Three Days in Paris: Part One
A travel diary from the first leg of our French adventure.
Where to begin!? We are home from three weeks of travel through France with our three children and wow, there is a lot to share. Before sharing overall thoughts and takeaways from this experience, let’s start with the basics. I’ll share where we went, what we did, where we ate, and more.
Since we hit three different travel locations and this post would be way too lengthy to speak to all three areas at once, let’s start with Paris since this is where we started our trip.
Getting There —
We left JFK around 7:30pm and arrived in Paris around 7:30am. We booked a driver through the hotel and he was waiting for us at baggage claim. This was very nice since it was our first visit to this airport—I had heard stories about people getting scammed by taxi drivers and I wasn’t sure how the uber situation worked. However, I likely wouldn’t book this again because it was 270 euros and the ubers were priced more like 60-70 euros for the same type of vehicle (a nice Mercedes van). It is really not a far walk at all to get to the ride share area, so we would have been able to maneuver that on our own very easily. Additionally, the driver had us walk with him to the ride share area to get to his car, so we essentially just took an overpriced uber. A solid pro of this driver arrangement was that we were able to reserve a carseat at no additional cost for Patrick, which I didn’t see as an option via Uber. There is also a taxi company in Paris called G7 Taxis, which you can reserve in advance and book a carseat, so maybe we will do that next time.
It took around 2 hours and 20 minutes to get from the airport to our hotel.
Where we stayed —
We booked Hôtel Le Grand Mazarin, which is a very lovely property with tons of charm in Le Marais area. Not long after we arrived, they had our room ready at around noon, which was so nice.
We booked our entire France trip through Emily West, who I cannot say enough great things about. She was FABULOUS. There was a sweet note waiting from her when we arrived, along with champagne and treats! By the way, look how cute her website is. It makes me want to go on another trip already!
Why I booked this hotel — I knew we only had two nights in Paris and would want to spend the bulk of our time exploring the city rather than spending leisurely mornings and evenings at our hotel. So I honestly didn’t want to splurge on our hotel since we weren’t going to be able to enjoy it to a full extent at all. I told Emily that I wanted to stay somewhere very nice in a walkable area that didn’t break the bank and yet felt very luxe, clean, and secure. She understood this and recommended Le Grand Mazarin—The price was right and it had wonderful reviews, as well as the charm I was looking for.
Would I book it again? — Sure! It really was a beautiful property and delivered on absolutely everything I requested in a hotel. I definitely recommend it. The breakfast offered in their restaurant was delicious and they even have an indoor pool, shown below! But if I had more time in Paris and knew we would be looking to enjoy more time in the room, I would be willing to spend more and would then book a different property. The room, even considered a suite, was very small and the natural lighting was dim. In order to walk in the room, we had to stack our luggage in a pile which was tough when trying to go into five people’s suitcases to get dressed daily. This was not a make or break for us — we were very happy with this hotel and found the staff extremely friendly, but it’s just something to note if you’re traveling with a lot of luggage (or a big family). I also found that we spent most of our time in other areas of Paris, so next time, I would probably book a hotel in the 1st, 2nd, or 8th arrondissement, or in the Saint-Germain area. Those areas seem the most central to our frequented areas.
How cool is this pool!?
Day One —
We checked into our hotel and then went straight to Loulou for lunch! It’s a place to see and be seen (I saw Brooke Nader there) and the food was absolutely delicious. This restaurant sits in a beautiful garden space located in the heart of the Palais du Louvre. It also gave us our first spot of the Eiffel Tower, although way back in the distance.
After that, we walked around quite a bit and popped into some stores. I wanted to go to the original Hermes store, then we took an uber over to Le Bon Marche where the kids picked out a few toys on the top floor.
We got ice cream nearby at Le Bac A Glaces and it was the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had!
Then we ubered over to a street called Rue de l'Université where you can get the BEST photos of the Eiffel Tower!
We then walked around the Eiffel Tower and into Champ de Mars park.
From there, we walked to dinner at Fontaine de Mars, a casual spot that felt very french and adorable! (Thank you, Emily, for yet another great recommendation!)
By the end of dinner, it was 9pm and we were officially exhausted. I can’t believe we did all of this after arriving in Paris at 7am with little to no sleep on the plane! The jet lag had us running on fumes all day, but the excitement of it all gave us the adrenaline we needed to push through.
I’m going to have to continue Day 2 and 3 in a different post because Substack just informed me my post is too long! So stay tuned for that coming tomorrow. :)