th anniversary special! And again I’m so glad its another city I’ve got ticked off of my list!

The hotel - 9Hotel Opera

The hotel we stayed in was the ‘9hotel Opera’ a really cute little boutique hotel located in the 9th arrondissement. The decor was very minimal but modern, the reception area in particular was full of art and sculptures which had a really nice vibe to it! The room we stayed in was the superior room and it was clean and roomy! Only downfall was the hotel as on a side street but there was a lot of traffic going down the road which was particularly loud in the night! But apart from that there wasn’t much else to complain about! The breakfast wasn’t amazing but with it being continental we weren’t expecting a huge amount but it kept up going until lunchtime and saved us the struggle of going out to find something to eat which would’ve been a lot more expensive! The hotel is located just out of the centre, about a 15 minute walk to Galleries Lafayette, which for us felt like the centre/main shopping area!