Three Days in Paris: Part Two
Sharing day two of gallivanting throughout the city!
At this point, I really thought we had mastered this whole jet lag thing.
Silly me.
After arriving our first day, we really hit it hard and went to bed at the normal time that we would back home. (The parents’ bedtime, however.) I fully expected to get my 7ish hours of sleep and wake up feeling ready to go. I rarely set an alarm these days because Patrick is my 7am daily wake up call. However, Patrick is used to getting 12 hours of sleep, so not setting an alarm was a big mistake.
Brandon woke us all up at 11:30am. I was horrified! There is one thing about me and it’s that I absolutely hate to sleep in. It feels amazing, but waking up missing the morning really bums me out because mornings are my favorite hours of the day. Especially on vacation when I can enjoy a hotel breakfast and fresh squeezed orange juice while anticipating the fun day of exploring ahead.
Not on this day.
It was almost noon and I truly felt delirious waking up. My heart skipped a beat and then sunk down into my belly as I remembered… RALPH’S!!!
We had a lunch reservation at Ralph’s Paris in the courtyard at noon. A hard reservation to get that I had been looking forward to for months! Even if we jumped out of bed and tossed on a quick outfit, the restaurant was still going to be a 30 minute Uber from our hotel, so it just wasn’t going to be possible.
I absolutely panicked and called the concierge, who luckily was able to get us moved to a 1:30 reservation, but not in the courtyard. That part was a bummer, but I was so thankful the restaurant was able to move some things around to accommodate us.
The bright side is we got to fully enjoy the interior of the restaurant, which is always going to be stunning at any Ralph’s property. The final downside… by the time we finished our lunch, it was 3pm and most of our day was already gone! This was honestly pretty disappointing to me because I knew we only had such a short period of time to explore the city. Darn jet lag. But the show goes on!
We then walked to Luxembourg Garden and got ice cream for the kids.
My dress is linked here!
Then we continued walking into the 5th Arrondissement and visited the square where Emily from Emily in Paris lives. We also saw Gabriel’s restaurant! This is one of my top favorite shows EVER, so this was truly a highlight to take in!
Continued on to find La Maison d’ Isabelle, which has been voted best croissants in Paris. I’m honestly not a plain croissant girl, but just wanted a few bites to say I tried it. It was so buttery and yummy!
Had to make sure we walked by the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Look at that architecture!
That evening, we enjoyed Girafe for dinner, which I have to say was one of our favorite meals in France the entire trip! I mean, the views just don’t get any better!
We had a long dinner that was so enjoyable outside looking at the Eiffel Tower. I ate a truffle pasta that was to die for. The kids also loved their pasta and said it was the best ever. We had several desserts afterwards. All top tier!
Dinner started at 7pm and we finished around 9:45pm. Knowing the Eiffel Tower might start sparkling for the first time of the night at 10pm, we stalled for 15 minutes to have the perfect view of it. Unfortunately, it didn’t sparkle at 10pm and the servers mentioned it was going to start at 11pm that night.
Well… you’re only in Paris for the first time once! Our big kids agreed they wanted to stay up late to see the tower sparkle, so we opted for the long 45 minute walk home along the Seine.
My full outfit is linked here!
And then, it happened!
Our late wake up on this day allowed us to have a late night… and honestly, it all worked out better than it ever could have. Because this view right here (and the excitement I know they felt in their little bodies) is true magic to me.