Travel Page: Paris, Day Two

I mentioned yesterday that even though we only spent the weekend in Paris, I had to spread it out over two blog posts. There's just too much to say about that city! Matt always laughs at me: I've been to Paris twice now in the last two years , but it still tops my list of places I want to visit next. There's something about it that always makes me feel at home. Plus, it was great to go back after refreshing my French conversation skills in Brooklyn last fall. I felt so much more comfortable chatting and making my way around this time. 

On Sunday, we woke up to sunshine, so decided it would be the perfect day to visit Montmartre, a place we missed on our last trip. We grabbed croissants at the boulangerie across from our apartment, and made our way to the metro...

But on our walk, we discovered a huge farmer's market right on our block. We were so overwhelmed by the heaps of fresh produce, and beautiful flowers, that we changed our whole plan for the day. Matt cancelled our dinner reservation (we had planned to eat here), and we picked up heirloom tomatoes, basil, and burrata cheese instead. The new plan: To grab a bottle of wine, a baguette, and make dinner at home in our apartment (another perk of Airbnb!). We had so much fun shopping the market—I even decided to splurge on a gorgeous arrangement of peonies for the table at home. After our hour-long detour, we ran back to drop everything off at our apartment before resuming our original plan.

We made it to Montmartre, and those beautiful stairs leading up to La Basilique du Sacre Coeur. On our last trip, we talked ourselves out of going all the way to Montmartre (it's on the outskirts of the city, so takes some time to get there on the metro), but I was so glad we made the effort this time. It's breathtaking—and the views of all the Paris rooftops is unreal. I loved just staring out and seeing the entire city before us. 

After Montmartre, we hopped on the train to finally visit the Musée Rodin. This was another spot we missed before. There's just never enough time to see all that you want to see! We grabbed lunch in the garden café here, and then spent a couple of hours walking around the gardens. This was the moment that most reminded me of Midnight in Paris. I love that scene with Carla Bruni in the film! Matt loved seeing all the bronzed statues (we have what feels like 10,000 photos of them!). ;)

From there, we headed to Musée D'Orsay, another spectacular spot (the shot above is taken from the museum's rooftop). There was a special exhibit there featuring Vincent Van Gogh (this is one of my favorite paintings—so cool to see it up close!). 

The weather was perfect when we finally wandered out. I had planned my own mini-macaron crawl, so after the museum, we decided it was a great time for a sweet treat. We started at Ladurée, and then went to Pierre Hermé. We found ourselves next to Jardins des Tuileries again, so decided to sit out in the sunshine for a bit, snacking on our macarons (the one I'm eating is called Le Mystère de Pierre Hermé—a mystery flavor!). At last, we made our way back to our apartment to make dinner. We sat by the gorgeous French windows in our apartment, drinking wine and talking. Such a romantic and lovely end to the weekend. :)

Next week: Provence and Antibes!

PS: Read about Stockholm; more about Paris.