Paris: A Week in the City of Love: Day 1 - Getting Settled

The view just steps from our lodging was exceptional. Notre Dame Cathedral along the Seine was truly a sight to behold.

UPDATED: 2/4/2023

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Seeing snow on the ground at Reykjavik International Airport was a bit of a shock considering it was about 80 degrees when we left Dulles International Airport.

We arrived in Paris by way of Reykjavik after departing from Washington-Dulles airport late in the evening. It was an odd feeling to land in familiar Reykjavik, having just been on our Iceland Ring Road trip last June/July (check that trip out here), and wished we could stay in Iceland but also still go to Paris. The more we travel, the more frequent the feeling of familiarity in different airports, cities, or countries occurs, making the world feel very small.

The desire to return to Iceland stuck with us, and I have since plotted out a road trip to check out an area we did not have time for the first go-around: the western fjords. We hope to make it back there maybe in a year. But, back to Paris!

We landed in Paris midday local time with the mental fogginess that often accompanies us on the first day of a trip after staying up all night (I am jealous of people who can sleep on planes!), finding ourselves in a country speaking another language, and unsure of whether we were hungry, excited, tired, or some combination of that trifecta.

The center of the terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport consisted of flat (moving sidewalk) style escalators that were angled up and cut across from one side of the building to the other, unlike anything we’d ever quite seen. Going uphill on a non-stair escalator is an odd feeling and is a weird engineering decision for a place that knows its users will be toting bags and suitcases!

The cab ride into the city was uneventful, and the driver took some side streets to avoid the traffic back-up resulting from the Saturday protests of the so-called Yellow Vests Movement. Upon writing this blog in August 2019, the protest is over 8 months in and still going. The protesters are essentially protesting the government, originally in response to fiscal policies but now broadened in scope, converge upon the capital on the weekend. In advance of our travels, several friends and family, having seen the protests in the news (read: exaggerated and blown out of proportion) were concerned about our safety. Most people were not aware that these protests are literally penciled in for the weekend so that the protesters, mostly from outside of Paris, can return to their jobs during the week. France also has a long history of protesting every chance its citizens get, a cultural phenomenon that is much more normative to them than those from the US. As always, it is of course important to be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to local news wherever you are!

We took this trip with my in-laws, one of who is pretty conversant in French, and so there was a lot of discussion with the cab driver about all sorts of subjects - anywhere from a shared love of jazz and particular musicians and his desire to make it to New Orleans some day to a discussion (and eye-roll from the driver) about the protest movement. I can’t say I have ever had a discussion with a US cab driver about the arts, but then France’s history of and value placed in intellectual and other artistic pursuits may very well qualify as a polar opposite to the US’ view. We would see proof of this throughout our trip in a variety of ways, including the massive number of book vendors along the streets with used books of various ages and even on one occasion a stack of free books someone had placed for public consumption on a park bench. The Pantheon even had a mini-library in it with a few seats where visitors could read from the works of those entombed within.

Take a break from exploring The Pantheon to read some of the works of those entombed below.

We stayed at a Homeaway.com rental near the Latin Quarter , about a block from the main thoroughfare and the Seine. Check out the exact 2 bed, 2 bath place we rented here or search for a Paris rental that suits your own particular needs here . Just a very short walk from Notre-Dame de Paris , located across the Seine on Île de la Cité , we could hear the bells ring throughout the day. The location was a wonderful spot to stay for the entirety of our trip and with the exception of a day trip out to Versailles, we walked to every other spot we visited, opting for the exercise and to get to explore the city more so than if we had used public transportation of some sort. The rental was in a 17th century building with old stones forming some of the interior walls, a private garden patio, and a courtyard view. The owners and the local manager were friendly and helpful, and we would stay here again in a heartbeat.

For lunch, we walked down the street to a restaurant recommended by the local property manager. La Rotisserie d’Argent is a quintessential Paris bistro with red and white checkered tablecloths and owned by the same people as the Michelin-starred Tour d’Argent down the street. Next to La Rotisserie d’Argent is their bakery, La Boulanger de la Tour , which provides bread and pastries to both restaurants and is where we got breakfast several mornings, too.

Nothing beats freshly baked French pastries and a cup of coffee!

David Lebovitz, well-known chef and food writer who now lives in Paris, wrote a fairly extensive review of La Rotisserie d’Argent that is worth a read and is accompanied by fantastic photos. Not wanting to be ‘those’ people, we avoided taking photos in restaurants on the trip. Like him, we ended up returning to this restaurant several times and always had a great meal and experience.

After eating lunch, the exhaustion finally hit, and we somehow made it back to our rental where we slept for a few hours. Waking up during the prime dinner hour, which is much later in France than is common in the US, we decided to grab a quick bite before settling in to a quiet evening and early bedtime. We walked a short ways down the narrow, winding streets to Chez Suzette. The creperie was tucked into a street that was unexpectedly bright and crowded, definitely a nighttime hot spot. It offered indoor seating or the option of a take-away window to get a crepe to enjoy while wandering. We ate indoors at a table that was reminiscent of a casual cafeteria. Stomachs full and ready for a good night's sleep, we got much needed rest to be able to enjoy our first full day in Paris.

This is the approximate route of our short wanderings during our half day in Paris.

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