In April, my job as a Marketing Manager brought me to Paris where I visited a trade show. In addition, my boyfriend gifted me a weekend getaway to Paris for Christmas last year, so we decided he could just come along with me on the trip and we would extend our stay for a few days.
The trade show was located a bit outside the city, so at the final day of the show, while I was still at work, my boyfriend already moved us to a hotel in the city centre, where we would spend the second part of the trip. Once I was done at the show, we met up at Trocadéro Square and went for a walk around the Eiffeltower.
We were looking for a spontaneous dinner spot and somehow managed to get a reservation at Gigi’s famous roof terrasse. While we were having dinner, the weather started to turn from perfect blue skies to the darkest grey clouds – we were lucky to get back to our hotel just in time before the rain started.
In the morning, the weather was back to perfect blue skies, so we went for a walk along the Seine and admired all the beautiful cherry blossoms.
We stopped for Chocolat Chaud at Les Deux Margots, a Parisian Classic. One of the many things I love about the city is definitely their cuisine. Whether it is restaurants or cafés, people come together and spend hours just talking, slowing down, and watching strangers go by. I could’ve sat there forever.
Instead, we decided to walk up to Montmartre, one of my favorite areas of Paris. It is so romantic, with all the tiny streets, boulangeries and cafés. We sat down and watched the sunset.
On our way back, we walked past Sacré Coeur, an absolute must do in Paris. No matter how many times I’ve laid eyes on it, it is still as impressive as it was on my first visit when I went there on a student exchange.
For dinner, we went to Le Procope, a traditional French restaurant that was founded in 1686. If you want to experience the very best that the French cuisine has to offer, this address is my top recommendation of the entire trip. Everything was perfect, the escargots, the beef cheeks, the wine, as well as the profiteroles as dessert. 10/10😍
The next day, we went to La Maison d’Isabelle, where we tried “the best croissants in Paris”. Since I used to live in France, I have tried many many croissants and have gotten quite a harsh critic. I must say, these were some of the absolute best croissants I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy!😍
Yes, there was a line in front of the store that looked like to had to wait ages to get your croissant but it actually moved super fast, so we only ended up waiting for about 5 minutes. Having these buttery and fluffy croissants sitting by the Seine – one of my favorite moments of the trip, just enjoying the simple pleasures.
We somehow made it our mission to eat our way through Paris😁 So of course, we had to try the famous Cedric Grolet fruits. The line in front of the store was insane. Luckily, I did some research before the trip and we discovered that you can skip the line if you simply pre-order online. It felt like cheating the system when we just walked past all the people waiting and went straight into the store to pick up our order.
We tried the mango, the pistachio, and the passion fruit. My personal favorite was the mango, my boyfriend really enjoyed the pistachio. Since our trip, they already released the fruits. Next time, I definitely want to try the strawberry, I’m sure I’m gonna love it.
In the evening, we didn’t have anything planned, so we wandered around for a bit and spontaneously rented some city bikes and rode them down to the Eiffeltower. It was such a simple thing to do, but the moment was simply perfect. The sleeping city, the fresh air, the bike ride along the Seine, the sparkling Eiffeltower – it was a night to remember😊
On our final full day, we headed back into the city, walked down the Champs-Élysées, and got some macarons at Ladurée. It was the day of the Paris Marathon, so the city was flooded with people and we quickly headed back to the hotel for a little nap before going out to dinner.
For our final dinner, we went to Girafe, another restaurant famous for its amazing location right next to the Eiffeltower. I had a litchi martini and the lobster pasta and I gotta say WOW, it was so so good.
The dessert however was a bit ridiculous😅 We paid a small fortune for one waffle and some toppings… After experiencing amazing traditional cuisine at justified prices, we were a bit disappointed by this. But the place is a trendy restaurant after all, and at spots like this, you always pay extra for the location I guess.
On our final day, we had some spare time before having to drive to the airport, so we decided to make the most of it and had a little champagne picknick at Jardin des Tuilieres, the famous park at the Louvre. We sat in the sun and reflected on everything we did during the long weekend, appreciating the wonderful time we had. Paris really is always worth a trip.
Jessica Schütze 
Leave a comment