Bonjour Paris!

Paris is always lovely…event after 20+ hours of travel. Pro tip, if you fly into Terminal 2, stop by the YotelAIR for a €20 shower – towel and french toiletries included. I, however, flew into Terminal 1, and was destined to be stinky.

Getting from CDG to Central Paris is a breeze, you just might have to wait a while to get your ticket. Once in Paris, I stopped at Cafe Craft. It wasn’t the traditional Parisian cafe that I expected, but it was exactly what I needed. I had an awesome matcha latte and access to wifi to check-in with the fam.

Cafe Craft is in the 10th arrondissement right on the Canal Saint-Martin, and my AirBnB was between the 19th & 20th. I figured it would be lovely to walk, since I had some time to kill before check-in. Uphill and 45 minutes later I arrived, and took the best shower of my life. Showers are really an underestimated luxury. The rest of the evening was spent wandering and getting coffee with friends, the perfect re-introduction to Paris.

The trend of the next two days were pastries and monuments. Because, why not go to the Eiffel Tower with a macaron, or the Sacre Coeur with a Madeleine? Butte Chaumont is beautiful, but better  with an eclair.

I also swung by the Musée Marmottan Monet in the 16th. It was a nice change from the super packed massive museums of Paris, and I got to see a ton Monet’s work.

Now, Paris wasn’t all sightseeing and pastries, there was also pizza and cocktails involved. For dinner one night I went by East Mamma and had one of the best pizza’s ever – and this is coming from someone who lived in Italy. Granted all the staff at East Mama spoke Italian and were straight from the pizza motherland.

I also went by Louisette in the 14th for an amazing bottle of Bordeaux and charcuterie. It’s a lovely place to sit for hours and catch up with friends. I also visited Arbane Bar Cocktail Club in the 6th and Experimental Cocktail Club in the 1st. Arbane was super chill and the bartenders are really doing some amazing experimenting with booze and flavors. If you’re looking for a curated, one on one experience, go during the week. Experimental was a totally different vibe – great music, and packed on a Thursday night. The cocktails looked good, but I went for some good ole French Champagne.

Not to be forgotten, I had a few great petit dejuner during my time – big shout out to Top Knot. Top Knot is this super cute modern Parisian cafe. I love the traditional petit dejuner, but Top Knot’s twist was excellent – brioche right form the oven, house made fig jam, and a fresh pressed apple, ginger, banana juice, and a cafe creme. All for €6,5.

Three days in Paris was just the right amount of time to get my bearings, (mostly) kick my jet lag, and make my way south for WWOOFing.

Au revoir!